3 biggest takeaways for Sixers following home loss to Pistons
· Yahoo Sports
PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers fell to the Detroit Pistons 116-93 on Saturday as they were swept in the 4-game season series. The Sixers trailed by as many as 26 and only led by two in this game as the Pistons handled business and clinched the No. 1 seed in the East heading into the playoffs.
The Sixers received 20 points and five rebounds from Paul George while Tyrese Maxey had 23 points and VJ Edgecombe had 19 points and six rebounds. Adem Bona added 10 points and four rebounds off the bench.
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Here are the three biggest takeaways following the loss to the Pistons:
Poor defense in the first half
It was an overall tough defensive night for the Sixers, but the Pistons dissected them a lot in the first half. Detroit is not a great 3-point shooting team and it relies a lot on cutting and moving without the basketball to set up its offense. Detroit was able to get some easy buckets led by Ausar Thompson on the baseline while Daniss Jenkins drove the paint and found Jalen Duren for easy lobs for dunks. Then, Tobias Harris was able to get going on the offensive end as he led Detroit with 19 points on the night. The Pistons scored 71 points in the first half and shot 61.4% from the floor and 6-for-13 from deep.
"We did a really, really poor job of handling their cutting," coach Nick Nurse explained. "I think the first six baskets of the game were either right at the rim. I think Tobias made their first non-lay up about seven baskets in that was a wide-open 10-footer along the baseline. Just they cut us. The back screened us. We missed a switch. We let the roller get behind twice. We came up from the corner and helped uphill and it back cut us from the corner once. I think all of them. Was just really bad on the cutting."
Poor offense in the second half
The problem for the Sixers in the first half of this one was their defense, but in the second half, it was their offense. Philadelphia had seven turnovers in the third quarter leading to nine Pistons points--something Detroit fuels on--and then only scored 12 points in the fourth quarter. The Sixers were held to two points in the fourth until the 5:11 mark of the fourth. It was just stout defense from Detroit and the Sixers didn't have an answer as they shot just 25% in the fourth and 0-for-6 from deep.
"We did OK in the first half," said Nurse. "I thought we had a really shaky start defensively in the game. First quarter was pretty rough, but we didn't turn it over in the first half and we did a lot in the second and that really fueled all their runs was turnovers back to baskets, and we just didn't—we got stripped a lot. We picked up our dribble a lot and didn't cut to get free enough and we turned it over 10 times in the second half. So that's a lot."
George on a back-to-back
This was the first time that George was able to play in a back-to-back all season and he played well. He had 20 points on 7-for-14 shooting and he knocked down three triples in 28 minutes. He scored 18 of those points in the first half as he started off fast, but was unable to build off that as Detroit took control of the game and moved forward with the season sweep of the Sixers. With that said, it's something Philadelphia can build on as time moves on.
"I think he was excellent to start the game, for sure," Nurse stated. "Excellent in the first half. I thought he did his thing pretty good for minutes tonight, 28? That's probably keeping him in a pretty good range on a back-to-back. I thought he was pretty good."
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: 3 biggest takeaways for Sixers following home loss to Pistons