A night after Sam Hinkie traded Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes and Lavoy Allen, the short-handed Sixers (15-41) didn't have enough for the Dallas Mavericks (33-23), losing by a score of 124-112. Despite only eight players dressing for the Sixers, they scored 112 points against a Mavs team that finished the game shooting the ball over 62% from the floor. This loss is the Sixers tenth straight.
The first quarter went pretty much as we all expected. Thaddeus Young and Michael Carter-Williams, the only two regular starting players were joined on the floor by James Anderson, Elliot Williams and Arnett Moultire. Behind Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavs came out of the gates shooting 76.5% from the floor, while the Sixers shot 40%. After the first quarter, Philadelphia found themselves trailing big, 41-23. Despite the slow start, Michael Carter-Williams scored seven points to help the Sixers cause.
When things could have gotten much worse, the Sixers fought back. Tony Wroten cam off the bench in the second to score eight while Thaddeus Young erupted for 11 points and four rebounds in the second. MCW added seven more and the Sixers found themselves shooting over 65% in the second. Philadelphia outscored Dallas by 11 in the second quarter and pulled to within seven at the half, 69-62. With the teams heading to the locker rooms, Thaddeus Young had 15 points, Carter-Williams had 14 and Wroten contributed with 12. On the other side of things, Dirk was shooting lights out, 7-for-8 from the floor, leading all scorers after two with 19.
The Mavericks took back the reigns in the third quarter behind a now hot-shooting Shawn Marion. Marion scored ten points in the third on 5-for-6 shooting and the Mavericks hit 70% of their shots to suffocate the Sixers. The third quarter was much different for the Sixers, who struggled coming out of the quarter, even though they pulled to within four at one point. Likely fatigued from being short-handed, Philadelphia tried their best to keep pace. Hollis Thompson and Tony Wroten scored ten off the bench while MCW added another six to his total, putting the rookie at 20 points after three.
In the final frame, the two teams drew even, scoring 23 a piece, giving the Mavericks a 124-112 win. Not a bad result for the Sixers the day after a lot of their veteran pieces were traded away.
Dirk Nowitzki had 25 points on 9 of 12 shooting, including 5 of 7 from beyond the arc. Shawn Marion was 11 of 12 from the floor for 22 points. Both added seven rebounds.
When Hawes and Turner were dealt, Thaddeus Young obviously needed to take on a bigger role and he did just that tonight, scoring 30 points and grabbing a career best 13 boards. Thad also added six assists and seven steals. Those stats, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, makes Young the only other player in NBA history to reach all of those numbers in a single game was Hakeem Olajuwon against Seattle on March 10, 1987, with 38 points, 17 rebounds, seven steals and six assists.
"I just tried to be very, very motivated, play hard and to finish it the right way and try to help my team win games," said Young.
Michael Carter-Williams scored 25 points and dished out six assists. He also had five rebounds. Tony Wroten led bench players with 21 points in just over 28 minutes. Wroten went to the line 13 times as well, sinking nine of the shots.
Up next, the Sixers play host the the NBA-worst Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night. The Sixers beat them 115-107 in OT in their first meeting while Milwaukee took the second one 116-106.
Brandon Apter is a contributor to Sixerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @ApterShock
