By: Kylan Watson

After beating the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday Night, the Philadelphia 76ers faced off against the Milwaukee Bucks today. Milwaukee buried Philly by hitting 18 three-pointers to give them enough cushion to stifle a late Sixers comeback attempt and beat them 119-98.

Philly started this game off very flatly and this was reminiscent of what happened to them against the New York Knicks last week. They could not throw a brick in the Delaware River, and the Bucks could not miss from the three-point line in the first half. Milwaukee hit 13 of their 18 three-pointers in the first half and the Sixers had no answers for it. Damian Lillard had a throwback game against them as he torched Philly from there hitting four/eight three-pointers and scoring 14 of his 24 points during the first half. He kept the Bucks ahead in this contest and it did not matter who the Sixers put on him he was shooting it from Horsham, PA and still finding the bottom of the net. Combine that with Giannis Antetokounmpo (30 points) and Malik Beasley (20 points) joining him in the South Philly scoring party and you have a recipe for disaster for the Sixers.

The Sixers being this bad on the offensive side of the ball cannot happen in the absence of Joel Embiid. Besides Tyrese Maxey (24 points) and De’Anthony Melton (16 points) nobody else showed up this afternoon. Philly has to rely on their ball movement and have to cash in on their high-percentage shot opportunities which they did not do in this game. They cannot continue to rely on Maxey to carry them until the rest of his teammates find their shots. If that is going to happen then somebody else has to show up to help him out. Against the better teams in the Eastern Conference that strategy simply will not fly, they need somebody else to emerge as the third or fourth scorer to keep this team afloat until Embiid returns next month. It is a struggle on the offensive side for them and it should not be. They had plenty of opportunities to make this a game after switching to a three-guard defensive line-up and Melton shooting them back in this game. Philly forced Milwaukee into 18 turnovers and shut their offense down in the second half, but they could not hit shots in the fourth quarter and that allowed the Bucks to win this game. Tobias Harris and Kelly Oubre Jr. have to wake up if the Sixers want to survive this tough stretch of games to start the second half of the season. Both players are struggling mightily on the offensive end and the Sixers have to get them going if they want to beat Boston on Tuesday night.

They will now prepare for their third game of four against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. If they want to get an upset victory over the best team in the NBA and the conference, Harris and Oubre Jr. must be heavily featured in the offense, get them easy looks at the basket and a chance to see the ball go through the hoop. That should help get them going and combine that with a resurgent Tyrese Maxey that should get the Sixers out of their offensive slump. Additionally, they have to stay attached to their man and cannot allow Boston to get easy shots from the three-point line like they did tonight against Milwaukee. They have to make Boston work for their points and if they can do that and force them into turnovers and bad shots, Philly will have a chance to get their 34^th victory of the season.