By: Kylan Watson

After beating the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night, the Philadelphia 76ers returned to Philly for a five-game home stand which started with tonight’s contest against the Phoenix Suns. Offense was a struggle in this contest, but when it mattered most Phoenix used a third and fourth quarter explosion. To power themselves passed the Sixers 109-99 for a much-needed victory for them.

The Sixers started this game off hot they were able to find their offensive rhythm early in this contest. They cashed in on the high-percentage shooting opportunities created from their ball movement and Phoenix had no answers for it. Tyrese Maxey (31 points and had 10 assists) and Kelly Oubre Jr (26 points) combined for 57 of Philly’s 99 points. Oubre Jr. returned tonight from a sprained hand and immediately made his presence felt against his old team on both sides of the ball. The Sixers missed his presence on the defensive end, helping to create turnovers and easy basket opportunities for his teammates and himself. Oubre Jr. single-handedly kept Philly in this contest, he was able to hit multiple shots to keep the Sixers in this contest once their shots stopped falling, and the Suns took the lead.

For example, late in the third quarter Oubre Jr. hit a deep logo three-pointer to cut Phoenix’s lead to five points. That gave the Sixers a shot in the arm, but they did not have enough scoring available in this contest to beat Phoenix tonight. Joel Embiid missed this game because he is dealing with a sprained foot, Andre Drummond missed this game with a toe sprain as well, without them the paint defense fell apart. No one else really stepped up to fill that scoring role for Philly, this has been a recurring problem whether Embiid is on the floor or not. Philly just has not found a consistent shot maker currently on the roster who can hit those got to have it shots that happen numerous times during a game in the NBA. That weakness along with another night of bad perimeter defense took away another winnable game for the Sixers.

Phoenix got multiple opportunities to grab rebounds and get opportunities for lay-ups and dunks. That helped the Suns offense when they did not have much else going on in this contest. Then Kevin Durant (23 points) and Bradley Beal (25 points) took this contest over. This was the first game that Beal came off the bench and he powered Phoenix’s bench scoring 25 of the 54 points the unit scored, saving them from a bad shooting night. Helping Phoenix make the momentum changing shots in this game and the Sixers did not. For example, Kevin Durant hit a corner three-pointer late in the fourth quarter that clinched this game for the Suns.

The Sixers will now prepare to face the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night, the Wizards are another team that is struggling and desperate for a victory. Philly must improve their perimeter defensive scheme and cannot allow Jordan Poole to take over on Wednesday night. He will take advantage of any holes or mistakes in their defensive scheme.

In addition, they cannot lose the rebounding battle like they did against Phoenix tonight, they must block out their man and grab those rebounds. Washington is a team that can beat you if they get enough scoring opportunities. On the offensive side the Sixers will also need to use their ball movement to create high-percentage shooting opportunities and make those shots.

Implementing these things into their game plan should put the Sixers in a great position to win their 15^th game of the season and gain some much-needed momentum during this home stand.