Last Friday, the Philadelphia 76ers failed to get a shot off in their final possession down just one point to the Boston Celtics with 3.5 seconds to play.
Now, let’s preface this by acknowledging that the play call itself out of the timeout here left a lot to be desired. Wasting the inbound location in the offensive end by having to inbound it to the backcourt with such limited time was less than optimal. The pass landed in the hands of Quentin Grimes.
Rather than try to get a quick pass through to Joel Embiid to his right or Tyrese Maxey to his left, Grimes continued to dribble forward indecisively — directly into a double team of Boston’s Payton Pritchard and Jaylen Brown. Grimes finally forced a pass to Embiid, with the ball leaving his hands with just 0.8 seconds left. By the time Embiid’s shot was up, time had expired. It wouldn’t have counted even it had gone in for the big fella.
This was just one extremely quick play with a lot of variables involved and a ton of pressure on Grimes’ shoulders. That being said, the blunder was the perfect embodiment of a common criticism of Grimes for some time now, that he simply isn’t a good enough playmaker.
On Sunday evening, he decided to start rewriting that history in the [**Sixers’ dominant 126-105 win over the Brooklyn Nets**](/76ers-scores-results/80029/sixers-nets-tyrese-maxey-vj-edgecombe-kelly-oubre-quentin-grimes).
Grimes put up a career-best first half for assists with seven before bringing his total to a career-high 13 dimes for the game by the final horn. It was his first double-double of the season as he also poured in 22 points on 7-for-13 field goal shooting and going 4-for-8 from long range.
Grimes has always been an effective, dynamic scorer. With Jared McCain still sidelined as he recovers from thumb surgery, however, Grimes has been tasked with taking on a bigger role as a playmaker. At times, it’s been an erratic experience. Against the Nets, though, Grimes looked like a bonafide point guard.
“It’s making the right read, you know what I mean?” Grimes told reporters in Brooklyn postgame. “Kelly \[Oubre Jr.\] had it hot going early, so I mean try to look for the guys that got it going early. And then just have fun out there making the right play, driving and kicking, and it’s simple basketball.”
Perhaps conceptually simple basketball, sure. But Grimes had more than a few dimes throughout the victory over the Nets that were beyond the ordinary, displaying a combination of excellent floor vision with stellar execution through bullet-fast accurate passes. Check out all 13 assists in the video below.
When a reporter postgame told fellow Sixers’ guard Tyrese Maxey that Grimes had posted a career-high 13 assists, Maxey chimed right in with a joke.
“On accident!” Maxey interrupted with a laugh. “I’m just playing. He was really good. He was playmaking, just like from passing and getting in the paint and scoring and kicking – like he was really good at that, man.
“I think it helps us. The more guys that can handle the ball, the better. A lot of guys can play-make, a lot of guys can play off each other. That’s the biggest thing that we need.”
Grimes’ performance also earned praise from Sixers head coach Nick Nurse, who spoke about it being exactly what the squad is trying to do when it comes to the offensive end.
“Well, it was really good for him tonight,” Nurse said postgame. “They executed the game plan offensively of what we’re trying to do, right? And that’s really important. It was a create space game, a move the basketball game. And then attack some of that space, and then you got to make the play that’s in front of you.”
Grimes certainly did, and hopefully it’s only the start of things to come.
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