NEW YORK — The Sixers failed to finish off their first three-game winning streak since late January.
Despite leading by as many as 14 points, they suffered a 112-107 defeat Tuesday night to the Nets at Barclays Center.
Kelly Oubre Jr. (season-high 30 points, six rebounds, four assists) and Tobias Harris (18 points, nine boards, four assists) were the team's top producers.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Dorian Finney-Smith and Dennis Schröder scored 20 points apiece for the Nets, who improved to 25-37.
Sixers All-Stars Tyrese Maxey (mild concussion) and Joel Embiid (left knee meniscus procedure) were each sidelined. De’Anthony Melton (lumbar spine bone stress) and Robert Covington (left knee bone bruise) remained out, too.
Brooklyn was down Cam Thomas, Ben Simmons, Day’Ron Sharpe and Dariq Whitehead. Cam Johnson suffered a right ankle sprain in the second quarter and did not return.
The 35-26 Sixers will wrap up their back-to-back with a matchup Wednesday night vs. the Grizzlies at Wells Fargo Center. Here are observations on their loss to the Nets:
NBA
Lowry helps guide Sixers to hot start
The Sixers began the night with a unit of Kyle Lowry, Cameron Payne, Buddy Hield, Harris and Mo Bamba.
In his third straight start, Bamba began brightly. He scored the Sixers’ first basket on a jump hook over Nic Claxton and their third on a put-back lay-in.
“We recently have played against teams that are very similar … where their tallest center or their most at-the-rim guy starts, and then they come in with a smaller (center),” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said pregame. “The backup’s a small-ball guy or a little bit smaller version. So that’s part of why we started doing it, and it just so happens that it’s the third game in a row where we’re probably going to look the same.”
Nurse indeed used Paul Reed when the Nets turned to small-ball five options. Bamba’s level of play tailed off and he wound up playing only 12 minutes. KJ Martin and Harris handled center minutes in the fourth quarter before Reed subbed back in with a little over three minutes left.
Claxton was clearly the night’s best big man, notching 17 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks, and the Sixers continued to sorely miss Embiid. They’ve gone 6-9 overall since his knee injury.
Payne’s first stint in each half was very short — a shade under three minutes. He estimated that he was at “75, 80” percent health, but Payne wanted to “fight through” the illness that kept him out of the Sixers’ victory Sunday against the Mavs.
He was able to play 23 minutes and scored 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting.
“Go as hard as I can, then come out and tell them when I was ready again,” he said. “That’s the conversation we had, and we executed it during the game.”
Starting guards Payne, Lowry and Hield all made early three-point shots. With Lowry in charge of the offense, the Sixers grabbed a 13-5 edge and opened 7 for 8 from the floor.
While Lowry has plenty of savvy tools, his excellent fundamentals are a giant reason why he’s still starting NBA games at almost 38 years old. He’s always looking up, eager to throw the ball ahead, and probing for windows to exploit against a slightly sleepy defense.
Dowtin debuts
The Sixers were strong to close the first quarter, elevating their defensive level considerably. Nicolas Batum blocked a Trendon Watford three-point attempt on the Nets’ last possession of the period.
Martin checked in to start the second quarter and Jeff Dowtin Jr. soon joined him.
While it’s rare for a recent two-way contract signing to debut outside of garbage time, Dowtin is relatively experienced for a player in that position. He’s a 26-year-old guard who’s been a reliable, low-turnover player in the G League and impressed Nurse with his defense last season on the Raptors.
“I’m going to just seize every moment, seize every opportunity possible,” Dowtin said Tuesday morning before the Sixers’ shootaround. “Every day come in here, get ready to work, and just be myself. I’m excited for that, and I’m excited to be around Coach Nurse again and just be who I am.”
Dowtin’s on-ball defense was fine Tuesday in his six second-quarter minutes. He didn’t add much offensively, though. Dowtin took no shots, recorded one assist and one turnover, and unsurprisingly seemed in the process of getting up to speed with his new teammates. The Nets ended up outscoring the Sixers by six points with Dowtin on the floor.
“At that point of the game, we weren’t sure what Cam was going to have because he played those three minutes and said he needed a sub,” Nurse said. “That was time to get Jeff’s feet wet a little bit, just in case Cam wasn’t going to be able to play much tonight. ... We were trying to make sure, just in case we were down to one (backup) point guard, that Jeff already had some minutes under his belt.”
The Sixers lost structure and composure late in the second quarter, often spacing the floor poorly and making strange decisions.
Lowry committed his third personal foul with 1:46 left in the second period on a Schröder three-point attempt. Schröder and Lowry then had an animated conversation after the whistle and both were assessed technical fouls. A Schröder three eventually gave the Nets a 53-52 lead.
The only two available Sixers who didn’t play Tuesday were rookies Ricky Council IV and Terquavion Smith. Nurse has preferred Martin over Council the last two games, removing Council from the Sixers’ rotation following 12 consecutive appearances.
Broadly speaking, Council's physicality, maturity and foul drawing are among the qualities that create the impression he's still worthy of rotation chances for this shorthanded Sixers team.
Too many late miscues
The Nets looked on the verge of breaking open a double-digit lead early in the third quarter. Lowry committed his fourth foul, Finney-Smith drilled a wide-open pick-and-pop three, and a visibly irritated Nurse asked for timeout.
Lowry’s two third-quarter triples helped keep the Sixers in a manageable situation. Payne’s shotmaking also boosted the Sixers late in the third period and Oubre threw down an explosive dunk on their final possession of the quarter.
Along with exceeding 20 points for a second straight outing, Oubre again dished out a season high-tying four assists. He drove exceptionally hard, didn't settle for many contested jumpers, and read the game nicely.
“That’s what playmakers are,” he said. “They can create shots for themselves and others. If I’m creating shots for myself at a high rate, people are going to start helping and I’ll have teammates that are open.”
Again, the Sixers struggled to put Brooklyn away in the fourth quarter. The Nets responded to a 92-84 hole with an 11-0 run that featured a missed Hield layup and excessive Sixers fouling. Lowry and Harris bungled a simple perimeter exchange, leading to a Dennis Smith Jr. steal and slam. Those kinds of mistakes obviously sting much more without any healthy All-Stars.
Harris knocked down two big, tough mid-range jumpers, but the Sixers were unable to play adequate on-ball defense, protect the rim, or earn any telling stops. A Finney-Smith three stretched Brooklyn's lead to 106-100 and practically iced the game for the Nets.
“We can’t make so many glaring mistakes — those were some big point-swing mistakes we made — if you’re going to win a game like this,” Nurse said. “We gave ourselves a chance. If we don’t make some of those (mistakes), it’s probably coming down to the last shot or something like that.
“But we played well enough in stretches to even grab control of it, and we just couldn’t quite hang on tonight.”