I would love to be a fly on the wall in the locker room during halftime of Philadelphia 76ers games this season to hear what Nick Nurse has to say to his team, because it must be the least motivating shit ever.

The Sixers, who are 5-3 through eight games of action in the current campaign, have been outscored – and outplayed – in seven of the eight third quarters on the season.  The only time that the Sixers weren’t outscored in the third quarter this season was the NBA Cup game against Boston.

In total, Philadelphia has been outscored by 74 points in the third quarter, which is an average of 9.25 points per quarter. Unsurprisingly, the Sixers are dead last in the league in points per game in the third quarter (22.5). They’re shooting just 37.5 percent from the field in the quarter as a team and turning the ball over 5.1 times. That simply isn’t sustainable for a team with postseason aspirations.

Everything that could be going wrong for the Sixers in the third quarter, has been. There has been poor play, sloppy execution and even worse, a lack of effort. I was going to pull some clips to use as examples, but there are honestly too many options to choose from. Go back and look for yourself. They’re there.

Some of the blame falls on the players for not executing, but some of the blame also falls on Nurse. Halftime is a time for adjustments, and if your team is consistently getting outscored in the 12-minute period after halftime, it typically indicates that the opposing coach has done a better job of making adjustments.

In the Sixers’ case, their offense could certainly use some more movement and creativity, as too often it involves players standing around watching Tyrese Maxey go to work. This approach worked to an extent early in the season thanks to Maxey’s extraordinary play and heavy workload – he’s leading the league in both points (33.5) and minutes (41.3), but again, not sustainable.

Post-halftime struggles have been a theme for Philadelphia under Nurse, and it’s been trending in the wrong direction. The Sixers were 23rd league-wide in third quarter scoring during the 2023-24 season with 28.0 points per game in the third quarter. They fell to 25th with 27.3 points last season, and now they’re 30th this season.

The frustrating thing is that they’ve been very good at putting the ball in the basket in all of the other quarters this season. They lead the league in fourth quarter scoring (32.9 points), are third in second quarter scoring (33.3) and fifth in first quarter point production (33.0). And despite their third quarter futility, they’re still third in the league in points per game as a team (123.3). But, NBA games are 48 minutes long, not 36 minutes. The Sixers simply can’t afford to punt 12 minutes of every game.

The addition of Paul George and Jared McCain, who returned to game action this week, should help, as it will provide the Sixers with two additional scoring threats. Those two combined for over 30 points per game last season. The hope is that Joel Embiid will continue to round into shape, too, which could also aid the efforts.

But ultimately, it’s going to fall on Nurse to get the team to play better basketball out of the halftime locker room. Whatever has caused the team’s collective third quarter malaise needs to be addressed, quickly, or fans in Philadelphia could be in store for another long season.

 

Follow Michael Kaskey-Blomain on X @therealmikekb.