The Philadelphia 76ers’ five-game win streak came to an end Thursday night.
The Philadelphia 76ers struggled on the road versus a Brooklyn Nets team without either of their superstars, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Philadelphia started Shake Milton in place of Seth Curry, who is out with a pestering ankle injury.
Brooklyn jumped out to a quick start as they took a 17-5 lead nearly halfway through the quarter courtesy of a Jarrett Allen dunk. After that, Philadelphia went on their run.
Milton went on to score nine points in the quarter during his start as Philadelphia clawed back through the quarter to only be trailing 26-28.
The second quarter was back and forth with rookie guard Tyrese Maxey starting out effective for Philadelphia until Joe Harris exploded for Brooklyn scoring 10 points in only 1:23 of game time. He would stretch the Brooklyn lead to 38-34.
From there, Brooklyn never trailed again. Heading to the locker room, the score was 51-65.
The second half started out fast-paced with Philadelphia working tempo in their pursuit to close the lead. The lead shrunk to as little as eight points, but eventually, quite ceremoniously, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot hit back-to-back threes to stretch the lead back to 85-70, Brooklyn.
The lead was only 10 entering the fourth quarter, but it never felt close. For the most part, Philadelphia was able to get run with Milton. Otherwise, it was a fairly back-and-forth quarter that started with a nearly 15-point deficit.
All of that being true, Philadelphia did do one interesting thing early in the fourth quarter tonight. Ben Simmons was the center on the floor. He defended DeAndre Jordan and held his own with rebounding. Simmons at center lineups make for an interesting dynamic.
Ultimtely, time dwindled away as Brooklyn won the game 122-109.
Tomorrow, Brooklyn will travel to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies in a back-to-back.
Philadelphia will next take the court Friday at home against the Denver Nuggets as they look to stay unbeaten at home in the young season. The game will feature a must-see matchup of early MVP favorite big men in Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid.