By: Kylan Watson

After falling to the Miami Heat on Wednesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers faced the Detroit Pistons for the third and final time this season. Thanks to a Malik Beasley offensive explosion Detroit was able to beat Philly 125-112 and pushing their losing streak to two games.

The Sixers had one of the worst first-half performances of the season against Detroit. They could not hit their shots, especially from the three-point line where they only made five threes through two quarters, and they were getting out hustled on both sides of the court. That allowed Detroit to create multiple opportunities to put points on the board and they did that.

Malik Beasley scored 20 of his 36 points in the first half and the Sixers had no answers for him throughout this game. He made sure their perimeter defense fell apart by moving without the ball and creating way too many wide-open shooting opportunities for him. Especially from the three-point line where he made nine/19 three pointers in this contest. Giving up that many three-pointers to one player is why the Sixers were down 34 points by half-time.

Philly’s inability to hit three-pointers, grab a rebound, and a bad defensive performance made them experience their third worse loss of the season. The Sixers are in too big a hole to play like they did in the first two quarters in Detroit. They were in too big a hole and even a dominant third quarter performance from Joel Embiid could not save them in this contest.  From now on they must come out and earn every victory and stop expecting other teams to just lay down for them, this is the NBA, and every win has to be earned.

Malik Beasley is one of the best shooters in the association and letting him have free reign to impose his will on the game tonight is inexcusable. There were multiple times during this contest where the Sixers defensive play left a lot to be desired. They lost Tobias Harris (22 points) multiple times, which resulted in at least two wide open dunks, that should never have happened if they communicated and did not over help on defense.

That poor first half performance was the biggest difference maker in this contest and the Sixers just could not overcome those mistakes. That erased a good debut by Quentin Grimes who scored 14 points in his Sixers debut and looked like he will be a huge defensive difference maker for them. With tonight’s performance he should be inserted into the starting lineup as the shooting guard or small forward because he brings so much to the table on both sides of the ball and gives them a consistent three-point shooter. The Sixers need all of the big-time defensive dogs they can get off the bench or in the starting line up.

The Sixers need to play Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George together as many times as they can. Throughout this contest it was apparent that the three of them have only played 11 games together and that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Their best chance at victory and making noise this season is that those three play together and work out the kinks. Once that happens there should be a better on-court product than what happened in tonight’s contest.

Philly now will prepare to face the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday afternoon, and they will have to communicate better and be in better defensive position if they hope to stop Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Additionally, they will have to limit their turnovers, force the Bucks to take contested shots, win or keep the rebounding battle competitive, and cash in on the high-percentage shooting opportunities created off their ball movement. Something they did not do enough of in tonight’s contest there was way too much pressing on the offensive side from Embiid and Maxey and it stifled good offensive possessions from the Sixers. They have to trust their teammates and move the ball to create better shots and those will start falling and make the Bucks work on the defensive side.

Implementing these things into their gameplan on Sunday afternoon should give Philly a great opportunity to win their 21^st game of the season, and to start building some more positive momentum heading into the All-Star Break.