PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers have dropped six of their past seven games with a loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday. The Sixers had a tough time handling the blitzing pressure defense. The Mavs forced Tyrese Maxey into bad passes and the offense was thrown out of whack.
There are multiple areas the Sixers have to be better in for them to get headed back in the right direction.
“Everything,” Kelly Oubre Jr. said after the loss. “Straight up. I can’t pick an area because we’re professional basketball players.”
The loss dropped Philadelphia to 4-11 on the season without Joel Embiid, who will miss substantial time due to his left knee meniscus injury. The Sixers have to correct the issues they have without the big fella on the floor to turn the results around.
“There’s a lot of possessions in the game, but we have to stay confident, stay swaggy, follow game plan discipline to a T because even when Jo was with us, we were able to slack off a little bit because he’s so good and such a dominant force,” Oubre added. “Right now, we have to be more attention to detail and become tuned into the game.”
The overall message from coach Nick Nurse and his staff is to always expect to win. He wants the Sixers to understand they will always have a chance to win. However, Oubre believes that without Embiid and others on the floor, they have forgotten that mantra.
“Have a short-term memory and just have confidence, man,” he explained. “Coach came in at the beginning of the year and said ‘expect to win’ and I think we kinda got off of that mindset and that phrase a little bit because we’re facing adversity and a lot of guys are down, but try to expect to win. I still believe we can go out there and win each and every night. We gotta come out, follow the game plan discipline, be a little more paid attention to detail, and execute.”
The Sixers move on to host the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday.
[lawrence-related id=90050,90047,90044]