Joel Embiid, James Harden Discuss Sixers' Defensive Success vs. Luka Doncic

The Philadelphia 76ers were offered a stiff challenge on Friday night. As they returned home from their Wednesday night battle in Cleveland, the Sixers welcomed

The Philadelphia 76ers were offered a stiff challenge on Friday night. As they returned home from their Wednesday night battle in Cleveland, the Sixers welcomed Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks to town.

In the first battle between the Sixers and the Mavericks, Philadelphia had its hands full with the young superstar Doncic. In 40 minutes, Doncic went 13-28 from the field and scored 33 points. It wasn't his best shooting night by any stretch, but he still picked apart Philadelphia's defense while the rest of their starting five ate as well.

On Friday, the Sixers implemented their zone defense early on, which is something they've been working on over the last few games. After Friday's matchup, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers mentioned he liked what he saw from Philly's zone defense.

"The zone was great," said Rivers. "We've been doing it more and more over the last five or six games. We like it. We think we have pretty high IQ guys. It throws a team off rhythm, we stay in if it's effective, just like teams do against us, so it's been good. It's been great tonight for us."

Keeping Luka In Check

Philly struggled to contain Dallas' starting guard Jalen Brunson, who shot efficiently from the floor by going 10-14 with 24 points. However, outside of Brunson, the Sixers did a stellar job -- especially on the Mavericks' superstar, Luka Doncic. 

"James, even when you talk about defense, James taking on that challenge of guarding Luka," said Sixers center Joel Embiid, regarding James Harden's defense on Doncic. "He did an amazing job on Luka."

In 34 minutes on the floor, Doncic never really found a rhythm. Chucking up 20 shots from the field, the 23-year-old phenom drained just five of his attempts. As he also went 2-10 from beyond the arc, Doncic struggled to catch fire in Philadelphia and found himself scoring just 17 of Dallas' points on Friday.

"We just did a good job of mixing it up," said Harden. "They're a really great offensive team. And its power is geared by (Doncic). So we wanted to mix it up. Show a little bit of zone, show man. Be aggressive with him. I'm sure he sees a lot of different defenses every night. Night in and night out. Just try to be aggressive, try to be active with our hands, and making shots tough."

As the Sixers kept Dallas' offense in check and countered with a solid offensive performance of their own, they managed to come out on top with a 111-101 victory. Now, the Sixers put the Mavericks in the rearview and look ahead to their Sunday night battle against the Toronto Raptors at home.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.