What is the story about?
It turns out having 0 centers available is not a good thing.
The Sixers were blown out again, falling 131-109 to the Detroit Pistons Thursday night.
They are 35-31 and could be as low as the ninth seed in the East by the end of the night.
MarJon Beauchamp led the Sixers in scoring with 17 — it was that kind of night. He did it on 7-of-13 shooting. VJ Edgecombe couldn’t buy anything to fall, finishing 10 points shooting 3-of-14 from the floor along with four rebounds.
Cade Cunningham had just eight points
on six shots but dished out 13 assists. Duncan Robinson led all scorers with 19.
The Sixers were only without Tyrese Maxey (finger sprain), Joel Embiid (oblique strain), Paul George (suspension), Kelly Oubre Jr. (elbow strain), Adem Bona (back soreness), and Andre Drummond (back spasms). Other than that, everything’s great.
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- Perfect timing by the broadcast to say “it’s everyone’s favorite veteran: Tobias Harris!” just as he was getting a rebound ripped away from him by Justin Edwards. A few possessions later Edwards got poked in the eye because the Sixers had too many players available actually.
- Offensively the Sixers’ starting lineup was overmatched. Edgecombe’s first made field goal of the night was a putback just caused by his proximity. The first four runners he missed, as well as a pull-up three and layup in transition that rimmed out.
- Going fast did work somewhat well. Cam Payne threw a nice hit-ahead for Jabari Walker to get an open basket and Edwards stole an outlet pass for an easy dunk upon returning to the game. Payne’s three-point streak came to an end as he opened the game 1-of-3 from beyond the arc. The Pistons shot 56% from the field in the first thanks to 16 points in the paint. They scored on their last four possessions before Harris couldn’t get a heave off to get out to a nine-point lead.
Second Quarter
- Aside from the easy and-1 he gave to Isaiah Stewart not much of this was his fault, but the Sixers’ defense was horrendous in Kyle Lowry’s minutes. They gave up a quick 11-2 run to open the second. Even after they won a challenge to over turn a basket amidst that stretch, Payne immediately turned it over to put those points right back on the board.
- Not that their defense was a ton better in the other minutes though. It wasn’t a shock that Barlow was the only big with enough size and strength to hang with his matchup. He blocked one of Jalen Duran’s layups, but that was able to be scooped up and put back in. Barlow was also keeping the offense afloat at times, hitting a couple jumpers on top of his cuts.
- With Cunningham on the bench, Detroit’s shooters went cold for a moment, and the Sixers took advantage with a 9-0 run. They didn’t panic when the Pistons got two easy baskets out of their timeout either. Beauchamp had quality two-way minutes, putting up 10 points in the half. Edwards continued to be a pest, nabbing another backcourt steal and poking away another a few possessions later.
- Grimes getting a layup swatted though gave the Pistons a fast break of their own, ending with an and-1 for Harris. Edgecombe’s rough half continued as he just dropped a pass right to him. Paul Reed hit a reverse layup right before the buzzer to keep the Pistons lead at nine.
Third Quarter
- No matter how banged up the group is, these Sixers are doomed in the third quarter. They gave up another run coming out of the half, with just a Quentin Grimes three scored over the first three and a half minutes. Both Grimes and Edgecombe lost bad turnovers and the Pistons wasted no time running the lead back up again.
- The best part of Egdecombe’s night was the couple shots he got his hands on, though he was only credited for one block. As a team the Sixers didn’t have an answer for Cunningham’s pick-and-rolls. Their overhelping made it easy to move the ball around the paint once he was able to get to the paint and kick it out.
- Dalen Terry made a nice behind-the-back dribble before finishing the layup over a defender. That was quite literally the only good thing to happen for the Sixers over the last half of the quarter. Nick Nurse also won his second challenge of the night. The Pistons took a 23-point lead into the fourth.
Fourth Quarter
- Well, Edgecombe at least got a traditional basket to fall when he got to the rim for a layup and put back an airball a few possessions later. He was only at 25 minutes before the quarter started so him coming back for a few more minutes of reps was not egregious.
- Just for reference how bad the Sixers have been since the trade deadline, they are the seventh worst team per cleaning the glass’s points scored minus points allowed per 100 possessions. Only the Bulls, Kings, Mavericks, Nets, Pacers, and Wizards have been worse.
