PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers played host to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night looking to right the ship following a stretch where they have lost five of their last six.
The Sixers jumped out to an 11-point lead in the first half, but didn’t sustain it. Missing key pieces such as Joel Embiid, De’Anthony Melton, and Robert Covington, the Sixers fell behind by as many as 22 as the Mavericks stormed back for a 118-102 win.
The Mavs blitzed Tyrese Maxey every chance they got. After the All-Star got off to a hot start, Dallas made sure it sent waves of defensive attention toward him when he crossed half-court and the Sixers struggled. It was something coach Nick Nurse was upset about.
“The thing that’s sticking in my head right now is I don’t think we executed the blitz offense package tonight worth a darn,” said Nurse. “That’s disappointing to me because we work on that like all the time. Like we know that that’s coming and we have that thing and we just didn’t get it executed.”
Another issue that Nurse pointed out was the struggles in the paint. The Sixers scored 48 points in the paint compared to 36 for the Mavericks, but Philadelphia had a tough time converting on its looks. The Sixers shot 24-for-49 in the paint and Nurse wants it to be better.
“The other thing like I already mentioned too is we’re gonna get by people and we’re gonna get it to six, eight, four feet, and we’re going to take some verticals or chests or forearms or whatever, we still got to be able to score them,” Nurse added. “We just can’t go down there and go I don’t—I haven’t looked at our paint percentage tonight, but it probably ain’t good. It ain’t good enough.”
Things do not get easier for the Sixers. They play host to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday as they look to desperately get back on track.
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