Flyers Win Third Straight, Phillies' Painter Claims Award. Also... the Sixers.

Happy Monday! The Flyers reached .500 after a comfortable victory over the Sabres on Saturday. Andy Painter won the Arizona Fall League’s Pitcher of the Year award over the weekend. The 8-2 Eagles relaxed Sunday after earning this week’s win on Thursday Night Football. And the Sixers… are also a Philadelphia team.

Let’s discuss.

In the email today:

• 📈 Flyers Climb Back to .500 With Third Straight Win

• 🏆 Phillies’ Painter Named AFL Pitcher of the Year

• ☠️ Sixers Fall to 2-10 With Ugly Loss to Magic

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

The Flyers’ rocky start to the season had some commentators writing them off very quickly.

Right, it me.

We’re not here to talk about the past. The Flyers dominated the Buffalo Sabres Saturday night, jumping out to a 4-0 lead en route to a very comfortable 5-2 win that pulled the Flyers to 8-8-2 and within one point of the playoff positions.

So many things to like about this one. Defenseman Erik Johnson played in his 1,000th NHL game. The Flyers got goals from four players including Travis Sanheim, Tyson Foerster and Egor Zamula.

Travis Konecny scored twice, the first coming on a gorgeous 2-on-none break with Matvei Michkov, whose pass to set up the goal was beautiful all by itself.

That video is worth watching not only for the goal, but for what happened immediately after the puck went in. Sabres winger Zach Benson roughed Michkov well after the puck hit the back of the net.

Konecny and Michkov’s other teammates were not having it.

Dare we say it…the Flyers haven’t had a player this worthy of protection since, what, Claude Giroux? Regardless, it was refreshing and exciting to see the Flyers take quick action to drive the point home that no one is going to screw with Michkov.

Maybe the New Era of Orange can start looking like the old one.

The Phillies hoped to see Andy Painter stay healthy, pitch without pain, and flash some velocity in the Arizona Fall League. Modest goals. After all, Painter's AFL stint represented the 21-year-old's first game action since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023.

But Painter did all that and more, winning the AFL's Pitcher of the Year award on Saturday.

"Coming in here, I just wanted to compete and get a feel for my stuff, feel confident going into ’25 and walk out healthy,” Painter said after his final AFL outing. “It felt great. You can’t simulate it in bullpens and everything back at the complex. The adrenaline kicked in and did its part. Everything felt good, and I feel really good moving forward."

Painter relentlessly pounded the strike zone in his outings, leading the AFL in efficiency by averaging 13.98 pitches per inning.

Phillies farm director Luke Murton was effusive in his praise for the young pitcher: "“I’ve done a lot of scouting. I saw the top arms in the draft this year. I saw Jackson Jobe pitch this year. I’ve seen the cream of the crop. From my perspective, Painter would be the top pitching prospect.

"He didn’t miss a beat. He has arm strength, he spins two breaking balls, he gets swings and misses, he throws strikes and limits damage. He has the talent and the ability to execute. He has the stuff, and he has command.

"Painter’s the type of kid, he’s not only very talented, he’s a really hard worker. He did everything on the rehab front to prepare him. When you get a healthy Andrew Painter, who is ultra-talented, he was able to go out there and show what he’s capable of doing."

The Phillies will still bring Painter along gradually, according to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski:

"The discussion is, 'What vicinity of innings do we think we have and how do we want to use those innings?' That's really what it comes down to. Because you know it's not going to be 180 [innings] . . . My instincts tell me you really want him available later in the year to pitch because he's so important for you in that regard."

While we may not know the club's exact plans for Painter just yet, two things seem clear: he will pitch in the major leagues this season, and he's likely to pitch well.

We looked it up. The Sixers are still -425 to make the playoffs (according to one prominent book, anyway). We get it, but we don’t.

Because the NBA expanded the playoffs to allow even the 10th seed in each conference a potential path to the main draw, it doesn’t really take that many wins to get in. Last year, the 36-46 Atlanta Hawks made the play-in and got rinsed out.

So 2-10 is not a death sentence in the modern NBA the way it might have been even a few seasons ago. Still, it’s 2-10 — currently good for 14th in the Eastern Conference and ahead only of a Toronto Raptors team that is very obviously tanking.

The Sixers, conversely, can’t tank, because they’re paying Joel Embiid and Paul George superstar money. Sadly, neither of these “stars” is playing like one.

The Sixers led 72-64 with 1:54 left in the third quarter at Orlando on Friday night. For the rest of the game, the Sixers were outscored 34-14.

The lone bright spot for the Sixers (we’re repeating ourselves) was rookie Jared McCain, who scored 29 points in 31 minutes before fouling out with about five minutes left and the game still in the balance.

This would have been an opportune time for Embiid or George (or both!) to play a few decent minutes and stop the Sixers’ bleeding. But the pair went scoreless in the last four minutes, and the Sixers lost again.

Anyone hoping Embiid can redeem himself tonight in Miami against old friend Jimmy Butler (if he’s healthy) is probably going to be disappointed.

Maxey’s absence has been the biggest factor in McCain’s emergence. The Sixers are eventually going to have to reckon with what happens when Maxey returns to the lineup.

Maxey and McCain are both ball-dominant, smallish slasher/shooters. It’d be fun to think about the havoc they could create on the floor together until you stop to think about the problems they’d have defensively. McCain fouled out in part because he has a difficult time with the physicality of the league. He also gets a rookie whistle.

Some people are willing to live with that.

It’s fair to say this: The Sixers need Maxey back as soon as possible, because as long as Embiid and George are going to be either injured or playing ineffectively, someone has to score the points.

It continues to get late early for your team, your town, your 76ers.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On November 18, 2018, Drew Brees and the Saints destroyed the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, 48-7. Brees threw for 363 yards and four touchdowns.

The Birds would recover, winning five of their final six games to reach the playoffs. They then won a wild card round game over the Bears (double-doink!), but were eliminated the following week… by the Saints.

📊 Poll

Results from Friday:

🔗 Links

• 🕛️ Father Time beat Mike Tyson more than Jake Paul did.

• 🦉An overtime win wasn’t enough to save Stan Drayton’s job at Temple.

• 🏌️‍♂️Rory McIlroy won the Race to Dubai for the sixth time.

• 🦁 Hard to see how Doug Pederson keeps his job after the Jaguars suffered their worst loss in franchise history.

• 🦴 Jon “Bones” Jones retained the UFC Heavyweight crown and kissed the ring.

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

November 18, 2024

• Avalanche at Flyers, 7:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia+)

• Sixers at Heat, 7:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

Be sure to follow On Pattison on social media:

• Follow on X

• Follow on Instagram

• Follow on Facebook