Coming off a skid-snapping dub, the Philadelphia 76ers remained at home, albeit facing tougher competition this time around. True enough, their opponents immediately and mercilessly cut off their bid to mount a winning streak.
Led by James Harden, the LA Clippers — despite still being without Kawhi Leonard — manhandled the 76ers with ease to the tune of a 26-point beatdown. The 76ers struggled to generate any semblance of consistent scoring all night long. The visitors leveraged a strong start in the first quarter and never looked back.
Losing is one thing, but the Clippers did more than just hand the 76ers their 13th loss in just 16 games. Tyronn Lue and his coaching staff badly exploited a glaring issue on the parts of the hosts that frankly speaking, figures to be nearly impossible to fix.
Unfixable issue on full display for the 76ers against the Clips
A quick glance at the boxscore should be more than enough to give anyone a good idea of what drowned Philly. The team canned a grand sum of nine three-pointers on 39 whopping tries, good for a measly 23.1 percent conversion rate.
Aware of Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain’s high-octane scoring, the Clippers constantly hoarded both of them with their rangy defenders while deliberately sagging off of the likes of Kelly Oubre Jr., Ricky Council IV, and Guerschon Yabusele, who all struggled mightily from beyond the arc. Nick Nurse and his staff were left helpless as no amount of in-game adjustments could fix fundamentally weak shooting.
Through 16 games, the 76ers are the second-worst three-point shooting team in the league, canning just 31.5 percent of their attempts from downtown. And honestly speaking, there’s not really an abundance of solutions for the coaching staff to abate this weakness.
Aside from their stars and Yabusele, nearly every single player on the roster is known for being an erratic shooter. Some of them barely even hoist up shots from rainbow country — a dangerous recipe for a team looking to augment everyone’s shot attempts without Joel Embiid and Paul George.
The effects of their terrible shooting were intensely felt by Maxey and McCain, who both struggled overall. Naturally, LA felt little harm doubling down on the two and showing them a crowd whenever they got into the paint thanks to the 76ers’ auxiliary cogs not being threats to punish the Clippers for leaving them wide open.
Put simply, the Philadelphia 76ers need better shooting on the roster. Hopefully, with the trade season looming, the front office can fix this issue externally.