PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers had a difficult evening on Friday as they fell to the New Orleans Pelicans 103-95. They fell behind by as many as 35 points and trailed 36-15 after the first quarter. It was a difficult evening for everyone.
Paul Reed, who came off the bench and had 17 points and 11 rebounds, was a key factor in Philadelphia getting things back in the second half. Reed and the Sixers cut the lead to just six points with 1:24 left, but the Pelicans got the job done late.
After the loss, Reed was asked what the keys were to bottling up the second half effort and carrying it on with them. He had an interesting answer to the question.
“Just knowing that, you know, the refs are going to be the refs and we’re going to have to beat them too, you know? Reed said. “So we should already expect that. »
Now, the officiating wasn’t the reason the Sixers lost by 35. Philadelphia’s offensive execution was poor and they couldn’t bring down any open looks early.
However, there was a critical call in the fourth quarter that went in New Orleans’ favor when it appeared Herb Jones had gone out of bounds before throwing it to Cam Payne who was already out of bounds. That would have given the Sixers a better chance to rally in this one.
That being said, Philadelphia needs to start the game a lot better than this one.
“I mean, as a player, you can only control what you can control,” Reed added. “As a player you can’t really dictate what the whole team does. None of us are in that position except the head coach. For us, we just had to follow his lead and try to execute the game plan to the best of our abilities and so we got off to a slow start. I’m pretty sure everyone was trying to execute. I mean, they’re not a bad team. The guys are good. It’s difficult when you start slowly like that.
The Sixers will begin a 3-game road trip when they take on the New York Knicks on Sunday.
