Sixers still looking to fix one area of the game to earn complete wins

NEW YORK — The Philadelphia 76ers are 5-1 following their win over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday to begin this 3-game road trip. They led by as many as 28 and handled their business, but there was still one little area of the game that needs to be figured out: the third quarter.

The Nets outscored the Sixers 23-17 and did begin to work their way back into the game a bit before Philadelphia retook control of the contest. Overall, the Sixers won the game and that’s the only thing that matters, but it does seem as if those little moments in third quarters are continuing to hold them back a bit.

“I think we did pretty good,” Kelly Oubre Jr. said after the game. “You know, we started off better, right? They have a lot of scoring over there, so it was kind of hard to just figure out coverages at some points, but at the end of the day, man, we faced the adversity. We made the changes. Coach did a good job of keeping us on our toes all night, and making sure that it was the next play mentality. So I think that helped a lot.”

The Sixers pushed the lead to 21 early in the third, but the Nets did cut the lead to 10 as they did not give up just yet. That’s something Philadelphia is still looking to nip in the bud as it moves forward.

For the most part, the Sixers have been terrific, but there have been some stretches here and there that have been an issue thus far. For example, the third quarters have mostly been a problem, but in their one loss, they were down 13 after one quarter before winning the final three quarters. So, there are some issues to address.

“Third quarter, we were still a little shaky,” said an irritated Tyrese Maxey after the win. “A little shaky. We started off good, solid, and we got a little shaky, like we got to prevent that, but it is the NBA. It’s a game of runs. Every team is professional, really good, but we’re trying to prevent that and trying to put a full game together. If we can do that, then we’ll keep stacking wins.”

The Sixers will take on the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday looking to push things in the right direction.