The Philadelphia 76ers had a tough night in Tampa on Sunday when they fell 110-103 to the Toronto Raptors on a night where they just could not buy a bucket. They shot just 38.3% off the floor and then 11-for-37 from deep into the loss.
Superman, the big man, Joel Embiid, feels the pressure of the Raptors all night, as he finishes with 25 points, but shoots only 6-for-20 that night. It was an evening where he looked very pretty, but they just did not fall.
“I just missed shots I usually do,” said a gloomy Embiid. ‘As soon as I cross halfway, they send two or three guys to me and all night I made the right game. I shared the ball and gave it to my teammates. We could have made more shots, a lot of shots were in and out. There are a lot of shots I made all season that I just missed. So we just have to do a better job. ‘
After scoring a career-high 50 points in their Chicago Bulls victory on Friday, he could not buy a bucket. It really was one of those nights and he even pronounced it to coach Doc Rivers.
“I thought in the third quarter, as he was stepping down, ‘man I looked good tonight, the ball just did not want to go in’ and there were nights like that, ‘Rivers said. “I thought a lot of us guys looked good tonight. The problem is that they did not go in, and I thought the misses started to increase insofar as we dealt with them, so we had to do a better job of dealing with crimes, because that’s going to happen again. ‘
It was not just Embiid either. The Sixers got a very nice look from guys who usually take shots like Tobias Harris. He shot just 6-for-17 that night and he was only 1-for-9 from deep. The ball moves offensively and Embiid makes the right plays out of the doubles, only shots fall.
“Yeah, alas, it was,” Harris said. ‘For us we got a very nice look and had to give them credit, they could see a lot that landed us in the halfway instead of running out. We had good shots that we could make, they really did not fall for us tonight. ”
Ben Simmons did return to the series and he had attacking success with 28 points on 9-for-11 shooting, but even he admitted that things could have been better on the offensive side.
“I think we all had some very nice attacks that just didn’t fall through,” he explained. “If they fell, it would have been a very different game, but that’s the way the game works.”
Basketball is a make or miss game and on Sunday they just missed shots. They should now move on to Tuesday’s rematch with the Raptors.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!