Sixers Bell Ringer: Game 30 - Sixers lose third straight overall, second straight at home

For a refresher on our Bell Ringer series, take a look back at our first post of the season.

Bell Ringer Standings

Ben Simmons - 7
Tobias Harris - 6
Josh Richardson - 5
Joel Embiid - 5
Matisse Thybulle - 3
Furkan Korkmaz - 1
Al Horford - 1
James Ennis - 1

When the Sixers lost to Miami on Wednesday night, people didn’t like it, but you could understand it to some degree. You had a Heat team playing well, utilizing a weird zone defense that caught Philadelphia on an off shooting night. 41-0 at home wasn’t realistic. The Sixers had to drop one at some point. But to lose again two nights later, when Philadelphia should have been eager to wash away the taste of defeat, against a Dallas team missing superstar Luka Doncic? Now, disappointment begins to shift to concern. Let’s begrudgingly go over Bell Ringer candidates from the 117-98 loss to the Mavericks.

Joel Embiid: 33 points, 17 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover

With the majority of the team struggling mightily to score, Embiid was the only Sixer who looked mighty Friday night. His jumper was working to great effect, hitting a handful of mid-range jumpers and going 3-of-7 from downtown. Joel connected on a pair of 3s in the final minute of the first half, making it a six-point game heading into the locker room and briefly giving fans hope that the team would be able to right the ship in the second half.

Embiid also bullied his way on the interior, establishing deep post position to score on drop-steps, dunk, and putbacks. Encouragingly, it was his second straight game with just a single turnover. We’ve seen better defensive efforts from Joel (that Maxi Kleber drive-and-dunk will certainly make the rounds, and he lost track of Kristaps Porzingis too many times), but his scoring was the only thing keeping Philadelphia anywhere near competitive in this game.

Josh Richardson: 10 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 3 turnovers

We can surmise Richardson’s brief wrist trouble is in the past, as he made two of his five 3-point attempts, the only Sixers player aside from Embiid to connect on multiple triples. Both of his steals came in the first quarter, including a swipe and run-out feed to Ben Simmons for the first points of the game.

Mike Scott: 7 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 0 turnovers

It was the seemingly rare occasion for Scott where he made more shots inside than arc than outside, going 2-of-2 on two-pointers. The Hive’s poster boy executed a nice drive for a dunk in secondary transition early in the contest, and later nailed a mid-range pull-up jumper over Delon Wright. The three assists were a season-high for Scott, and included a nice find of Joel Embiid on a duck-in under the basket for a slam.

Trey Burke: 7 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 turnover

When my dad would yell at my high school coach to put me back in the game, it didn’t do a thing, but when Trey Burke’s dad does it... Needing some sort of spark and additional shooting, Brett Brown turned to Burke later in the game, with all of Burke’s seven points and two assists coming in the fourth quarter alongside mostly starters. His dash of verve in the drive and pull-up game is in short supply on this Sixers roster, and something Brown might call upon earlier in the future.