The Sixers’ 121-109 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Christmas was undoubtedly their best win of the season. Joel Embiid was brilliant but the Sixers also had plenty of contributions from their supporting cast. Let’s dive right in: Here’s what stood out on film. (For more on Sixers-Bucks, check out Derek Bodner’s column on the burgeoning rivalry, Rich Hofmann’s takeaways from the game, Michael Lee’s piece on Embiid and my report card.)

Stats are from NBA.com unless noted otherwise.

Embiid’s rare gifts on defense

For 7-foot-2 centers, very little of their defensive responsibility revolves around one-on-one defense. They might have the occasional challenge of wrestling with an opposing post-up player, but generally speaking, the bulk of their duties involves back-end rotations and treading water in pick-and-rolls. Guarding ballhandlers attacking downhill in one-on-one situations is not often a primary responsibility.

But in the handful of occasions that we’ve see Embiid in those situations — guarding oversized perimeter creators like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Pascal Siakam — he’s shown a jaw-dropping level of defensive genius. Against the Bucks, Embiid neutralized Antetokounmpo, holding the reigning MVP to 1-of-9 shooting when they were matched up, and displaying incredible footwork and smarts in the process.

Embiid’s ability to anticipate and react to Antetokounmpo’s moves stood out on film. Take these sequences, for example. Antetokounmpo has a habit of launching into barreling drives out of semi-transition, and clearing his defender out of the way with a shoulder to the chest. In the first clip, Antetokounmpo is successful. In the second, Embiid is a bit more prepared, and recovers to contest the shot. In the third, Embiid knows what’s coming, and pulls the chair out from under Antetokounmpo despite being called for a foul.

Recognizing and planning for those moves involves microsecond mental calculations that only a few gifted players can make, and Embiid is one of them. Combine that with the ability to physically wall up to Antetokounmpo, and you have a player who is able to defend the Bucks’ superstar as well as just about anybody. Giannis doesn’t often get turned away on these transition rampages:

Again, think about how rarely a center is put in these positions. And yet, the strip in the second clip would make Andre Iguodala blush.

Outside of Embiid’s brilliance, the Sixers didn’t do much out of the norm strategically to fluster Antetokounmpo — nothing that was different from what the rest of the league does. Embiid was simply great, Al Horford was solid and the occasional help defender made an impact, too.

The Sixers should leave that game feeling great about their ability to defend the Bucks. For better or worse, the biggest asset that Antetokounmpo has is his ability to physically dominate his matchup every night. The Sixers have two — and perhaps even three — players who are as equipped as anyone to hold him in check. And without the advantages the Bucks gain through Giannis’ overbearing strength, their offense becomes bland and easy to defend. When Antetokounmpo isn’t dominating, they lack another gear.

3-point shooting against Milwaukee’s defense

There has been some discussion of the fact that the Sixers shot the ball at an unsustainable rate against the Bucks, and that’s fair — they won’t shoot 47.7 percent from deep in every game. But reducing this win to fluky shooting would be wrong. Consider this: Of the Sixers’ 44 attempts from 3-point range, 40 came with at least 4 feet of space between the shooter and the nearest defender. They won’t always convert half of their attempts, but they were able to generate great shots against Milwaukee’s defense.

A big reason the Sixers were able to generate so many open looks stems from the Bucks’ ultra-aggressive help schemes, in which they completely ignore shooters whom they don’t deem as legitimate threats. The clearest example of that was Embiid; the Bucks often showed him no respect from beyond the arc. When a team plays this far off of Embiid, he really has no choice but to shoot, and to his credit, he made them pay. He shot 3 of 6 from deep on the day.

I would also credit the Sixers guards, especially Ben Simmons, for continually collapsing Milwaukee’s defense via dribble penetration, and making help defenders pay via kick-outs to shooters.

In general, Simmons’ ability to control the pace was extremely valuable. He was poised but aggressive in transition, and picked the right moments to attack in the half court. Simmons made things happen off of a live dribble, subtly at times, and it was exactly what the Sixers would have hoped to see from him against an elite defense.

The Bucks defense goes to extreme measures to deny field goal attempts at the rim; to beat it, you have to leverage that aggression by taking and making open 3s. The Sixers did just that.

Miscellaneous thoughts

• Speaking of Simmons, he deserves credit for his defense, as well. On a few occasions, Simmons flustered Antetokounmpo’s drives with his help defense. Simmons was able to swipe down and break up Antetokounmpo dribble a couple of times, and he forced all three of Giannis’ turnovers.

There are plenty of things to criticize Simmons for this season, but a positive that deserves more attention is the uptick in Simmons’ nightly focus and intensity. He took no plays off defensively against the Bucks, dove on the floor for loose balls and simply made hustle plays that very few stars are willing to make. That’s a significant development, and Simmons deserves more credit for it.

• Embiid’s postgame comments revealed something that we’ve all suspected — that he’s conserving energy to ensure his health for the postseason. “I’ve been chilling basically the whole season,” he told ESPN. “I’m trying to make sure I get to the playoffs finally healthy … I’m gonna keep on doing whatever I’m doing. And when these guys need me, I’ll show up.” Between Wednesday’s game and the win over Boston after being called out by TNT’s Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, I’m inclined to take Embiid at his word — that when it matters, we’ll see this version of him. If Embiid has to stay in third gear throughout the regular season to be at his peak in the playoffs, so be it.

• Credit to Furkan Korkmaz for, as Brett Brown said, giving the Sixers some juice. Korkmaz launching and hitting 3s off of a quick release was invaluable. Since the Bucks are willing to leave wing players open to thwart drives, Korkmaz’s ability to make the defense pay when given a few feet of space played a key role in the win. Korkmaz also stayed afloat defensively, and had three steals and a block. He might get hunted more often if these two teams meet in the playoffs, but the returns from this game were impressive.

• Tobias Harris and Josh Richardson gave the Sixers just enough perimeter creation in this game. Both were successful in taking and making midrange pull-ups, and Harris in particular served as a release valve when the Sixers needed self-created offense. With positive contributions from Harris and Richardson, along with Embiid’s post-ups and Simmons’ playmaking, the Sixers offense was humming.

• To expand on that, this might have been the first time this season we’ve seen the peak version of the Sixers. With Embiid in full gear, wings making open shots, Simmons controlling the pace and Harris creating his own shots, the offense was at its best. When the Sixers are clicking on all cylinders, they’re capable of blowing the doors off of the team with the best record in the league.

— Archives: Sixers film breakdowns

(Photo of Joel Embiid: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)