By: Kylan Watson

After falling to the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday night the Philadelphia 76ers faced the Denver Nuggets for the first time this season. The Sixers were undone by a bad defensive effort which allowed Denver to get whatever they wanted during the contest. Thanks to a third quarter offensive explosion the Nuggets beat the Sixers 144-109.

Both teams found their offensive rhythm early in this game, defense was optional throughout most of this contest. The Sixers just were not able to string together enough defensive stops to slow down Denver’s offensive scheme. They gave up 30 plus fast break points a consistent weakness throughout the 2024-25 NBA Regular season. Philly has struggled with being able to get back on defense after either scoring the ball or the opposing team gets a rebound. That has allowed them to give up easy baskets to their opponents.

As a result of their play on the defensive side it turned a winnable game into a blowout. The Sixers wasted two great scoring performances from Tyrese Maxey (24 points) and Guerschon Yabusele (22 points) they combined for 48 of Philly’s 109 points. Both players did their best to keep Philly in this contest and were able to fight their way back into this game cutting Denver’s double-digit lead to six points, and that was as close as Philly got in this contest.

Denver was able to get whatever they wanted from the field in this contest, especially from the three-point line. They made 16/31 of their three-point opportunities, they created multiple wide-open three-point opportunities and cashed in on those opportunities. One player that benefited from that style of play was Julian Strawther who scored 23 points and made 5/9 of his three-pointers in this game. Strawther was the player who the ball found in the second half, and he made Philly pay for daring to leave him open in this contest.

The Sixers bad defensive play unlocked Strawther and when he was not finding the holes in their defensive scheme, it was Nikola Jokic (27 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists) carving the Sixers up on both sides of the court. This season has started very poorly for Philly, but they will have to play like they care on both sides of the court otherwise they should just give up on this season.

Once again using Paul George as the primary ball handler continues to be their best offensive scheme. He created multiple high percentage looks for his teammates and himself. Philly should continue to implement this in their offensive scheme and use Maxey in more off-ball actions. That action created great scoring opportunities for Yabusele and Maxey and put the Nuggets defenders in bad defensive positions which allowed them to put points on the board. He just got back from a knee injury, but the Sixers should re-insert Yabusele back into the line-up.  His effort takes the team to another level and gives them their best chance at turning this losing streak around.

The Sixers will now have a few days off to prepare to face the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night, who are one of the best teams in the league and the Eastern Conference. The Sixers will need to improve their defensive effort because they cannot afford to give Cleveland easy opportunities to put the ball in the basket.

In addition, the Sixers must continue to cash in on their high-percentage scoring opportunities created off their ball movement. One of the bright spots in this contest for Philly was they did not lose this game because of their offensive scheme. They used their ball movement to create great scoring opportunities and cashed in on them. Especially against an aggressive Cavs defensive scheme they will need to take what the defense gives them and make them pay.

Implementing these things into their game plan on Friday should put the Sixers in great position to win their 16^th game of the season and end their seven-game losing streak.