76ers' Joel Embiid reacts to goaltend, overall play in loss to Nuggets

5 days ago 2

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers were primed to keep the good vibes rolling on Monday when they played host to a Denver Nuggets team missing all five of their starters and top two reserves. Following a 3-game win streak to end their 5-game road trip, this was a perfect opportunity to pick up another win.

Instead, the Sixers laid an egg. They allowed the Nuggets to shoot 53.1% from the floor overall and 48.6% from deep and fell 125-124 in overtime. Joel Embiid, who had a terrific game of 32 points and 10 rebounds, was called for a goaltend with 5.3 seconds left on a Bruce Brown drive for Denver that proved to be the game-winning bucket.

"I haven't seen it, but, yeah, I think I mistimed it,' Embiid said after the loss. "I thought Tyrese (Maxey) was going to be in the way a little bit more to give me a chance, but, yeah, I just mistimed it."

One has to wonder if this was just a trap game for the Sixers. They had a terrific win over the New York Knicks on Saturday to end their road trip and returned home to face the short-handed Nuggets. On top of them being undermanned, it was also the second night of a back-to-back as they had fallen to the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday before heading to Philadelphia.

"Yeah, it shouldn't be an excuse," Embiid stated. "Obviously, when you see they're missing all their best players, I don't know what happens if we lowered our guards, but that's on us. We should have been better. That's not an excuse."

The Nuggets were walking into practice style jumpers as third-year guard Jalen Pickett scored a career-high 29 points and knocked down seven triples while Peyton Watson added 22 points. The overall defensive effort for the Sixers was just not good enough to get a win.

"Just point of attack," Embiid explained. "We let them get comfortable. We're all NBA players, and when you let someone get in a rhythm, they're most likely to keep it going. Obviously, we weren't aggressive enough to stop, and they got in that rhythm, and it carried over."

Either way, the Sixers came up short in a game they needed. This loss doesn't define them, and these things happen over the course of an 82-game season, but when considering how bunched up things are in the standings, this was a loss they can't afford. Philadelphia needs to win these types of games.

"We just didn't make the plays when we needed them," Embiid finished. "The spacing was kind of terrible tonight, so we got to work on that. But yeah, terrible loss."

The Sixers will play host to the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: 76ers' Joel Embiid reacts to goaltend, overall play in loss to Nuggets

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