NEW YORK — The Sixers failed to end their first three-game winning streak since late January.
Despite leading by 14 points, they suffered a 112-107 loss Tuesday night against the Nets at Barclays Center.
Kelly Oubre Jr. (30 points, six rebounds, four assists) and Tobias Harris (18 points, nine rebounds, four assists) were the team’s top producers.
Dorian Finney-Smith and Dennis Schröder scored 20 points each for the Nets, who improved to 25-37.
Sixers Stars Tyrese Maxey (mild concussion) And Joel Embiid (left knee meniscus surgery) were each ostracized. De’Anthony Melton (lumbar bone stress) and Robert Covington (left knee bone bruise) also remained out.
Brooklyn was missing Cam Thomas, Ben Simmons, Day’Ron Sharpe and Dariq Whitehead. Cam Johnson suffered a sprained right ankle in the second quarter and did not return.
The 35-26 Sixers will finish their back-to-back with a Wednesday night matchup against the Grizzlies at the Wells Fargo Center. Here are observations from their loss to the Nets:
Lowry helps guide the Sixers to a hot start
The Sixers started the night with a unit consisting of Kyle Lowry, Cameron Payne, Buddy Hield, Harris and Mo Bamba.
In his third consecutive start, Bamba started brilliantly. He scored the Sixers’ first basket on a jump hook over Nic Claxton and their third on a layup.
“We’ve been playing very similar teams recently… where their tallest center starts or the one closest to the rim, and then they come in with a smaller (center),” the Washington head coach said. Sixers, Nick Nurse, before the game. “The replacement is a small ball guy or a little smaller version. That’s part of why we started doing it, and it just happens to be the third game in a row where we’re probably going to look the same.
Nurse did indeed use Paul Reed when the Nets shifted to five small-ball options. Bamba’s level of play declined and he only played 12 minutes. KJ Martin and Harris handled the center minutes in the fourth quarter before Reed returned with just over three minutes left.
Claxton was clearly the best big man of the night, with 17 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks, and the Sixers continued to sorely miss Embiid. They are 6-9 overall since his knee injury.
Payne’s first stint in each half was very short – just under three minutes. He estimated he was at “75, 80” percent healthy, but Payne wanted to “fight” the illness that was preventing him from entering the world. Sixers victory Sunday against the Mavs.
He was able to play 23 minutes and scored 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
“Go as hard as you can, then come out and tell them when I’m ready again,” he said. “That’s the conversation we had and we executed it during the game.”
Starting guards Payne, Lowry and Hield all hit three-pointers early. With Lowry running the offense, the Sixers jumped out to a 13-5 advantage and opened 7-for-8 from the floor.
While Lowry has plenty of smart tools, his excellent fundamentals are a big reason why he’s still starting NBA games at almost 38 years old. He’s always looking up, eager to throw the ball ahead and looking for windows to exploit against a slightly sleepy defense.
Dowtin makes his debut
The Sixers were strong to close the first quarter, raising their defensive level considerably. Nicolas Batum blocked a Trendon Watford three-point attempt on the Nets’ final possession of the period.
Martin checked in to start the second quarter and Jeff Dowtin Jr. It didn’t take long to join him.
While it’s rare for a recent two-way contract signing to debut outside of trash time, Dowtin is relatively experienced for a player at the position. He’s a 26-year-old guard who has been a reliable, low-turnover player in the G League and impressed Nurse with his defense last season with the Raptors.
“I’m just going to seize every moment, take every opportunity I can,” Dowtin said Tuesday morning before the Sixers shootaround. “Every day, come here, get ready to work and just be myself. I’m excited for that, and I’m excited to be with Coach Nurse again and just be who I am.
Dowtin’s on-ball defense played well Tuesday during his six minutes in the second quarter. However, he didn’t add much offensively. Dowtin took no shots, recorded an assist and a turnover and, unsurprisingly, seemed to be getting up to speed with his new teammates. The Nets ended up beating the Sixers by six points with Dowtin on the floor.
“At that point in the game, we weren’t sure what Cam was going to get because he played those three minutes and said he needed a sub,” Nurse said. “It was time to get Jeff’s feet a little wet, just in case Cam wasn’t able to play much tonight. … We were trying to make sure, just in case we were down to one (backup) point guard, that Jeff already had some minutes under his belt.
The Sixers lost their structure and composure late in the second quarter, often spacing the court poorly and making strange decisions.
Lowry committed his third personal foul with 1:46 left in the second half on a three-point attempt by Schröder. Schröder and Lowry then had a heated conversation after the whistle and both were penalized with technical fouls. A three from Schröder eventually gave the Nets a 53-52 lead.
The only two available Sixers who did not play Tuesday were rookies Ricky Council IV and Terquavion Smith. Nurse favored Martin over Council in the last two games, removing Council from the Sixers’ rotation after 12 consecutive appearances.
Generally speaking, Council’s physicality, maturity, and poor draw are some of the qualities that make it seem like he still deserves rotation chances for this shorthanded Sixers team.
Too many late errors
The Nets looked poised to take a double-digit lead early in the third quarter. Lowry committed his fourth foul, Finney-Smith drilled a wide-open pick-and-pop and a visibly irritated Nurse called a timeout.
Lowry’s two triples in the third quarter helped keep the Sixers in a manageable situation. Payne’s shot also spurred the Sixers late in the third period and Oubre threw down an explosive dunk on their final possession of the quarter.
In addition to exceeding 20 points for a second consecutive outing, Oubre again distributed four assists this season. He drove exceptionally hard, didn’t settle for many contested jumps, and read the play well.
“That’s what playmakers are,” he said. “They can create clichés for themselves and for others. If I create plans for myself at a high rate, people will start helping me and I will have open teammates.
Once again, the Sixers struggled to put Brooklyn away in the fourth quarter. The Nets responded to a 92-84 hole with an 11-0 run that featured a missed layup by Hield and excessive fouling by the Sixers. Lowry and Harris botched a simple perimeter exchange, leading to a steal and slam by Dennis Smith Jr.. Those kinds of mistakes obviously sting a lot more without healthy All-Stars.
Harris knocked down two big, tough mid-range jumpers, but the Sixers were unable to play adequate on-ball defense, protect the rim or get any telling stops. A Finney-Smith threesome increased Brooklyn’s lead to 106-100 and virtually iced the game for the Nets.
“We can’t make that many glaring mistakes — those were big mistakes that we made — if you want to win a game like this,” Nurse said. “We gave ourselves a chance. If we don’t make some of these (mistakes), it’ll probably play out in the last shot or something.
“But we played well enough at times to even take control of it, and we just couldn’t hang on tonight.”
