PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers were on a high. They entered Monday’s contest with the Chicago Bulls winners of six straight and they have been fantastic to the point where they’re top players have been able to rest in the fourth quarters of games.
The Bulls brought them back down to earth. Chicago led by as many as 12 and held off a furious fourth quarter rally from the Sixers to win it 108-104. Coby White had 24 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds for the Bulls while Nikola Vucevic added 23 points and eight rebounds.
On Philadelphia’s side of things, Joel Embiid was once again fantastic with 40 points, 14 rebounds, and six assists, but the only other Sixer in double figures was Tyrese Maxey who had 29 points with 15 of those points coming in the fourth quarter. The Sixers looked a bit disjointed all night long and didn’t pick things up until the fourth which resulted in a loss.
Coach Nick Nurse broke down why the Sixers couldn’t knock off the Bulls on Monday.
While Embiid and Maxey were able to show up in a big way for Philadelphia, the Bulls were getting contributions from a lot of different pieces. They had six players score in double digits compared to just two for the Sixers.
“I think, again, we came out ready pretty good,” said Nurse. “I didn’t think we were quite scoring enough with how good our defense was early. We were getting a bunch of stops early and not a ton to show for it down there and I think we had 14 in the first less than four minutes and then we scored 10 in about the next 14 minutes.”
To Nurse’s point, the Sixers led 16-4 at the 7:12 mark of the first quarter, but then Chicago ended up taking a 25-24 lead after one and led by 11 at halftime. The Sixers were unable to run any consistent offense in this one after the fast start.
The Bulls received 10 points out of Alex Caruso and he made plenty of hustle plays all night. Jevon Carter also added 12 points off the bench while Philadelphia’s bench unit struggled in the second quarter.
“Obviously, they have a couple of good, key players they bring in off the bench,” Nurse added. “Caruso and Carter came in I thought changed that flow of the game a little bit and we were just a half-step behind on some stuff. I thought they beat us just to some basketballs. Rebounds, some of our defensive stuff although was good at times, just wasn’t good enough at others, and just didn’t get enough individual performances kind of around the horn that we’ve been getting.”
The Bulls outscored the Sixers 30-20 in the second quarter as they feasted on Philadelphia’s bench unit. Paul Reed, Patrick Beverley, Kelly Oubre Jr., and Robert Covington were unable to find any real rhythm and Nurse summed it up:
“Again, I’m probably just more like—it just didn’t seem they were providing enough at the defensive end to start. I thought, again, I thought we had a stretch there in the second when we didn’t run very good offense. We took some quick shots. You got a string of three, four no pass. No execution and none of those go in and then we take a fifth one on top of it and you’re just like, it was too much lack of execution on those things and I think that is taking out of rhythm shots which is gonna not probably produce a lot of great stuff. Sometimes, you just gotta let it come to you and I think even though those guys got not a great number of shots, I think a lot of those weren’t quite in the rhythm of the offense. Probably was in another pass or another drive to the paint that needed to be made so I think you gotta let it come to you sometimes.”
The Sixers gave themselves a chance in the fourth quarter. Maxey came alive with 15 points and he drilled three triples in the final frame. The bench unit that struggled so much in the first half was much better in the second half as well and that allowed the Sixers to get back in the game, but it ended up not being enough.
“He started that fourth, we kinda had a similar second half to the first,” Nurse explained. “We came out good to start the third and ended up, I think losing the quarter by a point. So we were down 12. The lineup that was in there, he kinda knew he had to be aggressive, and find some shots.”
While Maxey was terrific, it just wasn’t enough to get the job done on Monday. The Bulls did just enough.
“He found one in transition,” Nurse added. “We found a good play call for him and then he made another 3, and he was just kind of doing his thing with that unit out there. It gave us a chance to kind of get it at the end even though I think we were outplayed most of the game. He gave us a chance late there in the fourth. I thought that second unit came in there and fought much harder in the fourth quarter and again gave us a chance there, but just didn’t quite get it done.”