The Philadelphia 76ers emerged victorious on Thursday 110-102 over the Detroit Pistons at home. It was a win that pushed them back over .500 on the very young season.
However, it did not feel like much at the end of the day.
The Sixers committed 20 turnovers. They saw a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter dwindle to just five as they once again struggled to close the game out. They saw the Pistons show 7-for-11 from deep in the fourth. It was a game where coach Doc Rivers had to reinsert his starters to ensure the victory.
Joel Embiid had 30 points and 18 rebounds in a big effort and he drilled a stepback triple to seal the win, but he was not happy with his team after the win.
“We need to get way better,” Embiid stated. “No disrespect to Detroit, but they haven’t won a game so we can’t be happy about our performance tonight. There’s nothing to be happy about, but as a team, we just played New York. It was a different energy level, they were tougher than us, more physical, they got what they wanted. We couldn’t guard our own man.”
Embiid is referring to the loss to the Knicks on Tuesday where New York was much more physical than them and pushed them around from the jump. If the Pistons would have knocked down some good, open looks in the first quarter, the result of this game might have been similar to the New York loss.
“We need to be way better defensively than we have been,” Embiid continued. “We gotta guard our own man. Right now, we haven’t been able to do so and it creates a lot of rotations and teams are making a lot of 3s. Like you saw tonight, when they made that run, it was because we can’t guard our own man and they just penetrated and that causes a lot of help and now you gotta rotate all over the place.”
Detroit ended up shooting 13-for-39 from deep for the game. When one considers that they ended up shooting 7-for-11 in the fourth, that is an effort that really should bother this team. The Pistons entered with the worst offense in the league and Philadelphia allowed them to score 35 points in the fourth quarter, alone.
“We need to be way better on the defensive end,” Embiid finished. “Starting with containing our own man.”
The Sixers will now host the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday to continue the homestand.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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