Nick Nurse Explains 76ers' 4th Quarter Woes vs. Grizzlies
On Wednesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers welcomed the Memphis Grizzlies into the Wells Fargo Center, as they played the second half of a back-to-back game, having lost to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night.
While the Sixers went into the match without the likes of Tyrese Maxey, Kyle Lowry, and De'Anthony Melton, the Grizzlies faired much worse, lacking Ja Morant, Marcus Smart, Yuta Watanabe, among six other absences.
Given this, there was hope among the Philadelphia faithful that the Sixers could pull off a win and erase any chance of a two-game losing streak, and for the first three quarters, it looked as if this was going to be the case.
Despite some struggles throughout the first few quarters, Philadelphia found themselves on top by 12 points, as a result from nearly everyone on the team, with Kelly Oubre Jr leading the way with 23 points, and Paul Reed following suit with 15 points.
Yet, the fourth quarter is where the wheels would fall off of the Sixers' wagon, being outscored 16-34 in the final period of play. The late comeback for the Grizzlies came as Nick Nurse's side simply just fell flat, only managing to shoot 25 percent from the field, as opposed to the 43 percent in the three quarters prior.
Nurse attributed a part of their fourth quarter collapse to the physicality of Taylor Jenkins' lineup being too much for the Sixers.
"I think it was the fourth quarter turned into a pretty physical game, we didn't seem to be able to play through some of the contact," opened Nurse, "I thought we had some decent chances at the rim, they obviously did."
Out of the 18 shots the Sixers attempted in the paint, they only managed to successfully convert on five of them, which practically applied to everywhere else on the court.
Another source of the Sixers' downfall according to Nurse was their failure to get to the free throw line, as well as their failure to secure offensive rebounds which would allow the team to potentially get off another shot.
"They obviously shot a lot of free throws in the fourth quarter as well," explained Nurse, "They obviously rebounded when we did make a miss."
To Nurse's point, the Sixers only made their way to the charity stripe two times, only converting one of the shots, while only managing to secure a total of five offensive rebounds, in comparison to the 14 defensive boards grabbed by the Grizzlies.
One of the more notable performances for Memphis was that of Jaren Jackson Jr, who was listed as questionable for the match prior to tip-off due to tendinitis in his right quadricep.
The former Defensive Player of The Year would show that despite this award, he can be just as dangerous on the offensive end, as he scored 30 points on 40 percent shooting.
While he took a lot of shots, the 25-year-old missed a lot, which were secured by his teammates for the most part, which the Sixers' head coach related back to their rebounding problems in the second half.
“But he [Jackson Jr] was 10 for 25 and we made him miss a lot, but we didn't limit the team to one shot, right?" pondered Nurse, "So just around the rim and the rebounding in the second and in the fourth quarter, obviously were an issue, and then we kind of dried up from everywhere."
The Sixers will have a quick turnaround from their back-to-back losses as they welcome the New Orleans Pelicans into town on Friday night.
