The Sixers fell into the trap of the Nuggets

The Sixers knew they were in for a complicated matchup, or at least not like any other against the Nuggets. Tirese Mackey also broke the news to his teammates during the warm-up after realizing the visitors would be fielding a team far from their classic formation.

« When I realized that they had played the day before and that they might be missing some players, I said to myself, ‘Damn, it’s going to be a trap match’. These games are hard to win », the Sixers leader is judgingaccording to which his training was preparing him to face “ Jamal (Murray) and others.”

« When everything changes at the last minute, it’s quite complicated. But you still have to be able to remobilize, understand what these new guys are going to do and go out there and stop them. We need to do better in this regard. (…) When you’re a good team, you have to find a way to get through this », developed by Tirese Mackey.

“We allowed them to build trust very early on”

The operation failed last night for the Sixers who were never able to determine their tempo over time. Tyrese McKay and Joel Embiid may have accumulated 60 points between them, VJ Edgecombe came close to a triple-double (17 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds) and multiplied great shots at the end, Philadelphia could not be contained Jalen Pickett and the unapologetic elements across the street.

« We let them gain confidence very early and that lasted almost the entire match. Just look at the numbers: 53% overall, 49% from 3-point range. Still, we forced a few more turnovers than them, we grabbed a few more offensive rebounds, we shot more than them. So the story of the game is really the winning percentages. We just didn’t defend well enough, we weren’t able to stay in front of them to keep them at bay all evening », analyzed by Nick Nurse.

The coach also believes his team missed too many catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, ” with a lot of big failures », and he didn’t attack the racket enough at the start of the match, to fix and bring the balls out.

« We didn’t have much penetration tonight, I’d like to see a little more. And then there were some careless mistakes, especially at the end… I think we were trying to make the right choice, but we just ran these stocks badly », laments the coach.

Two missed chances by Tyrese Maxey

No doubt he’s also thinking of Tyrese Maxey’s two “game-winning” tries, first in regulation and then in overtime. The leader dribbled on his feet before sending an impossible goal to win at the end of 48 minutes. He then tripped over a floater at the end of overtime.

« We won a lot of games that were decided on one possession. This did not work in our favor. At the end of regulation and overtime, I was able to better explain what I expected and what I wanted to happen on these specific things. But, you know, we learn. We learn every day. I don’t know if it’s only our fifth or sixth game with all, or almost all, the starters on the field. “, thus puts Tirese Makeia into perspective.

So much talk contradicting that of the local press which, for its part, don’t hesitate to point the finger at the worst defeat season admitted by the Sixers…