By: Kylan Watson
The Philadelphia 76ers played the Dallas Mavericks tonight looking to right the ship after falling to the Brooklyn Nets over the weekend. Throughout this game each team traded scoring runs, and it was Dallas who landed the final blow as they went on a 17-to-seven scoring run to beat Philly 118-102.
Philly jumped on Dallas early in this contest as their shots finally started falling and the pace they were playing with put the Mavericks on their heels early in this contest. The trio of Kelly Oubre Jr. (19 points), Tobias Harris (17 points), and Tyrese Maxey (15 points) combined for 51 of the Sixers 102 points. The continued emergence of Oubre Jr. will be a big factor for the Sixers on the offensive side as the need for a third scorer shows itself more without Joel Embiid (Undergoing Meniscus surgery this week) will be out for an undisclosed amount of time. Oubre Jr. and the rest of the role players will need to score more to take the increase scoring load off of Maxey and Harris. The trio did not do enough tonight to help Philly win tonight, they have to find a way to balance their scoring with creating easy opportunities for their teammates. Without Embiid opposing defenses will key in on Maxey and Harris as the two biggest threats the Sixers have available right now. That’s exactly what the Mavericks did in this contest force the ball out of Maxey and Harris’ hands and force someone else to beat them and no one could answer the call tonight. If the Sixers want to stay out of the Play-In Tournament Oubre Jr. will either need to step up and start scoring again like he did tonight. Or the Sixers will need to get a consistent scorer in the building who can keep the team afloat in the loaded Eastern Conference.
Despite the scoring explosion from the trio of Oubre Jr., Harris, and Maxey Dallas weathered the storm. Whatever Coach Kidd said during half-time clearly worked because his team went on a 17-to-seven scoring run that helped them retake the lead in the third quarter. The duo of Kyrie Irving (23 points) and Josh Green (20 points) combined for 43 of Dallas’ 118 points and they hit the big shots during that third quarter run that helped the Mavericks win this game and extend the Sixers losing streak to two-games.
The Sixers will now prepare for a Wednesday night rematch with the Golden State Warriors. Philly should get De’Anthony Melton back to help on both sides of the ball he did practice today and should play in one of their games this week. His defensive prowess has been missed he usually takes the best offensive player the opposing team has and his length and toughness adds another dimension to Philly’s perimeter defense. The defense will have to be strong to deal with Stephen Curry and the explosive Warriors offense. Additionally, the Sixers will need to keep the ball moving to create high-percentage shots which they will need to cash in on. If they can implement these things into their gameplan for Wednesday’s game they should be able to get their 31st victory of the season.
