PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers came up short to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday by a score of 114-106 at home. The Sixers were missing VJ Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes, and Dominick Barlow due to an illness and then were missing Kelly Oubre Jr. due to a left knee sprain and Trendon Watford due to a left adductor strain. The Nets took advantage with their youth and athleticism on the night.

Joel Embiid had 27 points, six rebounds, and four assists for Philadelphia while Andre Drummond had 12 points and 13 rebounds, Paul George added 19 points and four rebounds, Tyrese Maxey had 13 points, and Eric Gordon had 12. Jared McCain added 10 points and nine rebounds.

Here are the three biggest takeaways following the loss:

Maxey’s struggles

It was a weird night for Maxey as he only took 14 shot attempts on the night. That’s a far cry from the league-leading 23.3 he takes per night entering this contest. He started 1-for-10 from the floor and he was 0-for-5 from deep. One has to give credit to the Nets, of course, for coming up with the right game plan, but the Sixers have to get Maxey involved more. Yes, George and Embiid were back, but the Sixers have to get the star guard his shots and he also has to get aggressive as well as they move forward with the Big 3 on the floor.

Coach Nick Nurse said on Maxey:

Well, I think that he was having a hard time shaking free. Wasn’t too much—even his ones down the lane. There’s some of those that he got to the clearance, but I didn’t think there was enough freedom on some of those. I probably wish he would have shot a few more step back 3s and things like that. I got to look at it because they were switching a big guy on him a lot. We didn’t really make them pay for that very much, but he got some good ones. A tough night for him, but you know what? He wasn’t alone. It was a tough night, I think, for all of our our shooters really. Just didn’t get any anybody to kind of pick up the slack, and that’s what we’ve been doing really well. When one or two guys are off, one or two guys step in, and plug those holes, and tonight it was a couple guys were off and a couple of more guys were off.

Defensive issues with Michael Porter Jr.

Porter led the charge for the Nets as he finished with 28 points and he destroyed the Sixers every chance he got. He scored 14 points in the first quarter and had 25 by halftime as he shot 8-for-14 from the floor overall and 5-for-8 from deep in the first half. The Sixers held Porter to just three points after halftime as they tightened up their defense a bit, but the damage was done as Porter led Brooklyn’s offensive charge and great 3-point shooting on the night.

“He just got free,” George said of Porter. “That’s on me. That was my primary matchup. Getting him off to a hot start, getting some good looks. He knocked in some good shots. In the second half, I think we held him to three. So, I did a better job in the second half, but for him to get off to that start, that’s on me. Yeah, it sucks.”

Overall offensive struggles

The focus for the Sixers will be on Maxey and his tough night, but it wasn’t just him. McCain shot just 3-for-11, George shot 5-for-14, and Justin Edwards was 1-for-5 while Maxey was 3-for-14. The Sixers didn’t play with the same pop or energy on the offensive end of the floor and it cost them against a Nets team that will catch a team sleeping if they don’t have the right energy. It’s a testament to what coach Jordi Fernandez has built in Brooklyn.

“Just think stagnant,” said George. “We got stagnant, lost a rhythm from a team wise, and we just played slow. I think our pace was just a little slow, which give them credit. I mean, they were making shots, so it made it tough to kind of get out and play and run fast, but yeah, we just played a little slower tonight.”