Turner loses his cool

DALLAS – Evan Turner felt like he had to say something.

You could see the 76ers swingman's frustration mounting in Monday's 97-94 setback to the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center.

"I saw two of my teammates get their lips split," he said of voicing displeasure to a referee before having an outburst with 2 minutes, 54 seconds left."Obviously, frustration boils over and to a certain extent, you can only take so much and I lost my cool."

Turner was called for a technical foul with his team trailing, 93-87. Dirk Nowitzki made a technical foul to give the Mavs (7-4) a seven-point cushion. Then after a Nowitzki steal, Shawn Marion's reverse dunk gave Dallas a commanding 96-87 lead with 2:13 left.

"I probably shouldn't have done that," said Turner, who finished with a game-high 26 points. "But I see Brandon [Davies] get his lip split. I see Tony [Wroten] get his lip split, and I see [the Mavs] just get blown on and there is a foul called.

"I lost my cool. That's my fault and it wasn't worth it. As a leader of the team, I shouldn't have done that to my team."

The Sixers (5-7) have lost three straight games and seven of their last nine.

- Keith Pompey

Follow Inquirer 76ers beat writer Keith Pompey on Twitter @PompeyOnSixers