Sixers combust in fourth quarter against Timberwolves, lose 40th game of season

The under-manned Sixers played three competitive quarters of basketball on the second night of a back-to-back before combusting in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Here's what I saw.

Likes

- Nico Harrison, who might want to update his LinkedIn after the disaster he created in Dallas this season, will not get as much flack as he should for the Quentin Grimes-Caleb Martin trade. Martin has yet to play for the Mavericks, and Grimes has turned into a defensive demon after struggling to find his footing in his first few games after the trade.

Nick Nurse is a big believer in impacting the ball with pressure, and Grimes gets low and digs into his man when the ball is in his hands. His partner in defending the action doesn't have to do much thinking because Grimes is simply going to fight his way through the screen or work harder to get back into the play if he gets stuck on the pick. He devoured space on the ball on Tuesday, the second night of a back-to-back, making the Timberwolves rethink would-be shots or give up the ball with nowhere to go.

You can feel his comfort improving, Grimes' off-ball senses gradually showing up with deflections on backdoor bounce passes. He took good risks in help on Tuesday, making appropriate gambles to aggressively double-team the ball when the handler was least expecting it.

- Grimes' offense has popped more than I would imagine even his biggest advocates reasonably expected. He's not a point guard. He doesn't make any exquisite passes. With Tyrese Maxey unavailable for this game with a sprained lower back, Grimes was the square peg thrust into a round hole. But he did just about everything else. He had his legs under him from the perimeter, knocking down a pair of threes in the first half. But most of his damage came off the dribble. He's become quite comfortable with shifting from zero to 30 miles per hour, and then 30 to 60 miles per hour on a dime. It allowed him to blow by Timberwolves from various angles on the floor on Tuesday. His shot diet was quite good, getting to the rim for a handful of layups if he wasn't letting fly from deep. But he didn't neglect the intermediate areas of the floor. Grimes laced a couple of pull-up midrange jumpers when the situation called for it, too.

- The Sixers appeared close to flat-lining for the night in the middle of the second quarter, trailing by 13 almost solely because of transition defense. And then, Nurse replaced Jeff Dowtin Jr. (minus-five in 3:27 of action) with Jared Butler. It injected new life into the lineup.

Butler has an innate gift for toggling paces when he's zooming around the floor. One moment, he's practically walking. A second later, he's in a full sprint. The next moment, he's slowed to a jog. If you don't have agility, you struggle to stay in front of him. Simply put, he finds the rim. He carves you up patiently to get the angle he wants. That's a skill Dowtin simply does not possess. It is weird, to say the least, that the Sixers traded for Butler, have publicly admitted that they've had their eyes on him for a while, converted him to a standard contract and, yet, have him behind Dowtin - a two-way contractor - in the rotation. Butler is clearly better and has far more long-term upside. 

Dislikes

- There's a time and a place to pick up a technical foul when you're the head coach. The opening minutes of the fourth quarter, with your team trailing by multiple possessions in a game they've fought their asses off is decidedly not the time to give the opposition a chance at a free point.

- Paul George's groin injury kept him out of the fourth quarter. We'll see how that portends for Thursday in Boston

Spare thoughts

- Kelly Oubre Jr. is your classic rec league or pick-up player. Eyes on the basket, head down, full speed ahead until you've reached the hoop. If you pass to him, know that you very well might not get the ball back. 

The Sixers (21-40) will visit the Boston Celtics (43-18) on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Eastern time. You can watch the game on TNT.

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