In today's NBA, Monday's Chicago Bulls-Philadelphia 76ers game wasn't pretty. The Bulls only made six of their first 20 field goals. The Sixers made seven of 16 shots. Philadelphia had six first-quarter turnovers.
Second quarter wasn't better. The Sixers took 16 shots again and made seven, while Chicago made 50% of their field goals. Neither club shot above 20% from three all quarter. Six turnovers again.
The Sixers haven't struggled offensively lately, but Monday's first half was terrible. Despite Joel Embiid's strong third quarter and Tyrese Maxey and De'Anthony Melton's late surges, the second half was disappointing.
The Sixers cut their turnovers in half and shot 46% in the second half. They outscored Chicago 51-47 in the fourth quarter, but the game ended knotted at 91.
Even a five-minute overtime period couldn't separate one squad. The Bulls beat the Sixers 10-6 in double-overtime. In double-overtime, Philly shot 2-9 and missed all four three-point attempts.
After the game, Sixers coach Doc Rivers said his team's defense was good. Offense—unacceptable. Rivers thought the defense held up.
“I thought we performed extremely strong defensively overall, had some miscommunications as you do all games. I'll take our all-night defense. Our offense is intolerable. We must fix that.”
The Sixers shot 42% from the field and 28% from three. They shot somewhat better than the Bulls, but Chicago had a huge turnover advantage.
“Every night like you just gotta be good on both ends, and I thought the balance of the game, we were good on one end, and that was the defensive end,” Rivers added.
On the plus side, the Sixers played one of their worst games in quite some time and still nearly won the contest. Doc Rivers and the Sixers will not go the silver lining approach.
Instead, they're focusing on Wednesday's road rematch as a chance to rebound after a terrible performance.