By: Kylan Watson

After beating the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday night, the Philadelphia 76ers faced the Chicago Bulls in the front end of their second back-to-back of the season. Philly dominated much of this game, but a badly played third quarter and a late game power outage in the fourth quarter helped Chicago overcome a 24-point deficit to win this game 113-111.

The Sixers found their offensive rhythm early in this game as Tyrese Maxey found his stroke early and often in this contest. He scored 39 points and made 6 three-pointers in this game. Maxey has continued to flourish throughout the seven games Philly has played so far this season. He is becoming dynamic on all sides of the court, and he continues to make strides in his playmaking abilities. Throughout this game he had the answer every time the Bulls tried to make a run in this contest, but he showed tired legs as he played 39 minutes throughout this game. Philly needs to find another person who can run the offense so that Maxey does not suffer tired legs which is what happened later in this contest. He is a dynamic player, but they cannot continue to play him 40 minutes a night and expect it not to show throughout a 48-minute game. Nick Nurse must figure the rotations out to make sure this does not happen because it will cost Sixers winnable games like it did tonight.

Credit to the Bulls who had every reason to give up on this game as the Sixers dominated them throughout it, but they did not quit and used a third and fourth quarter scoring explosion to earn a comeback victory over the Sixers. Josh Giddey (29 points) and Nikola Vucevic (19 points) combined for 48 of Chicago’s 113 points and they got whatever they wanted from the field. Giddey took full advantage of the fact that Philly had no one available who could check him in this contest. He was able to attack the basket and when they got the ball out of his hands, he found one of his teammates for a high-percentage shot. For example, late in this game Giddey found Vucevic in the corner for the game winning three-pointer that beat Philly in this contest.

It is a make or miss league and the Sixers spent the last four minutes and change of this contest missing shots and not being aggressive. Multiple times during the fourth quarter the role players were deferring to Maxey and Joel Embiid (20 points) when neither one had it late in the game. They traded ball movement for Maxey and Embiid iso ball and that is not Sixers basketball this season, their offense is built on creating the best shot. Using ball movement would have helped Philly get a statement victory over the Bulls instead of blowing a 24-point lead and losing this game.

Philly now gets a rare chance to redeem themselves and another chance at a statement victory as they face the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers should have most of their weapons available in tomorrow’s game, Philly will need to stay connected to their man and use ball movement to create high-percentage shooting opportunities. They cannot settle for bad shots or play iso ball against the Cavs’ aggressive defense or they will lose tomorrow night. Matching the Cavaliers’ energy will be crucial and if they can do these things, Philly will be in great position to win their sixth game tomorrow night.