Nick Nurse addresses what went wrong as Sixers fall to Nets at home
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers returned home on Saturday following a 1-4 road trip looking to stay on the winning path. The Sixers were able to end the trip with a win over the Utah Jazz and were looking to build off that.
Taking on the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday, things did not go as planned for the Sixers. Still playing without Joel Embiid, he was joined on the sidelines by Tobias Harris who is dealing with an illness. Philadelphia fell to the Nets on Saturday 136-121 and trailed by as many as 30.
The Nets out-rebounded the Sixers 53-44 as Paul Reed and Mo Bamba combined for 10 rebounds. In comparison, Nets big man Nic Claxton grabbed 15 rebounds by himself.
“First of all it’s it’s a tough one, obviously,” coach Nick Nurse said after the loss. “It’s always hard coming back off the trip. That first game back is always difficult and we didn’t just seem to have much much juice or life or anything. Certainly didn’t execute some of the stuff we wanted to defensively, right?”
The Nets shot 51 3-pointers on the night compared to just 29 for Philadelphia. The Sixers were unable to defend the 3-point line nor run the Nets off of it. It was an overall tough night combined with the ineffectiveness of Reed and Bamba on a night the Sixers needed more out of them with Embiid out.
“Paul was a little under the weather tonight,” Nurse revealed. “So we were trying to try to limit his minutes. Then Mo got in there and got a little banged up. So it was a tough manpower night. I mean, still don’t like to use any excuses about about anything. We still should’ve tried to play a little better, especially at the defensive end, and get up and guard the 3-point line better which is—obviously gave up way too many open ones.”
The Sixers have got to recover as they now try and move forward without Embiid. They have lost five of their last six games and with the big fella likely out for a period of time, they will need better performances than the one they had on Saturday.
