Quentin Grimes is back in Houston with a chance to steady his game and perhaps swing a tight finish for the Sixers. The 25-year-old guard spoke Wednesday at Toyota Center, where Philadelphia was practicing before a crucial meeting with the Rockets on Thursday, and said he hopes to get himself going early.
That hope comes after a jarring week. Grimes was scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting in a home loss to the Detroit Pistons on Saturday, then scored five points on 2-of-7 shooting in a loss at the San Antonio Spurs on Monday. Philadelphia was 43-36 when it visited Houston for Wednesday practice and was still fighting for Eastern Conference postseason seeding with three games remaining, a stretch that had the club moving between a guaranteed first-round series and the play-in tournament.
Grimes has been one of the more unusual story lines in the Sixers’ season because his role changed with the roster around him. Philadelphia used him as its top offensive option during the tank down the stretch of the 2024-25 season, but that has not been his assignment since Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. were reintegrated over the last two weeks. Grimes said he has been trying to get back in the flow of the offense as those pieces returned, and described his fit when the team is healthy as the same as it has been all year.
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He called his season “solid” and said he believed he had “maximized” his opportunities. In 72 games, Grimes averaged 13.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists while connecting on 57.7% of his two-point attempts. The tradeoff has been from outside, where he is shooting a career-low 33.1% from three-point range. Asked about his own approach, he said it comes down to being in attack mode, defending on the ball and making plays for himself and teammates. “I hope to get myself going early against the Rockets,” he said.
The timing matters because Houston is also where Grimes produced the biggest scoring night of his career. In March, he scored 46 points in an overtime loss to the Rockets, a performance that stood out even in a season defined by changing responsibility and shifting expectations. Grimes said his father, Marshall, and trainer Ben Perkins keep reminding him not to overthink on the court and to play with the freedom he uses in summer workouts. Coach Nick Nurse echoed the theme when asked about Grimes’ personal mantra, saying: “Everybody that has the ability to get downhill and to vault up and shoot threes and do those kind of things,”
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For Philadelphia, the game in Houston is less about one hot night from March than about whether Grimes can rediscover the aggressive rhythm that helped carry the offense when the roster was thin. If he does, the Sixers may have one more reliable answer in a week when almost every possession matters.
