By: Kylan Watson
After getting blown off the floor yesterday evening, the Philadelphia 76ers traveled to the Bay to faceoff with the Golden State Warriors. The Sixers got Joel Embiid back in tonight’s contest, but Philly continued to fight in this game. It took a fourth quarter explosion by the Warriors to help them put Philly down tonight 119-107.
For the fourth straight game the Sixers struggled heavily on the offensive side, even with Joel Embiid (14 points and grabbed seven rebounds) returning to the line-up. He was clearly hampered throughout this game and an argument could be made that he should not have been on the floor with how his knee affected his play in this game. He created a number of high-percentage shots in this game, and he probably should have had at least nine-assists but the Sixers lack of a consistent three-point shooter bit them tonight. Once again, they struggled to put the ball in the basket from the three-point line they hit 13/30 tonight which was better than last night’s performance, but the Sixers have to address the lack of three-point shooting without Tyrese Maxey and De’Anthony Melton. Despite that this game was within reach for the Sixers they got the Warriors lead down to six-points and had a chance but the turnovers and missed shots cost them in this contest. Again, when the Sixers are healthy the shots should start falling again and all of this offensive disjointedness will be a distant memory, but until then somebody other than Tobias Harris (26-points) has to step-up to keep this team afloat.
Unlike the Sixers the Warriors had no such trouble putting the ball in the basket. The trio of Stephen Curry (37 points and hit eight three-pointers in the contest), Jonathan Kuminga (26 points), and Andrew Wiggins (23 points) put on a show tonight. They combined for 86 of Golden State’s 119 points and Philly had no answers for them in this contest. Curry in particular could not be stopped, especially in the second half where he started making every shot he took from the field. In one sequence of this game the Sixers had two players on him, and he still hit a fadeaway three-pointer from the corner and that was one indicator of many that it was not the Sixers night in this contest. Curry’s scoring prowess was the big difference in this game, he hit the big shots that killed the Sixers momentum and pushed their losing streak to four games.
The Sixers will now travel to Utah to face the Jazz another team that shoots the lights out from three-point range. Philly will need to play better perimeter defense than they played in this game. Lauri Markkanen is going to get his but if the Sixers can make sure his teammates are taking heavily contested shots, they should be able to slow their explosive offense down. Additionally, the Sixers will need to start hitting shots and cashing in on those high percentage shot opportunities that are created off of their ball movement. If the Sixers can rediscover their scoring prowess it adds another dimension to their offensive scheme. If Philly can implement these things into their game plan on Thursday, they will get their 30th victory of the season and end their four-game losing streak.