GRADES: Sixers fall to Bucks in OT in sloppy game

In a candidate for game of the year, Philadelphia surrendered a 19-point lead, made their own unlikeliest of comebacks to force overtime all wrapped in a defensive battle.

Again, without Joel Embiid as he will be out for several more games with a knee injury and in a game where Seth Curry went down with what seemed to be an ankle, Philadelphia fought against one of the best in the league.

The Philadelphia 76ers were unable to hold a commanding lead, letting sloppy play and tired legs get the best of them.

Most recaps will talk about how Philadelphia blew the game, and to an extent they gave up a large lead, but it really seems worse because they held Milwaukee to 31 points in the first half.

The first quarter was a relatively ugly back-and-forth before Philadelphia closed the quarter on a 9-3 run to take a 25-18 lead into the second.

Then the teams went full Back to the Future. A combination of sloppy, strong defense, and bad shooting led to the two teams to combine for 33 points.

Philadelphia’s offense was no gem, but Milwaukee had more turnovers (13) than made field goals (12) and shot 1-17 from 3-point range. It was Milwaukee’s second lowest scoring half in the last five years.

Entering the third, Philadelphia led 45-31 before the teams decided to come back to the present. A Tobias Harris layup pushed Philadelphia to their largest lead of the night, 52-33.

From there, Donte DiVincenzo, Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Brook Lopez combined for 33 of the teams 34 in the quarter bringing Philadelphia’s lead to only nine at 74-65.

A Dwight Howard dunk pushed Philadelphia’s lead to 11 just before Milwaukee would kick off their own duo-driven 13-0 run by DiVincenzo and Antetokounmpo taking the lead 78-76.

The teams would even the game at 80-80 with 5:42 remaining before neither team would score again until the 2:23 mark with Howard serving the mercy. A 7-0 run culminated in a Holiday 3-pointer with 52 seconds remaining giving Milwaukee the lead 91-84.

A testament not many Philadelphia fans have heard in a long time. They played the final minute of the game as perfectly as possible. Truly the draw it on the chalkboard, etch it in stone final minute comeback.

Down seven, Shake Milton buried a 3-pointer. Philadelphia’s defense locked up via a Ben Simmons steal and push to Danny Green who made it a one-point game following his 3. A foul with three seconds remaining sent Milwaukee to the line and extended their lead back to three. Then Furkan Korkmaz came in clutch again as he buried a 3-pointer to force overtime. The quintessential, textbook execution in that scenario.

Tired legs are not to blame, but they certainly showed. Philadelphia on the second night of a hard fought back-to-back and stretched to a physical overtime had Simmons looking just a hair too slow in the moment on the defensive end as Antetokounmpo put the game away.

Yet, all was not for loss as Simmons did bury a 3-pointer “in the clutch” before the game concluded, 109-105.

Harris shot wasn’t falling for him tonight. He was consistently leaning forward during his shot (more than usual) and looked slightly uneasy all night teetering between rushing and pausing. Milwaukee is a great defensive team who protects the rim on a night where Philadelphia’s shot struggled. All that said, the game would have been terrifying without Harris dictating the game for Philadelphia. He was called upon consistently to manage flow and take the initiative in creation.

Simmons had a triple-double and played incredible defense. He scored ten points on 16 shots. He played excellent defense and yet Giannis went for 32 and effectively iced the game in overtime. Simmons is a tremendous player who can’t shoulder the load against stout interior defensive teams. That’s okay. He personifies there’s more to the game than scoring. Tonight, was a prime example.

Congratulations to Howard! Howard played a strong game as he is rebounding better than ever and became just the 12th player in NBA history with 14,000 rebounds, per Justin Kubatko. He is a first ballot Hall of Famer, who is continuing to climb leaderboards by evolving his basketball IQ. A great game from him and a great moment in his career.

Milton is crucial in his ability to create. He doesn’t always finish the plays when he has the ball early in the clock, but he often creates the offensive flow through his ability to reach the paint starting the play for others. Milton’s playmaking value doesn’t always show up in the box score as much he means to the team, but it was quite visible tonight.

Korkmaz had 11 points on two shots. He hit a big three in overtime and a top-10 leaguewide shot with his 3-pointer to send the game to overtime to begin with. Make the most when you’re called upon, Korkmaz has seemingly started to show he can really make these late game shots off assists. Perhaps not the quantity, but the quality earns the high marks tonight.

Milwaukee and Philadelphia will both enjoy some rest as neither will play until Saturday when Milwaukee will host the San Antonio Spurs while Philadelphia hosts the Sacramento Kings.

Philadelphia will monitor the severity of Curry’s injury during their days off before looking to get back to their home court winning ways and potentially reclaim the number one seed in the Eastern Conference from the Brooklyn Nets.