The Philadelphia 76ers aspire to be one of the better defensive teams in the NBA and it’s hard not to be when they possess great defenders such as Joel Embiid, Al Horford, and Ben Simmons. However, that top-notch defense has not been there over the previous three games.
The Sixers have struggled giving up at least 109 points over their last three games, all losses, and it culminated in giving up 117 points in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Friday. They allowed the Mavs to shoot a blistering 51.8% from the floor and Dallas made 14 shots from deep with seven coming from Tim Hardaway Jr.
A lot of what needs to happen on defense is mainly effort-related and it’s an easily fixable issue.
“I think it starts with playing harder,” said Josh Richardson. “Our effort hasn’t been there the last couple of games and I think that’s a problem to fix. There could be a lot worse things.”
This is a mainly new team that has championship aspirations and it could be them wilting a bit under the pressure a bit.
“It’s just an issue that we’ve got to address internally,” he said. “I think we’ve just got to sit down and talk about it, but I think we’ll figure it out. Hopefully.”
Philadelphia still has a top 5 defense statistically so they just have to get back to who they are on the defensive end. The mishaps and missteps they have had on that end recently must go away in order for them to get back on the winning track. [lawrence-related id=21791,21781,21774]