The Philadelphia 76ers entered the Mile High City on Tuesday night looking to bounce back from their first loss of the road trip. They had two days off before taking on the Denver Nuggets, but they were hit in the mouth in the first quarter and the Sixers did not fight back until it was too late.
Philadelphia lost the game 104-95 and they fought back in the third and fourth quarters, but the effort from the beginning of the game did them in. Denver scored 44 points in the first quarter and they shot 7-for-10 from deep as Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. combined for 30 in the opening quarter.
“They just got everything,” said coach Doc Rivers. “It was one of those games where it looked like we were running in quicksand. They attacked us early, we never really recovered from it. We got into a scrum at the end of the game, but that was what it was. They were better prepared, they were definitely more ready individually as a group, they were better. No excuses. We just didn’t play very well.”
The Sixers had been playing well for the majority of this road trip, even without Joel Embiid, but they did not have it from the jump. They were not able to respond to Denver’s punch and it cost them.
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“We didn’t have enough pop to us,” said Tobias Harris. “We didn’t have enough juice into the game of going out there and executing our stuff and being sharp offensively and defensively. We paid for it. We gave up 44 points in the first quarter and that was way too many points for our standards.”
On top of it being the fifth game of a 6-game road trip, there is the fact that they were playing in the altitude in Denver. That can be a big factor for road teams heading out there and playing in that game.
“The altitude, I think, that was the first thing,” said Ben Simmons. “I think guys were a little shook and tired to start. That that also affected communication. Guys are a little tired, but I just think in that first period, I think they shot like 70% from 3 or something like that in the first quarter. That’s tough, especially when they got up 20 points early. It’s tough. They really punched us and we really fight back until that third.”
For being down so big, Rivers was just happy to see the clock finally run out on a very poor game.
“The positive is that the clock finally expired,” Rivers joked. “That was one very good positive because I was hoping that they would do the AAU rules and just speed the clock up a little bit. I thought we should’ve had a running clock from probably the first quarter on.”
The Sixers will now finish the trip on Thursday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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