For three quarters, the Sixers traded baskets with the Los Angeles Lakers at the Wells Fargo Center Friday night. The Sixers were one three-pointer away from their season best and were burying shots at a nearly a 50 percent clip.
And in the Sixers’ 112-98 loss, that was a problem (see Instant Replay).
“We were scoring and that’s where we get in trouble,” Spencer Hawes, who led the Sixers with 11 rebounds, said. “Especially with these teams from the Western Conference. They trick you into making it a scoring match and as we’ve seen, that hasn’t bode well for us.”
If it was a trick, the Sixers fell for it hard. After three quarters of trading buckets, the Sixers fell apart in the fourth quarter, shooting 4 for 19, including eight straight misses to go with six turnovers. The team’s starters went 2 for 11 in the final quarter, including 2 for 6 on free throws.
How bad was it for the Sixers during the fourth quarter of Friday’s loss? Though they made three three-pointers on eight attempts, the Sixers went 1 for 11 from every other spot on the floor. That includes 1 for 9 in the paint.
In fact, if a shot wasn’t taken beyond the three-point line or in the paint, the Sixers had no chance. Of the Sixers' 37 field goals, only one was on a long two-pointer where they shot 1 for 10.
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What happened?
“I thought we got some good looks in the second half,” Michael Carter-Williams, who led the Sixers with seven assists, four turnovers and eight missed shots, said. “We forced some shots and we got the looks, we just didn’t make the shots.”
Coach Brett Brown agrees with Carter-Williams’ assessment. The Sixers missed a lot of good shots and they set a franchise record with 15 three-pointers and got half of their shots in the paint.
But the Sixers committed 23 turnovers -- 15 in the second half -- and that was too many.
“It goes back to turnovers,” Brown said. "I think it’s all the same ecosystem and it’s connected in some way. I feel like we put ourselves in such a predicament when you out-rebound them 50 to 40 and you shoot like we did from the three-point line. A few of our key players, no doubt, we’re down, but I think when you just go up and down the floor and turn it over at this rate, it’s hard at times to get back on defense. I think it gets deflating and I think it had a carryover into our performance.”
Hawes, who scored 14 of his 15 points in the first half, saw the Sixers’ energy disappear.
“I don't think we moved the ball the same way,” Hawes said. “In the first half everyone had the same mindset in that they might have had a good shot, but the pass after that might be a better shot and the pass after that might be the easiest one of all.”
Given the opening in the fourth quarter, the Lakers, led by birthday boy Steve Nash, took advantage.
Nash scored a game-high 19 points with five assists on his 40th birthday, becoming the first 40-year old to score 19 points in a game since Karl Malone did it on April 1, 2004. Nash took a game-high 15 shots, going 6 for 11 on shots longer than 13 feet and 6 for 9 on long two-pointers.
Nash also helped to continue the education of Sixers point guard Carter-Williams, who had his hands full with the aging superstar.
That part surprised Brown quite a bit.
“I thought I was going to see a physical letup and I really didn't,” Brown said about Nash’s performance. “I thought our young guys and our long guys would get into him and bother him and they didn't. I just see a poised, prideful point guard who takes immaculate care of his body and understands game tempo.”
Meanwhile, the Sixers dropped their seventh straight game at home, which is the longest home losing streak since the 1996-97 club dropped 12 straight at the Spectrum.
And it’s not going to get any easier for the 15-36 Sixers as they hit the road for the three games leading into the All-Star break. The Sixers face the Clippers on Sunday before going to Oakland to face the Warriors next Monday and Utah on Wednesday.
The next chance the Sixers have to end the home losing streak is Feb. 18 against Cleveland.