The Philadelphia 76ers entered the Barclays Center on a high note. They had won five games in a row, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons were playing good basketball and they were set to take on the Brooklyn Nets who were missing superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
They were in for a rude awakening as the Nets beat them 122-109 led by Joe Harris and Caris LeVert and there were familiar issues brought to the forefront.
One was that it seemed that Philadelphia took the Nets lightly once they heard Durant and Irving were out. Coach Doc Rivers saw it in their play on the floor that they were not ready for this one.
“We didn’t come into play,” said Rivers. “What I saw was it was one of those games. We played last night I guess and it was disappointing. You got three of their top five players out and we have a couple of guys out too, obviously, but that’s an extremely winnable game, doesn’t matter where you’re playing.”
The Sixers have had issues on the road in the past. They were 10-24 on the road in the 2019-20 season before the league suspension and on Thursday, they reverted back to those issues in this one.
“That’s what we were in the past where you show up on the road,” the coach added. “You don’t have focus, you’re not ready to play basketball, and you deserve to lose the game. That’s what I told them. I said we deserve to lose.”
Philadelphia committed 20 turnovers and 19 of them came from the starters–Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons had five turnovers each–in this one. It was an all-around disappointing effort and one that veteran Danny Green saw coming.
“I think it’s one of those nights,” he explained. “It was a tough night, back-to-back, low energy, but I also think, we kind of underestimated them. They have KD out, Kyrie out, it’s not gonna be a cakewalk. It’s not gonna be easy. Those guys are still a good ballclub regardless of who’s on that floor. Any given night in this league, you know how it goes.”
Shake Milton led the Sixers in scoring in this one with 24 points and he also had seven assists, but he is not buying the idea they took the Nets lightly without their superstar duo.
“I don’t think that was it at all,” said Milton. “It’s the NBA. It was a back-to-back, but guys in the NBA can play. If you don’t come out and you’re not on top of your game, you’re not ready to go, you’re not mentally locked in, you can get beat by anybody. I think it was more so that than anything else.”
On the Brooklyn side, Harris had 28 points off the bench and LeVert had 22, 10 assists, and seven rebounds. They were just too much and they more than picked up the slack without the two stars.
“It’s a different situation but no Kyrie, no KD, but those guys on the court are professional basketball players and they’re very good,” said rookie Tyrese Maxey. “Caris LeVert, different guys like that, they put the ball in the hole, Joe Harris. We still had a game plan and we just didn’t execute tonight.”
The Sixers will look to bounce back when they return home on Saturday against the Denver Nuggets.
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