Tyrese Maxey, Sixers discuss lack of effort in tough road loss to Wizards
The Philadelphia 76ers were looking to continue their winning ways on Monday when they paid a visit to the Washington Wizards and finish up a quick two-game road trip on a high note. It seemed that they were set up for a win considering they were coming off an impressive win in Miami.
However, they were a step slow all day in a 117-98 matinee loss to the Wizards on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday. The Sixers trailed by as many as 23 in the loss as things were just not going their way all day.
The Sixers shot just 40.7% from the floor and 7-for-26 from deep as they were continuing to get good looks, but they couldn’t convert on any of them.
“It was one of those days,” said Tyrese Maxey who had 18 points. “It’s the dog days of the NBA, but you gotta fight through that. We started out slow and it’s hard to come back when you start out slow.”
On the other side, the Wizards ended up shooting 48.3% from the floor and they were 9-for-30 from deep. Washington also took advantage of 12 turnovers from Philadelphia.
“Our offense is tied to our defense,” said Maxey. “When you’re turning the ball over and you miss certain shots and they get out and running, it’s hard to stop guys from making wide-open layups and making wide-open 3s. I think once we set our defense, we were pretty good actually, but it’s hard to set your defense when guys are up and running the whole time.”
Coach Doc Rivers was upset with his team as a whole on the defensive end. It wasn’t just the transition defense that bothered him, it was all of it.
“Everything,” Rivers added. “Transition D, post D, they killed us on cuts all night. We weren’t pulled in, our weakside D was poor, I just thought they beat us in every phase of the game tonight.”
The Sixers were obviously a step slow all afternoon and it caused them to take a loss. Washington had the advantage all evening long.
“They had 89 or something going into the fourth quarter,” said Rivers. “You gotta get stops. Everything was a step slow tonight. It happens. Nothing you can do about it.”
The Sixers even switched to a zone defense in the third quarter in order to try and get stops, but that wasn’t working either.
“I looked to Dan (Vurke) and I think there was three minutes left in the third and they had 82 so man clearly wasn’t doing the job,” Rivers added. “I thought the zone had its stuff, but they got every loose ball off that. We got a couple stops, they got the rebound, they got the steal. The shots we had were phenomenal. We had wide-open 3s tonight and we couldn’t make any. Not much you can do.”
The Sixers will look to bounce back on Wednesday when they return home to host the Orlando Magic.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
List
3 teams who should give the Sixers a call about a Ben Simmons deal
