The Philadelphia 76ers played a game against a very good Phoenix Suns team on Wednesday while being severely shorthanded. They were missing Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, and Seth Curry and they missed their services in a 116-113 home loss to Chris Paul and the Suns.
They had a lot of players step up in their absence. Joel Embiid did his usual thing with 38 points and 17 rebounds, Danny Green had 18, Tyrese Maxey had 14, and George Hill poured in 11. It was an all-around performance, but it was not enough.
The Suns had 16 fast break points as they were constantly beating the Sixers down the floor and that was an issue in coach Doc Rivers’ eyes.
“I thought we played hard,” said Rivers. “I thought we got crushed in transition, again, that one little stretch. We played small a lot tonight, which I liked. Overall, I thought that helped Joel with spacing.”
Maxey had 14 points off the bench and he did a solid job on the defensive end of the floor, but overall, he gave up a couple of plays that are haunting him a bit.
“I had a couple breakdowns,” he sighed. “I didn’t tag one play and gave up a corner 3, and it’s really weighing on me right now because those are big plays in the game that I have to be able to help the team out and win.”
Embiid had himself an impressive stat line, again, but he also had eight turnovers. So despite hanging with the Suns and only losing by three being so shorthanded, that is what is on the mind of Embiid. He was not happy with the team’s performance.
“Not happy,” he stated. “We got more than enough especially when I’m on the basketball court. We should win every game. There is no positive to take away from tonight. We just gotta be better. I made a lot of mistakes with the double teams and turning the ball over. There’s no moral victories. You just gotta move on and win the next one.”
At the end of the day, the Sixers took a loss and that is all that’s on their minds.
I liked how we played the game, but I want to win the game though,” Rivers added. “I know we got a lot of guys that I get that. I still want to win and I told our guys.”
The team moves on to face the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday on the road.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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