The Philadelphia 76ers had themselves a rough night on Sunday. They found out that star big man Joel Embiid would be a late scratch due to back tightness and that seemed to throw them into a funk for the night.
Even though the team won’t blame Embiid’s absence for the loss, they definitely seemed to be thrown off a bit by not having him out there. The team committed 11 turnovers in the first half on their way to 21 for the game and it seemed that Philadelphia was maybe surprised by how well Cleveland played in this one.
“Not necessarily,” said Tobias Harris who led the team with 16 points. “I think we know what type of team they are and the talent that they have with their guards. They’re young, they’re hungry, they have a lot of energy, so to be surprised, that would be just us underestimating them.”
There were plenty of times where Ben Simmons would push the ball in transition and instead of a bucket, he would try to do too much and it would result in a turnover. Normally, Philadelphia is very efficient in the transition offense, but it was a struggle on Sunday.
“I thought the spacing was bad,” said coach Doc Rivers. “I thought as much spacing, making the extra pass, Ben didn’t have a great pass at night either. I thought that was a little bit of both.”
It did seem that without Embiid’s production that the Sixers were trying to do too much. Like they were trying to be a bit more aggressive in looking to replace his scoring output. When, in reality, Rivers wanted the team to play more under control and that falls on Simmons who is one of the leaders of this team.
“I want him to attack the basket, but I also want him to make plays,” Rivers said of Simmons who committed six turnovers. “I think you have to have a good balance in doing both. Last night (Saturday against the Knicks), I was talking about how good his balance was tonight I didn’t think so. I thought everybody who was too aggressive, trying to get to the basket and score and I thought that created a lot of turnovers.”
As a whole, Philadelphia looked discombobulated. They did not appear to be on the same page at all and it showed both on the floor and in the final stat sheet.
“I hope it’s a fluke,” said Simmons. “We didn’t take care of the ball. Too many turnovers. We weren’t getting into our sets fast enough. A little unorganized but, we’re gonna go back and watch the film, and get better as a team.”
Another thing that should be addressed is not taking teams lightly. Their careless play could have been the cause of the fact that they were playing a Cavaliers team that is much less talented than Philadelphia and they don’t have the expectations that the Sixers currently have.
“Me personally, I don’t underestimate them at all,” Harris added. “I know the type of team that they’re capable of being. Any team that has confidence is a dangerous team and when you give them the confidence also. It makes them even more dangerous. I think that’s where we got to put ourselves in a bad position tonight too.”
Philadelphia will now return home on Tuesday to face the Toronto Raptors.
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