GRADES: Sixers go cold vs. Nuggets in Mile High City

The first quarter was filled with bad turnovers and missing Joel Embiid on both ends of the court, especially when the Philadelphia 76ers are going to put Mike Scott on Nikola Jokić.

After getting ejected two games in a row in Los Angeles, Dwight Howard got the nod at the center starting spot. He began the night with double the oops — alley-oops, that is.

https://twitter.com/sixers/status/1377067314248568837

Extremely sloppy decisions developed over the course of the first quarter. The Sixers struggled to get a stop on the defensive end as they allowed Jamal Murray to heat up. Mattise Thybulle stepped in and hit his patented corner 3 to get any sort of momentum he could for the Philadelphia 76ers.

I sit there, my eyelids feeling heavier with every shot Denver makes, and ask, “Why is it the late games that the Sixers choose to challenge me?”

The Sixers’ defense seemed to be non-existent tonight as they allowed the Nuggets to step into any shot they wanted (or though it seemed). I’d like to blame the embarrassing gameplay on the Denver altitude…

The Philadelphia 76ers treated us to another late-night game, but this time with a twist. The Sixers froze up in the mile-high city. 

26 mins | 12 pts | 3 reb | 2 ast | 2 stl | 2 blk | 2 TO | 6-13 FG | 0-2 3PT| 0-0 FT | 1 PF | -29  | 

Tobi looked slow and indecisive tonight, much like the rest of his team. Though he was the Sixers leading scorer, it didn’t really feel like it at all.

26 mins | 11 pts | 2 reb | 3 ast | 2 stl | 0 blk | 3 TO | 4-7 FG | 0-0 3PT| 3-4 FT | 3 PF | -14  | 

When we really needed Simmons to step up he seemed to stay oddly silent. Yes, it’s been a long road trip, but we needed Ben to facilitate and dominate on both ends of the court tonight.

20 mins | 10 pts | 7 reb | 1 ast | 0 stl | 0 blk | 0 TO | 4-7 FG | 0-0 3PT| 2-2 FT | 3 PF | -20 |

Getting the starting nod tonight from Doc, Howard started off on a hot streak. He was the only Sixerin double-digits at the half (10 pts). But, nothing much happened after that.

27 mins | 8 pts | 4 reb | 1 ast | 1 stl | 0 blk | 0 TO | 3-6 FG | 2-4 3PT| 0-0 FT | 0 PF | +5 | 

Tisse added some nice defensive action in the vacancy of Embiid. He also threw up some potential-momentum-starting shots which were pleasing to see.

19 mins | 6 pts | 0 reb | 2 ast | 3 stl | 2 blk | 0 TO | 2-7 FG | 0-4 3PT| 2-2 FT | 0 PF | +6 | 

Though he ended up with pretty few points, he tried to get his team back into the game. No one else followed him in this lead, but Furky kept on trying.

Danny Green’s first 3 of the game came early in the second half. Another 3 rose him to eight points in the game. Unfortunately, the Sixers still still trailed by 20 points.

Doc had had enough and moved Ben to the five to switch things up, because why not at that point. It didn’t seem to do too much good, though. When the Sixers needed him to step up in the absence of Embiid and while the team tried to get through the last of the road trip, Simmons stayed stagnant

Suddenly it was the fourth quarter and Furkan Korkmaz was bringing his team back into the game. He cut the deficit to just 13 points with a little over eight minutes to play.

The slight glimmer of hope lasted but a minute. With a little less than three minutes left in the game, Doc dumped the rest of the bench onto the court as we all took a sigh of relief that the game was over.

We can focus ahead to Thursday night where the Sixers will play at a normal hour against the Cavs in Cleveland.