Game Recap – Dallas Mavericks @ Philadelphia 76ers

The turnovers and sloppy play were covered up by how much both teams wanted to win in this hard-fought game, as the Dallas Mavericks came to Philadelphia and beat the 76ers, 92-86, where Dallas shot 39.5% from the field and Philly shot 44.7%. Despite the unflattering FG%s for each team, the Sixers came thisclose to notching their first win of the year.

Both teams came out flat to start the game, as Dallas started o-2 and Philly started with a string of missed shot-TO-TO, before Chandler Parsons hit the first basket of the game. Dallas used that as a jumping off point and got to a 11-2 lead making Brett Brown call a timeout to rally the troops. Philly’s offense kept force feeding Jahlil Okafor and the Sixers looked like they were playing with strangers, as evidenced by the amount of turnovers and missed shots piled up from the team. No one except for Jahlil when he could shake free, was contributing to the team and it looked as if every other play was either a rushed shot or a turnover. Dallas took advantage of Philly’s struggles by coming out to a 28-15 lead after the first.

The Mavs couldn’t shake off the Sixers, as Philly played the Mavs tough and brought the halftime score to be 49-44. Instead of settling for contested shots and isolations for Jahlil, the Sixer wings started finding openings on their drives to the hoop leading to buckets on the inside. Not only that, but both teams got really chippy in the second as each team baited the opposing team into offensive fouls on consecutive possessions. This devolved the Mavs offense to the benefit of the Sixers, who took advantage of an off-balance Mavericks team and fought back into the game.

The close game continued in the third quarter. Both teams again struggled to score, with the Mavericks struggles attributed to Nerlens Noel coming alive on defense throughout the rest of the game while, on the other side, turnovers were again a problem for the Sixers who often times overplayed their possessions only to end up giving the ball up to the Mavericks. The team ended the game with 27 turnovers, with Nerlens the biggest contributor with 5 of his own. From my eyes, it looked as if many of those turnovers were unforced and live-ball which lead to many easy buckets for the Mavericks.

Fighting back, the Sixers were able to take the lead in the fourth quarter with Jerami Grant hitting a layup to get the score to 75-76. The battle continued for both teams, with Jahlil leading the Sixers in the fight before he had to sit out with foul trouble. It wasn’t until the end of the game, when Dirk Nowitzki hit a 3 pointer with less than 2 minutes left in the game to strike a dagger in Philly’s heart giving the Mavs a six point lead that they would not relinquish.

Next: Nik Stauskas Should Come Off Of The Bench

Player of the Game

Jahlil was the main catalyst for Philadelphia, as he ended up with 19 points and 11 rebounds. On offense he made several moves around the basket that made you ask yourself how a 6’11”, 270 lbs monster could move that well. While his defense still needs polish, he did work hard in the low post to defend against the Mavericks bigs.

Looking Ahead

Paul George and the Indiana Pacers come to Philadelphia on Wednesday to face the Sixers.