Multiple Sixers explain what went wrong late on offense in loss to Nets
The Philadelphia 76ers got off to a good start at home against a very good Brooklyn Nets squad as they are still dealing with everything surrounding Ben Simmons. They were moving the ball, they were playing freely, and built a double-digit lead.
Then, things fell apart completely as they fell to the Nets at home 114-109.
Philadelphia built a 108-98 lead on Tobias Harris’ alley-oop pass to Matisse Thybulle with 5:33 left, but they did not convert a single field goal the rest of the way as Brooklyn ended on a 16-1 run.
“The ball stopped moving,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Something that we’ve really worked our butts off on and it was disappointing to see. I thought we started walking the ball up the floor. There were two or three plays where we didn’t execute. Things that we worked on so, the good sign for me is how well we played. The bad sign is we can’t finish games that way.”
Philadelphia shot only 26.1% from the floor in the fourth and they were a paltry 2-for-12 from deep. They only had two assists and they had two turnovers as they could not find an offensive rhythm down the stretch.
“We gotta do better when it comes to execution,” said Joel Embiid. “Danny (Green) had two air-balls, that’s good shots, especially for him, and then I missed the layup, Tobias missed a floater, we could’ve moved the ball a little better the last three or four minutes. We had a first good 44 minutes moving the ball, playing with each other, and I thought in the fourth quarter, the ball kind of stuck a little bit.”
It does not help at all that Embiid is dealing with right knee soreness. It was clear that it affected his mobility and he was not able to do what he normally would do against a smaller Nets team.
“I wasn’t as aggressive as I would’ve liked, but it’s the second game of the season against Brooklyn, that’s a good team, and considered the favorite to win it all,” the big fella added. “I thought the guys did a great job, obviously, we can always get better and we will.”
On top of that, the Sixers had trouble on the defensive end as they could not get any stops and play with any pace. The Sixers are at their best when they are able to get turnovers and push the ball in transition. They were unable to do so down the stretch in this one as Brooklyn did a good job of getting the ball to Kevin Durant, James Harden, and LaMarcus Aldridge and they did the rest.
“Honestly, part of it was the fact that we weren’t getting enough stops on the other end so we were slowing our pace down,” said Harris. “They kind of got a little redundant of what we were doing where they were able to load up a lot. I thought there were a couple plays where we missed the next pass. That’s something we can learn from and grow from.”
They will have another chance to do when they take on the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road on Sunday.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
List
Philadelphia 76ers all-time roster: See which legends made the cut
