The Philadelphia 76ers were in a solid spot on Saturday night. Despite not having superstar Joel Embiid due to an injury and a lot of issues shooting the ball, their defense was stifling and they led 50-41 at the half. Then, things fell apart.
They were outscored 68-41 in the second half on their way to a 109-91 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. Their defense was not as tight and they couldn’t find a groove offensively.
“If you look at the stat sheet, it is a tale of two halves, for sure,” said coach Brett Brown. “To look at the stat sheet and see only four turnovers for the game, and to have 19 more shots than a team, you wouldn’t think when you look back down at the stat sheet that it would equal that margin of a loss.”
But it did equal that margin of a loss. All around, it was not a good night.
“We missed a lot of shots,” Brown continued. “Start there. And then, defensively, we had some poor plays leaving corners, we had some poor plays fouling shooters, and I thought the physicality with them offensive rebounding in the second half was not in character with what we do.”
Tobias Harris, who led Philadelphia with 20 points and 10 rebounds, made two of his seven attempts from deep and he was part of a bigger problem. The Sixers as a team shot 9-for-37 from beyond the arc as it appeared that Dallas’ zone defense bothered the Sixers again.
“We had too many mistakes,” said Harris. “Too many plays where they hustled us on their offense. Too many threes that they made to get back in the game.”
At the end of the day, it was just another disappointing road performance. Philadelphia is now 7-13 on the road compared to a robust 18-2 at home and it’s that type of road performance that will eventually hurt them down the road.
They will try again on Monday when they visit the Indiana Pacers. [lawrence-related id=23311,23304,23284]