There’s always going to be nights like this. Despite some solid performances from Dario Saric and Ersan Ilyasova, the rest of the Sixers played rather bleakly in a 106-98 loss to the Denver Nuggets Monday night in the Wells Fargo Center.
The Sixers took the lead early in the first half and led throughout it by varying margins of single-digits. The game was relatively sloppy from start to finish, however there were occasionally moments of solid play, especially involving the aforementioned Ilyasova alongside Saric and Richaun Holmes coming off the bench.
However, once things peaked late in the 2nd quarter with a 10-point Sixers lead, things quickly began falling apart for our boys wearing red tonight. That 10-point lead with just under three-and-a-half to play in the second quickly fell to a 2-point lead by halftime.
With the lead dwindling, the Sixers and Nuggets went back and forth to start the 3rd quarter, however it did not take long for the Nuggets to seize control of the lead once and for all. With the Nuggets never gaining a firm double-digit lead, the Sixers had multiple chances near the end of the game to make a game of things. However the Sixers became unable to get a stop to save their lives, and eventually they just ran out of time, succumbing to an 8-point defeat on the road
Notes from the game
- Ilyasova, Saric, and Sergio Rodriguez all led the Sixers in scoring with 17 points on the evening. Ilyasova did it 7-15 shooting while Rodriguez was 7-14 and Saric was 6-12. Coincidentally, both Saric and Rodriguez shot 3-6 from beyond the arc. Adding on to Saric’s and Ilyasova’s big game were the eight rebounds they each picked up, respectively.
- Joel Embiid has seen better nights than tonight. After not turning the ball over in the first half, Embiid turned it over three times in the 3rd quarter. His shooting lacked somewhat as well, as he only managed 5-15 from the floor, although those five did yield him a total of 16 points on the evening.
- Danilo Gallinari managed a season-high 24 points tonight thanks in large part to shooting 11-12 from the charity stripe. Also having an impressive night for the Nuggets was Jamal Murray. Murray’s transition to the NBA has been a rather impressive one and he had a very strong game tonight against the Sixers. Murray shot 8-12 for 22 points and managed 3 rebounds and 2 assists to go along with that.
- Despite not putting up gaudy statistics, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot impressed with his effort and defensive instincts. It’d be interesting to see what he does once he starts seeing an increase in his minutes per game.
- Up next for the Sixers is a roadtrip tomorrow night to Memphis, where neither Embiid nor Jahlil Okafor will be playing. Even though Embiid had a rough outing tonight, the Sixers will surely miss him against when playing against Marc Gasol and the Grizzlies.