Sixers stunned by Mavericks
Where exactly did it go wrong for the Sixers tonight as they blew a 14-point halftime lead to the Dallas Mavericks
Sixers stunned by Mavericks
Bob Cooney
At halftime of Friday's Sixers-Mavericks game, Sixers CEO Adam Aron asked me if I could believe his team was winning by 14 points. I told him it was impressive. He then wearily asked me what I thought might happen in the second half. I say wearily because Aron knows me as a realist, not a cheerleader for his team.
I said one of two things could happen. Either the Mavericks come out in the second half and miss shots the way they did in the first and, without bench spark Jason Terry (our for personal reasons), the Mavericks could lose interest. Aron liked that answer.
Then I said that Dirk Nowitzki is going to hit shots (he was 2-for-11 at the half). How many he hit could be a big factor. That didn't please Aron. Nor did the final outcome of the game.
Nowitzki scored 24 points in the second half - the same number as the Sixers - and the Mavericks rode that to an 82-75 win that improved them to 20-11 and gave the Sixers their second loss in a row, also dropping their record to 20-11.
Where did it all go wrong? Well there were plenty of areas, first and foremost Nowitzki. In a 24-8 third quarter blitz by the Mavs, Nowitzki scored half his teams points, missing just one of his six shots, making two three-pointers and repeatedly draining his patented fade-way, one-footed, turnaround jump shot. All he did after that impressive third quarter stint was duplicate it in the fourth.
Perhaps enamored with Nowitzki's outside game, the Sixers decided that was how they were going to conduct business at the offensive end. Problem was, they couldn't hit any shots, making just 4-0f-20. It appeared as if there was an electric fence around the lane and the Sixers were wearing shocking collars because they never ventured there, instead relying solely on mostly mid-range jump shots.
And when you consider that they got only 29 points of offense from their starters, including 0-for-12 shooting from their starting backcourt of Jrue Holiday (0-for-9) and Jodie Meeks, the puzzle of this loss starts to come together a bit.
"It was a tale of two halves to say the least," said coach Doug Collins. "The first half we were active, in the open court, moving the ball, then the second half we started missing shots and I really thought we got discouraged. We got in the halfcourt and we couldn't create anything. That's a very good defensive team. I thought we missed a lot of shots that we normally make. We could never get anything offensively generated."
Many Sixer fans will point to the fact that in that decisive third quarter Dallas had a star to go to, knowing he alone could bring the Mavericks back in the game. And when that happened, the Sixers don't have that type of player to answer. That fact is known, but that's the way this team is currently built. What was most revealing was how no one appeared to even try to turn things around in the third. There were few, if any, hard drives to the basket in an attempt to get to the foul line, get a couple easy points and temporarily slow down the Dallas onslaught. Instead there appeared to be hesitency. Of the 20 shots taken, each of the nine by the starters missed.
"They forced us to take a lot of jump shots and not use our strengths," said Thaddeus Young, who scored 14 points before fouling out. "They got off and started making big shots, especially Dirk.
"We stop attacking the basket. If we keep attacking the basket like we've been doing in the past I think we'll stop these droughts. But I think that we've been sitting back and taking a few more jump shots than going to the basket. We've just got to go out there and continue to do the things that got us the lead in the first place."
Rookie Nikola Vucevic scored a career-high 16 points to lead the Sixers, while Lou Williams added 12 and Andre Iguodala 10.
It was the second-straight poor outing for Holiday, who finished with three points and just two assists. That followed a five-turnover and 1-of-8 shooting performance for him in Orlando on Wednesday. He is clearly struggling. When asked about his point guard's game, Collins replied: "Gotta keep fighting, man. It's a tough business. Tough business."
It only gets tougher as the team will fly to Minnesota on Saturday afternoon after a brief workout then face the Timberwolves on Sunday. They'll then face Memphis on Tuesday and Houston on Wednesday before heading to the All-Star break. After that they'll return to action on Tuesday in Detroit before hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder the next night.
