The Sixers started their three-game road trip with a lopsided loss Tuesday night in Denver.
They fell to a 124-96 defeat to the Nuggets at Ball Arena.
Denver’s standouts included Christian Braun (22 points on 7-for-9 shooting) and Cam Johnson (18 points on 6-for-8 shooting). Nikola Jokic had eight points, 14 assists and seven rebounds as the Nuggets improved to 42-27.
The Sixers now sit at 37-32. The team’s top scorer was MarJon Beauchamp with 16 points.
The following six players were unavailable for the Sixers:
- Joel Embiid (right oblique strain)
- Tyrese Maxey (right pinky finger sprain)
- Paul George (suspension)
- Kelly Oubre Jr. (left elbow sprain)
- Jabari Walker (illness)
- Johni Broome (right knee surgery recovery)
The Sixers will visit the Kings on Thursday night and the Jazz on Saturday. Here are observations on their blowout loss to Denver:
Jokic orchestrates, Sixers sink into deep hole
The story of the first quarter: Jokic racked up eight assists. The Sixers had five as a team.
Denver’s superstar big men fed open teammates in his typically wide array of ways. Jokic hit cutters in stride, sprayed kick-out passes to eager shooters, and plowed forward on fast breaks until someone broke free. The shorthanded Sixers didn’t have defensive answers.
The Nuggets entered the night with the NBA’s best offensive rating and best three-point percentage. Their play was immediately consistent with those numbers. A Jamal Murray corner three late in the first quarter gave Denver a 31-16 lead.
Shooting troubles seep into everything
The Sixers dropped to 2 for 13 from three-point range with a Trendon Watford miss early in the second quarter.
On the other end, the Nuggets’ offense kept chugging along and the Sixers’ deficit skyrocketed. Denver’s biggest lead in the second quarter was 33 points.
The Sixers finished the evening 9 for 41 beyond the arc. Over their last four games, they’ve made just 27 of 126 threes (21.4 percent).
Those sorts of shooting woes often bleed into lapses with defensive rebounding, transition defense, offensive organization and just about every facet of the game. As the final score would suggest, the Sixers didn’t thrive in any of those areas Tuesday.
Good teams sometimes win in spite of bad shooting nights — the Sixers just managed to against the Trail Blazers and Nets — but it’s natural to be frustrated and struggle in many departments when almost every jumper misses.
No suspense in second half
All 11 active Sixers played in the first half. Tyrese Martin was inactive.
Two-way contract players Beauchamp and Dalen Terry were responsible for a few of the Sixers’ positive moments. Beauchamp made his first three shots, all three-pointers, and fired jumpers with confidence throughout the night. Terry scored a couple of buckets inside in the second quarter.
Recognizing that the game was out of realistic reach, head coach Nick Nurse let VJ Edgecombe play through foul trouble; the rookie picked up his fifth personal early in the third quarter. Edgecombe ended up with nine points on 3-for-12 shooting, four assists and three rebounds in 23 minutes.
The Sixers outscored the Nuggets by three points in the third quarter, but Denver still clearly had no need to use its starters in the fourth. Nurse kept his high-minute players on the sidelines, too. Andre Drummond’s 28 minutes off the bench were the most of any Sixer.