The Sixers send strong words against Lebron
Taurean Prince sends strong expletives
Things got out of hand in the City of Brotherly Love early for the Lakers as they were steamrolled 138-94. Their slow start and inability to convert on three-point opportunities, combined with the Sixers clicking on all cylinders quickly made this one a foregone conclusion.
Notwithstanding, there really isn’t any way to sugarcoat a nearly 50-point loss like the Lakers suffered to the Sixers on Monday. You could take the glass-half-full approach and note that the team had only eight players available and had been playing well leading up to this result, but that doesn’t completely cover the ground for a loss this big.
Therefore, the opening frame did not start positively for the Lakers as they allowed the Sixers to go on a 20-2 run midway through the quarter. To dig themselves into a hole again to start a game. Furthermore, it wasn’t as poor of a start as their matchup against the Cavaliers, where they allowed 40 points in the first, but down 32-19 after one is not ideal.
In addition, throughout the rest of the half, the Lakers struggled with the three-ball. They couldn’t defend it, allowing the Sixers to shoot 22-46 from deep on the night and couldn’t convert themselves going 7-28 from beyond the arch.
Then, professional NBA irritant and former “wing” Patrick Beverley piled on, scoring all nine of his first-half points from downtown and cheering himself on to remind the Lakers he still exists.
The Sixers send strong words against Lebron
Max Christie
The Sixers send strong words against Lebron
It was a coming-back-down-to-Earth performance from Christie on Monday. On top of struggling offensively, he also was largely ineffective defensively, albeit against one of the best guards in the league this season in Tyrese Maxey.
For him, it’s the types of ups and downs you’d expect from a second-year player. It just came on a night when everyone else joined him in a down performance.
LeBron James
The Sixers send strong words against Lebron
This is one of those types of games where the numbers largely look fine for LeBron, but he wasn’t impactful. Then, for one, a number of his baskets came with the Lakers already down big. In addition, for two, he wasn’t credited with a rebound, the first time he’s finished a game without a rebound since 2010.
Anthony Davis
The Sixers send strong words against Lebron
Also, according to him, ironically, I thought AD was one of the only Lakers to come with the requisite level of energy and execution on the night. another, he was aggressive from the start and set a tone that absolutely nobody else followed.
Of equal importance, that being said, he wasn’t the defensive monster he had been this year, but he was matched up with the Joel Embiid. For instance, his aggressiveness allowed him to draw two early fouls.
Taurean Prince
The Sixers send strong words against Lebron
And according to Taurean Prince, aside from the third quarter when he suddenly couldn’t miss but the Lakers were in such a big hole, it was a completely impactless performance from Prince. And I’m not really giving much credit to a whole bunch of empty stats when the game was already gone.
If it wasn’t for a host of wings being injured, Prince would likely have long been benched.
