Doc Rivers, Sixers upset with 2nd half effort despite win over Pacers
The Philadelphia 76ers were cruising on Tuesday night against the rebuilding Indiana Pacers. They were knocking down 3-pointers like they were layups on their way to a 27-point lead. It seemed as if this would be an easy night for the heavy lifters in the second half.
However, the Sixers ran into some familiar issues as the Pacers rallied to make it a 4-point game in the fourth quarter. Joel Embiid was able to come back in and restore order on their way to a 131-122 win, but the Sixers were not happy with their play in the second half.
The Sixers knocked down a franchise-record 23 triples, but 17 of them came in the first half. Tyrese Maxey had eight triples on the night and Tobias Harris knocked down five and this should have been an easy night for the Sixers and an opportunity to rest their stars.
Doc Rivers
“The first half was phenomenal, obviously and I didn’t like how he played the second half, obviously. You could tell we just kind of played with the game which is dangerous. We let them cut it all the way to three I think that was just like a focus. It shows at times how explosive we can be and we were. The ball was just hopping, moving everybody got open shots. Joel was dominant. Tyrese made wide-open shots and phenomenal. Tobias, I thought Tobias was really good tonight. Not just his points, but he did so many little things defensively and then I thought Shake (Milton) was really good tonight. So I was happy with that.”
Joel Embiid
“We played great, but we got to finish. We gotta learn how to finish. There’s no reason why the starters should have played in the fourth. I feel like coming from halftime, we didn’t keep our foot on the gas and try to extend the lead to make sure that we don’t play in the fourth so those are the next steps.”
Tobias Harris
“It’s always great to get a win, but we know we have to be better in the second half. The first half was pretty much a full display of how we need to play and the energy we need to play with on the offensive end. The first quarter defense, and even the first half, our defense wasn’t the greatest. We gave up I think like 59 points or something, but offensively that was how we needed to roll. I thought in the second half, we kind of took our foot off the gas, was allowing them to score will and offensively, I didn’t think we got enough of what was really rolling for us. All in all, it’s a good win, but we know we have to be better out there on that floor for us to get to the level that we want to get to.”
More Harris
“I didn’t think we were getting enough stops to really push the pace. Outside of that, I thought that we turned the ball over a little bit too much in some of those spurts, and then I just didn’t think we executed as well as we were in the first half. In the first half, we were getting to the second option, third option, and picking their defense apart. In the second half, we kind of got away from that.”
Tyrese Maxey
“Not playing the score. In those games like that, you put it away third quarter, and you rest. We got a little sloppy, turned the ball over a little bit, myself included, and then DJ (DeAndre Jordan) said something that was very, very important today, we go on scoring droughts, that’s human, but if we’re going to go on scoring droughts, then we got to make sure that they’re not scoring and they kind of hit home and that made a lot of sense.
He said that like third quarter, late third quarter around like I don’t know, maybe late third, early fourth. I can’t really remember, but it was just a vital point in the game. I think we didn’t score two possessions straight and they scored two possessions straight.”
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