The Philadelphia 76ers got off to a terrific start on Sunday on the road against the defending Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns. The Sixers jumped out by scoring 39 points in the opening quarter and they expanded their lead to 15 in the second quarter, but the offense then bogged down.
Philadelphia shot only 31.9% after halftime after shooting 52.4% from the floor in the first half and it came back to bite them in a 114-104 loss to the Suns on the road despite 37 points and 15 rebounds from Joel Embiid.
It was an effort that the Sixers were upset about after the loss starting with coach Doc Rivers as he lamented the number of possessions the team wasted either by taking bad shots or turning the ball over.
Doc Rivers
“We came out in slow motion in the first four minutes of the third quarter. No explanation for that, we just did. Turned the ball over, I think the first two possessions. It’s like I told them in the beginning of the game, they’re a hell of a team and you can beat that team, but you got to hang in there through the game. You can’t have wasted possessions. We had 17 wasted possessions tonight. Against any good team, you’re not going to win that game. On the other end, we probably had that many mistakes in our switches and stuff so good thing, obviously, we know that we can play with anyone, but just playing with anyone, is not satisfying to me. These are winnable games and tonight we didn’t win.”
When asked if he and his staff track wasted possessions, Rivers responded by saying:
“Yeah, you didn’t have to look tonight. It was right in front of you. You could’ve had a number tonight. You probably could have had 25, 30. Tonight, they were so wild in wasted possessions and that was tough to take. It really was.”
Joel Embiid
“The main cause was we played too slow. We got to find a way to get easy baskets. We can walk the ball up the floor. We got to try and get into transition early, get something out of it and we don’t have anything, pull it back out, whether it’s a post-up or a pick n’ roll and play out of that, but I’ve been feeling that for the last couple of games. We’re just playing too slow. No pace.”
Story continues
James Harden
“I think we had a pretty solid game. We just didn’t finish the game the way we needed to. Mental collapses, defensive breakdowns, offensively being stagnant and not getting really good possessions and capitalizing. Tough one but definitely a learning experience. Time to go back home.”
Tobias Harris
“We definitely do. When he talks about those possessions, just ones that we made turnovers on, not executing ATOs, after timeout plays, just every possession, we should be able to get the shot that we want. A good look that we want and a shot that we can live with. Tonight we didn’t. We had too many of those where we didn’t get the look that we want or we turn the ball over or just taking a shot at the end of the shot clock. We have to be a lot more sharper with that as we close out these last few games and getting ready for playoffs for sure. We’re gonna need it to win in the playoffs.”
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