Sixers upset with defense in 4th quarter in loss to Bucks at home
PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers were locked in an important battle with the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday at home as they were looking to earn the tiebreaker in the standings and move up a bit in the East. They had a chance in the fourth quarter, but their defense let them down.
The Bucks scored 37 points in the fourth quarter all while shooting 72.2% and 4-for-7 from deep on their way to a 118-116 win. The Sixers did not offer much resistance as they were scrambling and they had a tough time picking up their matchups.
“We had a couple mistakes defensively and they made us pay for it,” said James Harden. “It seemed like they hit 3 after 3 after 3 off our mistakes. It was nothing they did. Things we could’ve corrected, things we could’ve controlled. They got 37 points in that fourth quarter. Defending champs? Can’t allow that to happen.”
For coach Doc Rivers, it happened even before the fourth. The Bucks got into their offense quicker as they got Brook Lopez going. The burly big man had 11 quick points for Milwaukee to get them going on the offensive end. Giannis Antetokounmpo then scored 13 straight of his own at the end of the third and leading into the fourth.
“I actually thought the first three minutes of the third, it almost felt like the Phoenix game again,” said Rivers. “They come out, Lopez gets 11 straight from our helps, we didn’t score for a while. Then we got it going again. I thought the end of the third, I thought those were the two stretches.”
The Sixers just had a tough time executing on the defensive end and that’s what ultimately led to this loss on Tuesday.
“A few execution things on both ends of the floor, offensively, defensively,” said Tobias Harris. “Mainly in that fourth quarter, we had a couple lapses there that kinda led to open looks for them and good looks that they converted on.”
The Sixers did get good looks on the offensive end as well, but they couldn’t convert to keep up with the red-hot Bucks.
“Fourth quarter, overall, I liked our shots,” said Rivers. “Georges (Niang), Tobias, Tyrese (Maxey) didn’t get much involved, I thought we could’ve got him more involved, but when you look at the wide-open shots we had, you can’t argue with those shots. We’ll take those on most nights. We just didn’t make many of them tonight and they made some.”
Philadelphia did shoot 5-for-12 from deep in the fourth and 42.3%, but on top of the Bucks being able to convert on a lot of their looks, they also made 7-for-11 from the line and that helped Milwaukee get it done as well.
“A few of those shots go down, we win that game,” said Harris. “We still had a good chance to tie it up at the end, maybe to win it, but overall, we just gotta focus on a few things on the defensive end to really get stops in crunch time.”
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