Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports
The Sixers (14-31) showed plenty of offense against the Suns (26-18), but when push came to shove, Phoenix was just too much for them, pulling out a 124-113 win. There were bright spots in this one for Philadelphia, but they fell behind in the first quarter and could never recover. They have now lost 0f of their last 12.
With just under eight minutes to play in the first, the Suns already had a double digit lead behind Gerald Green and Goran Dragic. Combined, the two guards made all ten of their shots from the floor, including two three-pointers, good enough for 12 points a piece. The Suns shot a blazing hot 77.3% from the floor, including hitting 10 of their first 11, in the first and pulled out to an early 40-26 lead heading into the second quarter. The Sixers starters had issues getting started again as Turner, Thad, Hawes, MCW and James Anderson made a combined four shots in the opening stanza.
The Sixers showed life in the second, as Evan Turner dropped in ten points and grabbed three rebounds. Philadelphia outrebounded the Suns by seven in the second quarter, thanks in large part to James Anderson's five rebounds. The defense for the Sixers tightened up, holding Phoenix to just over 41% shooting a quarter after they shot over 70%. After making up some ground in the second, the Sixers went into the half down only eight, 62-54.
Having 13 points at that time, Evan Turner would need to come out of the half shooting well in order for the Sixers to stage a comeback. The Suns made sure that wouldn't happen as Turner did not register a shot from the floor in the second, leaving the scoring to Michael Carter-Williams, who added seven points in the quarter, five courtesy of the free throw. By the end of the quarter, the Suns were still shooting significantly better than the Sixers and getting the rebounding edge as well thanks to a double-double by Miles Plumee.
The Sixers made every attempt to come back, trailing 95-82 after three, but just could not get any closer. They came out and shot over 58% from the floor in the final quarter, but the Suns lead was too big at that point. When the final horn buzzed, the Suns walked away with a 124-113 win.
Despite the loss, the Sixers improved in a few areas. To this point in the season, they were shooting a dismal 70.8% from the charity strike. In tonight's game, they made 25-of-26 from the line. Michael Carter-Williams had a good bounce back game after struggling against the Thunder. He scored 22 points and added 11 assists. Both Young and Turner scored 21 points. Spencer Hawes grabbed nine rebounds on the night in addition to his 18 points. Ranked 29th in the NBA with a .315 three-point shooting percentage, the Sixers hit eight of them tonight out of 20 taken. To put that in perspective, they were 10-for-47 in their previous two contests.
On the Suns side, Gerald Green and point guard Goran Dragic stole the show with their hot shooting. Green scored 30 on 10-of-12 shooting while Dragic scored 24 on 9-of-13 shots and had seven assists. Center Miles Plumee finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Up next, the Sixers head to TD Garden to face the Celtics on Wednesday night at 7:30PM. Before hosting the Sixers, the Celtics are in New York for a Tuesday night matchup against the Knicks. The Sixers and Celtics will meet for the first time this season on Wednesday and will play each other shortly after that on February 5th in Philadelphia.
Brandon Apter is a contributor to Sixerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @ApterShock
