The Philadelphia 76ers had their chance on Friday night when they visited the Cleveland Cavaliers. Despite a poor shooting night from All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey, the Sixers found ways to stay in the game and gave themselves a chance late.
Maxey had a steal and a bucket late to put the Sixers up, 113-112, with 39.6 seconds left, but the Cavs answered with an Evan Mobley 3. Cleveland squeaked out a 117-114 win over the Sixers. Maxey had a chance to tie it, but his 3-point attempt fell short.
On the night, Maxey shot 7-for-26 and his rough night came at a bad time for Philadelphia. If he could have found a way to get going, the Sixers probably win the game due to the strong performances from Kyle Lowry, Tobias Harris and Mo Bamba among others. The Sixers showed plenty of fight.
“I gotta make shots,” Maxey told reporters after the loss. “We gotta get stops. I thought we did a great job, honestly. I think everybody. Mo Bamba did a really good job of guarding both the bigs, being on the help side, blocking shots, getting offensive rebounds. KLow gave us a big spark scoring-wise and his professionalism. We doing a great job defensively. Again, another great effort on the defensive end, but we gotta close games out. That’s two in a row that we should’ve won.”
That is two tough losses for Philadelphia. The Sixers had their chances against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday at home and had their chances against the Cavaliers. Both ended in losses as Philadelphia fell to 13-27 without Joel Embiid on the season.
On the flip side, Embiid is close to a return. The situation looks bleak on the floor, but the Sixers can take solace in the fact the big fella is on his way back and Maxey will benefit.
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