It was the tale of two halves tonight as the 76ers fell to the Phoenix Suns out in the desert 112-96. Tony Wroten led all players with 28 pts and MCW had 17pts, 7rebs, and 5 assists. Gerald Green and Philly native Markief Morris had 21 points apiece to pace the Suns.
We should’ve known that the first half of this game was going to be strange. Luc Mbah a Moute, coming off a 2 game absence due to a calf strain, came out piping hot and scored 8 of the Sixers’ first 10 points and finished the quarter with 10 pts and 4 rebs. The crazy scoring continued for the Sixers has they dropped 59 points, a season high for the first half, on 53% shooting from the field and 44% shooting from downtown. The only blemish was that the Suns had 57 pts themselves, as the Sixers seemed sluggish on D, with plenty of bad rotations leading to wide open 3s (Suns were 8/14 from downtown midway through the 2nd quarter). Still though, the Sixers stormed back from a 10 pt deficit and it felt like they had some serious momentum heading into the break.
Well … they didn’t apparently. Many coaches harp on how important the start of the 3rd quarter is, Brown included, and boy we’re the Sixers not on the same page tonight with that one. They gave up a quick 8-0 run to open the quarter, topped off with a horrible possession in which the team was basically ignoring the Suns. Brown called a timeout after a made 3 on that possession, threw himself down on the bench, and completely blasted the team in the huddle. After scoring 59 points in the first half, the Sixers only put up 37 in the second half. And after finishing that first half shooting 53%, they ended the game shooting 42% (you do the math … because I simply cannot).
The offense may have gone from good to bad after halftime, but the D was bad the entire game. The whole squad seemed sluggish and disinterested tonight on the defensive end, perhaps to be expected from a squad on the tail end of a 7-game road trip. Brown said after the game that he was fine with the teams effort, reinforcing the fact that this could just be fatigue. Still though, that was not the first time the squad was beat in transition simply because they were walking with their backs to the ball. That brand of laziness has to be removed from their game, and I’m sure Brown is irate about it.
The Sixers got some nice offensive games from multiple players, including 16 points from Henry Sims on 6-7 shooting off the bench, many of which were silky smooth midrange jumpers. McDubs got his 17 on 8-20 shooting, which based on recent performance is not that bad. Nerlens Noel finished the night with 4 pts and 4 boards, getting bullied under the rim by 7-footer Alex Len. Nerlens also fumbled away multiple nice dump offs and entry passes to him, and continues to display really poor hands for a big man. Ultimately he was benched down the stretch in favor of Sims, but perhaps chalk this up as just an off night for a guy who has been playing pretty well as of late.
The Sixers have one more game on this road trip tomorrow night against the Clippers, then it’s back to the comfy confines of the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night for matchup with the Lebron-less Cavs.
