Harris' 34 Too Much For Nets To Overcome
In what was a close game for the majority of this one the Nets fall 117-106 to the 76ers, who’ve been struggling as of late, and sit just two places ahead of them in the standings. Philadelphia is in the sixth spot and Brooklyn remains in the eighth spot in the East.
Unfortunately for Brooklyn this was a game where although they had some bright spots they couldn’t keep it together for a full 48 minutes. Through the first three quarters Brooklyn was playing very well, so much that they led at the end of each period. The fourth was a different story though. The Nets seemed to just run out of gas, scoring only 16 points to the 76ers’ 31.
To say the production in the first three quarters compared to the fourth was like night and day would be an understatement.
First and foremost this showed in the shooting numbers. The Nets shot 50% from the field and 58% from behind the arc compared to shooting 26.1% FG and 25% 3FG in the fourth.
Brooklyn also stopped moving the ball so much and relied heavily on iso ball late in the game as Philadelphia went on a late run. Granted, this could be chalked up to Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris Levert still getting used to playing with each other, but still doesn’t justify getting only two assists in the fourth period. Especially when the Nets totaled 18 in the first three periods.
Lastly, the Nets seemed to get tired defensively too. Especially when it came to Tobias Harris. He led both teams, scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter, and was a big part of a 15-3 run to close the game out for the Sixers.
However, to give Brooklyn some credit it wasn’t until the 2:20 mark in the fourth quarter that Philadelphia took their biggest lead of the game, going up five (109-104), which eventually turned into being up by 11. This too was at the hands of Harris, who hit a big three to shift the momentum in the Sixers’ favor.
One other notable thing Brooklyn did was shoot 48% from three-point range, hitting 12 of their 25 attempts. They haven’t shot over 40% from behind the arc since December 4 against the Hawks.
Besides those plusses Brooklyn is in dire need of figuring out how to close out games, as they’ve lost a fair amount of close ones this season and are at the bottom of the league in fourth quarter scoring as it is.
“The offensive execution down the stretch probably wouldn’t have been of emphasis if we did the little things throughout the game,” said Kyrie Irving. “Getting those defensive rebounds, limit our fouling. Both teams were in the bonus pretty early down the stretch. So when you have that on the road it becomes difficult and [they] made some tough shots.”
Harris led the way for the Sixers with 34 points and 10 rebounds. Ben Simmons also added 20 points (9-12 FG), 11 assists six rebounds.
Dinwiddie led the way for the Nets with 26 points and eight assists. Jarrett Allen also added 17 points and 10 rebounds.
