By: Kylan Watson
After beating the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers faced the struggling New Orleans Pelicans who were seeking their third road win of the season. Thanks to a CJ McCollum first-half explosion the Pelicans were able to beat Philly 123-115.
The Sixers did not find their defensive rhythm early in this game and were undone by it throughout this contest. Philly overplayed their defensive assignments multiple times in this contest, and it led to wide open three-pointers for the Pelicans.
Specifically, CJ McCollum torched the Sixers throughout this game, scoring 38 points in the contest. He exploited every hole in Philly’s defensive scheme and found the bottom of the net. McCollum refused to let his team lose this game and the ball continued to find him in this contest.
Despite the offensive explosion from McCollum, Philly had multiple opportunities to take this game from the Pelicans and their momentum was stopped by a turnover, an offensive rebound, or a bad shot. The Sixers were outrebounded and outhustled by a New Orleans team that simply wanted it more than them. That did enough to stop the Sixers’ comeback attempt in this contest.
One positive thing about this game for the Sixers was that Paul George finally found his offensive rhythm. In the second half he scored 23 of his 25 points during that period and finally found his three-point stroke. He has struggled over the last few weeks because of foul trouble and not being in sync on the court just yet. However, if he can take the positive momentum in the second half and play more aggressively in the upcoming games that Philly will play. Then the Sixers will be able to win some of these games and survive this tough stretch that they have in the next few weeks.
The Sixers splitting these two games against the Washington Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans is inexcusable. Both of those teams are currently in the running for the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and the Sixers went 1-1 this week against them.
They cannot afford to blow anymore games after the hole that they put themselves in early in the season. For the rest of this month and early February the Sixers will have to face multiple contending teams. They will have to play aggressively to win games during this stretch and survive against some of the best teams in the league.
This tough stretch will start against the Orlando Magic on Sunday evening, who will be getting Paolo Banchero back tomorrow night. That adds another dimension to the Magic who are starting to get healthier against a Philly team who is desperate to get some more wins before the All-Star Break. The Sixers will need to cash in on their high-percentage shooting opportunities created off their ball movement, limit their turnovers, and win the rebounding battle against an aggressive Orlando squad.
Implementing these things into their game plan on Sunday evening should put the Sixers in great position to win their 16th game of the season and gain some positive momentum heading into a tough part of their season.