PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers suffered a heartbreaking 108-107 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday in a contest the Sixers let slip away.
The officials admitted to making a mistake on the Kelly Oubre Jr. final drive, but the Sixers should not have been in that position to begin with.
With Philadelphia leading 104-101 with 1:00 left, Tyrese Maxey slipped on the inbounds pass and it led to a turnover. Clippers guard Amir Coffey came up with the steal and was fouled by Oubre who made one of the two free throws.
“I think that kind of just started with me tripping and falling, like it’s just a domino effect, honestly,” Maxey said downtrodden. “I broke open, tripped, fell, and they get two points off that. It kind of just went downhill after that. A couple of turnovers late, a couple of execution things that we did, and came back and bit us.”
Oubre then committed a turnover which led to Kawhi Leonard giving the Clippers the lead on an And-1 conversion. The Sixers turned to Buddy Hield who drilled a 3 to put the Sixers back up 107-105 with 23.5 seconds left, but Leonard converted another And-1 to give LA the lead again with 15.7 ticks left.
The officials, obviously, made the big mistake of not calling the foul to put Oubre on the line, but the Sixers shouldn’t have been in that position to begin with.
“We have to take care of the ball,” Maxey added. “We have to finish games. I felt like a couple of times we lost Kawhi like on the one that he got the first and one on and then on the second one, that’s just a play where if he beats us we have to let him lay it in. We’re up two, he lays that in, and then we come down and get the last shot, and hey, either one of us makes a shot to win the game or we go into overtime.”
The Sixers will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on the road on Friday.
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