PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers have had a start nobody saw coming. They dropped to 0-3 with a 114-105 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night.
The Sixers might have put up 105 points, but it didn’t feel like a good offensive game. Philadelphia shot 44% from the floor and was 10-for-31 from deep. The Spurs, by comparison, shot 16-for-38 from deep and seemed to play faster despite the Sixers holding a 17-12 advantage in fast-break points.
James Harden shot 4-for-18 and Tyrese Maxey was 8-for-18, but he got off to a slow start before he got going late. They had a tough time getting to the basket, and, when they did, they had a tough time finishing over Jakob Poeltl.
“Offensively, we just cannot get pace,” said coach Doc Rivers. “We started out in the third quarter, I thought we got a little bit of pace. We got the ball in Tyrese’s hands more where he got up the floor. I thought James even pushed it up more in the second half, but our pace is bad. We’re always up against the clock offensively, which we shouldn’t be with what we have.”
The lack of 3-pointers also stands out. The Sixers shot 34 on opening night against the Boston Celtics, 24 in the loss to the Milwaukee Bucks and 31 against the Spurs.
Rivers wants Philadelphia to improve in three specific areas on the offensive end of the floor.
“I wanna see more 3-pointers,” he started. “I wanna see more open-court. I wanna see more guys get into the paint, and that’s why you don’t get 3-pointers right now. We’re not pushing the ball up the floor. We’re not getting enough stops in a row to do anything like that. So, yeah, definitely more 3-pointers.”
The Sixers have to get Maxey out in transition because his speed is a big advantage and Harden is one of the elite playmakers in the game. The Sixers getting into transition would be a big help.
“We talked about it in our little film session,” Rivers finished. “‘Guys, layups or 3s.’ Contested 2s late in the clock, we’re almost doing the exact opposite. Other than Joel (Embiid). Obviously, he’s a big, he’s gonna get shots that are contest or in-between shots, but everyone else, we gotta search for better shots.”
The Sixers look to pick up their first win of the season on Monday when they take on the Indiana Pacers.
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