PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers took their first loss of the season on Sunday as they fell to the Detroit Pistons 106-93.The Sixers were unable to overcome the absence of Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe, and Jabari Walker in this one, but the Pistons were short-handed as well as they were missing All-Star big man Jalen Duren as well as elite defensive stopper Ausar Thompson.
LeBron James returned from a 1-game absence and had 18 points and five assists for the Sixers while Tyrese Maxey had 29 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Jaylen Brown added 16 points, Dean Wade added seven and five rebounds, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had seven points, Adem Bona had six points, 13 rebounds, and three blocks off the bench.
Here are the three biggest
takeaways from the loss:
The loss came down to the little things
Of course, the Sixers are missing some key pieces when it comes to the rebounding struggles as Embiid, Walker, Dominick Barlow, and Tacko Fall are all sidelined. Any one of those four would help Philadelphia overcome a 54-37 rebounding deficit as the Pistons overwhelmed the Sixers on the glass a bit. Another big issue was free-throw shooting as the Sixers shot just 14-for-23 from the line. Brown shot just 4-for-8 from the line while James was just 2-for-6, and Maxey missed a critical free throw when Philadelphia was on the comeback trail.
"I think, obviously, that never helps," coach Nick Nurse said of the free throw struggles. "But I think the rebounding was a huge factor. I think we executed offensively very well for stretches of the game. But we got off to a really slow start. That could probably – pin it on that. I thought we fought really, really hard from there. Once we started getting into the game, we fought really hard, but it just wasn't very pretty on three-point shooting, free-throw shooting and offensive execution."
Brown has a tough night
One has to give a ton of credit to Pistons wing Ron Holland II who hopped off the bench and made life miserable for Brown in this one. The star forward shot just 5-for-20 and was 2-for-6 from deep. He also committed five fouls and was just unable to convert on the looks. One has to wonder if that's just basketball as the game can be as simple as make or miss at times, or if Brown could have worked to find himself better looks within the offensive ecosystem.
"I’ve got to look at it a little bit," acknowledged Nurse. "I think that – I think I talked about this the other night: I think when it comes out to him, I think there's some more vault-up-and-shoot threes. He obviously had a lot of traffic in there tonight. And I think he got to some good spots down there and just didn’t get them in there. A number of close-up finishes that normally would go. But I thought he was in a lot of traffic tonight."
Philon a bright spot
On a night when not much went right for the Sixers, it was good to see rookie Labaron Philon Jr. break through on the offensive end. The rookie put in his first bucket on a transition opportunity and then knocked down a big 3 in the fourth quarter when the game was still in the balance. There were a few mistakes he made as he continues his growth and development in the league, but Philon turned out to be a bright spot for Nurse after the loss to the Pistons.
"Really, really positive," Nurse stated. "Another good positive. I thought again, kind of what I said. He's scrapping. He's battling. I think he did an excellent job in his stretches of kind of making sure we were pretty organized on offense. And then again, just like I talked about, he's probably going to get some kickout shots. And he was able to stick one of them, which was a pretty big basket."
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: 3 biggest takeaways for Sixers following loss to Pistons at home
