VJ Edgecombe isn\u2019t worried about his encore.<\/p>\n
After an astounding professional debut<\/a> \u2014 34 points in the Sixers\u2019 dramatic opening-night win over the Celtics<\/a> \u2014 Edgecombe\u2019s second NBA game is set for Saturday night vs. the Hornets in Philadelphia.\u00a0<\/p>\n He remains focused on improvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it\u2019s just building blocks,\u201d Edgecombe said Friday. \u201cJust trying to take steps in the right direction, learn from film. I was watching film just now. Just learning; knowing teams\u2019 tendencies, knowing what they do.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a steady progression. That\u2019s all it is. I played one NBA game, man. That doesn\u2019t determine who I am as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n Edgecombe logged 42 minutes in that one game, which meant plenty of film to dissect. He sat with Sixers assistant coach Rico Hines and watched some of it following practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHow to read the floor, that\u2019s the main thing,\u201d Edgecombe said. \u201cJust seeing things before they happen, knowing where defenders are, knowing what other teams like to do, knowing tendencies. That\u2019s the main thing I study.\u201d<\/p>\n Though his rest was minimal in Boston, Edgecombe did get to witness a bit of Tyrese Maxey\u2019s solo show in the second quarter.<\/p>\n Maxey finished with 40 points and Edgecombe was quite impressed by his teammate.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMan, it\u2019s so crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cI was actually watching (from the bench) when he started. \u2026 I just realized how good he is. He\u2019s really good.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBeing able to have a teammate like that, it helps me. I wasn\u2019t expecting to have wide-open shots like that \u2014 super wide open. He requires so much attention. He\u2019s good and he\u2019s only getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n As far as Sixers fans\u2019 responses to the opener, Edgecombe apparently hasn\u2019t experienced much in person.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNobody\u2019s really seen me,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019ve been in my house. I haven\u2019t been out. The furthest I go is to my car and my windows are tinted, so you can\u2019t see me.\u201d<\/p>\n He does expect immense noise and energy on Saturday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI know Philly fans are passionate, so I\u2019m expecting every game to be like that,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if I had a good game (against the Celtics) or not, I was expecting it to be like that. Credit to the fans for just showing love to the city, showing love to the sports teams. \u2026 We all just try to have a connection to the fans. We\u2019re regular people also, so just having a connection to the fans, it means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n For their home opener, the Sixers will face a Charlotte team that scored 136 points vs. the Nets in a season-opening win. The player drafted right after Edgecombe, No. 4 pick Kon Knueppel, had 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting and five rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n Asked about whether he places any extra meaning on matchups with other top picks, Edgecombe had a veteran\u2019s answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvery game is the same,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to compare myself to them. Comparison is the thief of joy, man, so I\u2019m trying to be happy on the floor. I\u2019m trying to have fun. I\u2019m not worried about a certain player on the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a team full of good players and my main goal is just to go in there and win, to be honest. That\u2019s the main thing for me. I don\u2019t compare myself to other draft picks or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Injury updates\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Paul George (left knee surgery recovery), Trendon Watford (left hamstring tightness) and Jared McCain (right thumb surgery recovery) will still be sidelined vs. the Hornets. Justin Edwards was listed as probable with right rib soreness. <\/p>\n McCain was the only Sixer who did not participate in Friday\u2019s light practice. George and Watford both appear to be making continued progress, although Sixers head coach Nick Nurse doesn\u2019t have specific return timelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a pretty heavy schedule here, coming off of a heavy practice, but they were involved in all of it,\u201d Nurse said. \u201cI\u2019m just kind of waiting for some cues on when they\u2019ll be ready to go, but they were out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Joel Embiid was not on Friday night\u2019s injury report. He had a minutes restriction in his first regular-season game since undergoing arthroscopic left knee surgery in April. The 31-year-old big man was limited to 20 minutes against the Celtics. <\/p>\n \u201cUntil I hear differently, I\u2019m going to assume it\u2019s that,\u201d Nurse said, \u201cbut it could slide at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VJ Edgecombe isn\u2019t worried about his encore. After an astounding professional debut \u2014 34 points in the Sixers\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":330220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1260,1448,2830,1311,3123,163981,30137,30138,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,41713],"class_list":{"0":"post-330219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","14":"tag-philadelphia-sixers","15":"tag-sixers-analysis","16":"tag-sixers-news","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-vj-edgecombe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115431675560986571","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}