Sixer's have won 8 and lost 9 without their center.— franova- This team will never win anything with the starting back-court they have. Holiday would be coming off the bench on good teams and so would Meeks. I like Brand as a person, but his best days are behind him.The Sixers weaknesses are now being exposed and they are simply an average team. Can someone please tell me exactly what "Rod Thorn" does? Doesn't appear that he's earning one cent of his salary. Perhaps it's time to put him out to pasture as well.— Xavier19
- Holiday was awful. I don't even want to look at the final box but I would bet he scored little. I don't know why he was so tentative but when the point guard plays like he is afraid to go to the rim then I see problems.— rockinrob
- ChuckW, there's not much they can do in season. We just need to enjoy the improved play, keep our expectations realistic (i.e.-They're not going to the Finals) and wait for the offseason. They get Brand's money off the books and, hopefully, rid themselves of the notion that Iguodala is some sort of lock down defender and trade him while his value is as high as it will ever be. Get a couple big boys down low and a real 2 guard, either an improved Turner or someone else and roll from there.— JB1204
- Sixers actually embarrassed themselves last night. What a pathetic second half. It only goes to show you how badly they need a consistent scorer. You could tell from the launch point that the shot wasn't going to go in the basket.— The Marco Islander
- Why so few minutes (always) for Vucevic when he is obviously productive and gives us size ?? Beyond me. Maybe try starting Turner at 1 and moving holiday to 2— 7mel11
- Early on the starters were playing fair. Bench comes in – On Fire (Iggy out during best part of the run). We get a pretty big lead – up by 14, and DC starts to change the line up and reinsert the starters (too soon). Next, sloppy Iggy (point guard?) dribble and… all of a sudden a slower offensive pace for us. Vucevic gets pulled out (was playing great), jerky substations in general follow....next thing you know Dallas starts to make a run, and shortly after all the starters are in and we are tumbling downhill quickly. The starters always start the 3rd quarter, and by the time the bench is leaked in (they’re a little cold from sitting), the game is almost out of reach. Blah, blah, ugly ending. Bench ALL pluses in box score, Starters All minuses. The players that are in during the biggest run/s should be rewarded with playing time (maybe fast when the other team is making a run). I think we could have had a 25 point lead if the bench was kept on the floor longer. And if we played smart – the game was ours for the taking. It just seemed like we gave the game away. Looks like this is the trend against the better teams.— HJN
- JB1204: you win! Given the lack of practice time, the Sixers may have little choice but to stay the course, although DC could tinker with the lineup. As for Iguodala, I don't get the sense that Collins, a defensive-minded coach, would sign off on moving him; more likely, Turner goes.— chuckw
- I keep hearing about this shooting drought from our guards last night.
Hello its been all season.
Lou Williams .415 J.Holiday .414 J.Meeks .421 and E.T is the best .445.
Hubie Brown said it all on ESPN they are a very undisciplined team in seveal areas including shot selection and going to the rack to draw fouls. Doug Collins has lost this team as far as shooting goes and making them go to the hoop.— ALO - I keep hearing about this shooting drought from our guards last night.Hello its been all season.Lou Williams .415 J.Holiday .414 J.Meeks .421 and E.T is the best .445.Hubie Brown said it all on ESPN they are a very undisciplined team in seveal areas including shot selection and going to the rack to draw fouls. Doug Collins has lost this team as far as shooting goes and making them go to the hoop. (HTML deleted)— ALO
- ALO, do you watch one game a season?...Only ONE guard in the NBA shoots over 50% on his FG attempts, and that's Mario Chalmers of the Heat, who is also shooting a mind boggling 47% from beyond the arc....And concerning last night's combined 6-28 shooting from the 4 guards, if they did shoot to their season averages, they RUN away with that game...Funny thing about Hubie, if the makeable shots fell, I don't think those words come out of his mouth, do you? — bearsfriend
- Sixers walked off to a great 1st half ovation-prob espn included-mavs could not hit anything.Start of 2nd half maybe slow and smug while mavs
came out fast-Mavs coach must have had some nice words at halftime--still a winnable game in the 4th-Just one loss but very telling-They looked lost in the 3 qt.
J.Holiday , J.Meeks , E.T ,ETC -just young players still learning-against seasoned pros.J Kidd was a corvette and Jrue was a VW last night and should learn from it.
All in all -just enjoy this team.
— HO HUM - bearsfriend: just chimed in on the other thread; did not realize what was going on there. Thanks for the heads up.— chuckw
- Good Job...it was Errol Flynnlike! — bearsfriend
- Tough loss last night. Sixers went ice cold. we don't have one go to guy, but the beauty of this team is that someone usually has it going on. They were sloppy in the second half and when they weren't turning it over, they were just plain missing. The selection wasn't terrible- they just didn't drop. It's only one game. Time to move on.— incog69
Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for more than 20 years, working in the sports department for the past 15. This is his third season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he was the La Salle beat writer for six seasons. E-mail Bob at cooneyb@phillynews.com and follow him on Twitter.
