The Philadelphia 76ers normally can count on their bench to come in and provide some good play, but that was not the case on Thursday as they fell to the Portland Trail Blazers 118-114. It was a tough night for the bench unit overall as they could not find much offense.
The team was missing Shake Milton and his absence was definitely felt with that unit all night. Tyrese Maxey earned some playing time in his place, but he did not have the best night of his rookie season.
Maxey had three points and was a minus-13 and the reserves as a whole only had one assist. That came from Matisse Thybulle who is not known as one of the team’s playmakers.
“They just didn’t get organized, really disappointing,” said coach Doc Rivers. “We put them in easy easy sets and they didn’t run it. Maybe the pressure of Portland took us out of it a little bit, I don’t think so. That part I got to go watch and see why, but I thought, because of that it carried over to the other end. I thought they got frustrated on the offensive end and I thought that carried over to the defensive end.”
The team’s reserve unit was out there at the beginning of the fourth and that was when the Blazers made their move led by Carmelo Anthony. Rivers then had to quickly put the starters back in to stem the tide a little bit.
“I thought the end of the third, beginning of the fourth was the turning point in the game,” Rivers finished. “We went to our bench and honestly, it’s funny, I actually thought even though they scored, I thought it was more on our offensive inefficiency. I think the second unit had one assist as a group. I thought the ball stuck.”
The Sixers had better hope they get better play from the reserves on Saturday when they get to take on the Phoenix Suns to continue the road trip.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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