The Philadelphia 76ers is a team that has talent at all levels. Usually, when the holders have a difficult night, the team can go to the bank to pick me up and do a good production on the floor.
However, that hasn’t been the case recently and that was a big factor in the 120-111 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday afternoon on the road.
The Suns bench has 49 points in victory, while the Sixers have just 20. Tyrese Maxey had six points and Matisse Thybulle had five off the bench as top scorers, but Furkan Korkmaz had only two points in 0 out of 5 shots and he made 13 less. when he fought in defense too.
“The main point is that we have to do better,” said coach Doc Rivers. “The bank hasn’t been doing badly this year, but it’s been doing poorly lately. Probably going back about five games in my opinion. It’s a long season. “
The basketball season is long and the guys are going to be up and down. It is what it is, but guys like Korkmaz, Maxey and Dwight Howard have to contribute more. It doesn’t help that Shake Milton has already left and at least Mike Scott has returned, but they will have to recover.
“I never overreact to some games, but you still have to be better offensively,” added Rivers. “It will help your defense a little bit, but if you are going to be bad offensively, you have to be great defensively, and right now this group has been bad at both. This is something we have to solve ”.
The bank fought not only in attack, but also in defense. Rivers even put Joel Embiid there with the bench unit to try to get them into action, but it just wasn’t going well for that unit.
“Joel started the fourth period, with the bench,” concluded the coach. “It is not a question of handling the ball again. We need to score more, but a team just hit 61% against us. So, honestly, offending is the last thing I’m thinking about right now. An average team should not shoot 61%. This is a good team, it shouldn’t be close. We have to be better defensively first and then we will fix the movement of the ball. “
The Sixers now have to face Utah Jazz on Monday to finish the 4 game road swing.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on the Facebook!