The short-handed Philadelphia 76ers see their road record fall to 9-23 despite a valiant effort.
Not unlike in their performance against the Los Angeles Clippers several days ago, the Philadelphia 76ers came out to a blistering start to the game. Tobias Harris led a distributed Philadelphia attack that saw them drop 35 points on the Los Angeles Lakers in the first quarter leading by seven.
Unfortunately for Philadelphia, the game didn’t end after 12 minutes. The second quarter was all Los Angeles and specifically Anthony Davis. Davis scored 18 of his game-high 37 points in the second quarter, including 11 points in the final two minutes.
A LeBron James layup with 3:27 remaining tied the game at 52-52. Los Angeles snowballed their way from there closing the half on a 15-2 run to enter halftime leading 65-54.
The third quarter and really the game was a back-and-forth showing of Philadelphia working their way to single digits only for Los Angeles to lock the clamps down on the defensive end in pursuit to a turnover and easy bucket.
Philadelphia drew the game to nine points with both six minutes left in the third and seven minutes left in the fourth, but to no avail.
James and Davis combined for 59 points, 20 rebounds, and 16 assists while shooting better than 60 percent from the field and playing tremendously on the defensive side of the court.
The game came to a lackluster conclusion 120-107.
Despite the game falling out of hand late in the second quarter and never being much closer than seven points after that, Philadelphia did showcase effort and offensive competency that hasn’t always been seen on the road. With three starters missing the game, Philadelphia and Brett Brown did at least do enough to make the game watchable.
Philadelphia suffered another loss on the road in a game that wasn’t ever really close in the second half. They lost by double-digits and have three starters out as they fall to the sixth seed. The season has been long and tumultuous.
If you just read the next day box score, then tonight feels like just a late West Coast game. There was growth there, though. Philadelphia could very well come out of this season having learned some things about players that will help the future of the franchise.
As for this season, Philadelphia will look to finally get their 10th road victory of the year in Sacramento on Thursday.