By: Kylan Watson

Riding a two-game losing streak the Philadelphia 76ers were seeking to change their fortunes as they faced the New Orleans Pelicans tonight. The Pelicans used a six/six first-half three-point barrage to swamp Philly 103-95 and extend their losing streak to three straight games.

Philly did not start this game off well they missed multiple high percentage shooting opportunities created off their ball movement. New Orleans took full advantage of the early power outage as Zion Williamson attacked the paint, and the Sixers had no answers for what he was doing. He scored 21 points and got multiple Philly defenders in foul trouble which weakened their paint defense even more and allowed his teammates to get easy buckets as well. If it was not Williams scoring it was the Pelicans second unit killing the Sixers as well. The second unit hit six early three-point buckets and that ballooned New Orleans half-time lead to 35-points. It is already hard enough for Philly to be short-handed with multiple important players missing games because of injury. However, when a team cannot miss throughout the first half it just makes it impossible for them to win games.

Despite the scoring explosion from Zion Williamson and the second unit the Sixers were able to battle back despite being down by 35 points. They were able to trim the Pelicans lead to eight points late in the fourth quarter and that was thanks to the trio of Tobias Harris (21 points), Kelly Oubre Jr. (20 points), and Paul Reed (17 points) they combined for 58 of Philly’s 95 points. They were the key players that engineered this comeback for the Sixers. They made the big buckets to get the team back in this game, and forced New Orleans into bad turnovers that allowed the Sixers to get easy baskets. For the third straight game the Sixers could not make the big buckets to finish off their impressive comeback attempt. They are just missing too many playmakers and the available players are not doing enough to win games. That means Harris, Oubre Jr., and Reed have to become superheroes to get a win and that is a hard ask of three players that get so much of the defensive attention right now for Philly. Someone else has to step up in be the fourth and fifth scorers for them until Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid return.

The Sixers will now prepare for a two-game series with the New York Knicks on Sunday and Tuesday nights. Seems like they might have Tyrese Maxey back if he can clear the NBA’s concussion protocol by either one of those games. The Sixers will need to cash in on the high percentage shot opportunities created off their ball movement, something they did not do until the third quarter of this game. Without their scorers everybody has to step up and play perfect basketball. Additionally, they will need to stay attached to their man and limit the Knicks to one offensive possession to slowdown Jalen Brunson and New York’s explosive offense. If they allow the Knicks to get multiple opportunities to score it will be a long night for the Sixers. If they can implement these things into their game plan for Sunday they can beat the Knicks for their 36^th win of the season.