Philadelphia fell behind early, rallied soon after, but fell late to the Houston Rockets 104-93. The loss marks the 76ers’ fourth consecutive to open the season.
Houston raced out to an early 32-19 lead after the first quarter, out-running the Sixers and dropping buckets at too high a pace for them to catch up. They rested a few players in the second quarter, and Philadelphia quickly made a dent into their lead. With 17 seconds before halftime, a K.J. McDaniels three actually gave the Sixers a temporary lead, as they went into halftime only trailing by one.
The Rockets pulled ahead early in the third, and a late string of threes from the likes of Trevor Ariza and James Harden put the Sixers in a hole too late of which to climb out. Ariza, playing the Sixers for the first time since dropping six first-quarter threes and 40 points overall, converted six three pointers in this contest. Harden’s 35 led all scorers. After scoring a triple-double against Philadelphia last season, Harden nearly added double digits in rebounds, finishing with nine total on the evening.
Much like they did in the previous three games, the Sixers put forth a competitive effort for three quarters, hanging around before running out of time. They entered the last period only trailing by five, or just two possessions. But they simply ran out of steam, depth, and likely talent, to keep up with the superior Rockets.
Tony Wroten led Philadelphia with 20 points, as well as adding five steals on defense. Brandon Davies made his first start of the season and contributed 13 points in his 24 minutes. He started in place of Henry Sims, whom was battling an illness. Sims did play, but only managed to score two points and record four rebounds in 13 minutes. K.J. McDaniels and Alexey Shved were sparks off the bench, scoring 14 and 12, respectively.
The matchup many had their eyes on entering the game was Nerlens Noel matched up against Dwight Howard. The rookie had moments of solid play, including a few steals from Howard to net six total thefts on the night, but overall struggled against the eight-time All-Star. Noel did not get his only rebound of the night until there were less than three minutes remaining. Howard dominated him on the Sixers’ defensive end, as Howard collected seven offensive rebounds.
Philadelphia did receive offense from a number of different sources, as six different players reached double figures. They also shot well from outside as a team, connecting on 50% of their three-point attempts, accounting for 33 of their points.
They will next host the Magic on Wednesday night.
