Another miserable night in a miserable season as Sixers fall to Lakers

Different star on his own, same result.

The Sixers wrapped up their West Coast trip with another lopsided loss, falling 116-106 to the Los Angeles Lakers Friday night. They’re now 1-7.

A 31-point performance from Anthony Davis and a 20-point triple-double from LeBron James was too much for this shorthanded squad to overcome.

Jared McCain led the Sixers with 18 points. He shot 6-of-17 from the floor and 4-of-9 from behind the three-point line. Guerschon Yabusele and Andre Drummond each finished with 14.

Paul George shot just 4-of-13 and 0-of-6 from three. He also finished with four rebounds and eight assists in a little over 24 minutes of action.

Bronny James played the final 1:28 of the game.

Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.

First Quarter

If Andre Drummond is going to struggle to guard AD, that’s OK, that’s a tough ask. If he’s getting blocked by Davis once or twice, again, that happens. He cannot be missing open shots at the rim though. His 0-of-3 start compounded their struggles in the paint. The Lakers started hot on the perimeter as well making five of their first six threes of the game.
Guerschon Yabusele continues to manage quite well at center, but the lineups around him being so small highlights that problem team-wide, The backcourt of Jared McCain and Kyle Lowry got slightly taller when Reggie Jackson checked in, but it didn’t take long for Jackson to get off to a 1-of-4 start.
KJ Martin did put up a really decent fight at the rim early on. He also took (and made) just his second three-pointer of the season. Yabusele and Martin each had five in the first quarter as the Sixers trailed by seven.

Kudos to KJ for going at that guy specifically.

Second Quarter

McCain didn’t start the quarter well, catching his own airball for a travel, but he helped turn this around by knocking down some shots. He was 2-of-4 from deep in the half, one of those coming in the no dip variety.
George had a quiet start in terms on scoring. He only played 12 minutes in the first half as part of the light minutes restriction that he’s on. He was able to sit back a bit and get five assists as the role players got going. They went on a 10-2 run to pull themselves back in the game as George got more involved.

Drummond has done a decent job of getting offensive rebounds, but him getting beat up on the glass down the other end is a problem right now. An ugly final minute of the half saw the Lakers go back up eight.

Third Quarter

After some nice finds from George and Kelly Oubre Jr., the offense once again began to slow down into some drives. The dribble handoffs on the perimeter have much more of chance with George there, but there’s not much else going on at the moment.
As shorthanded as they are at the moment, Reggie Jackson probably shouldn’t still be out there. It’s true he hasn’t had much run, but it feels like most of his misses this season are either airballs or just getting the front of the rim. There really hasn’t been anyone he’s been to take off the dribble so far.
This has been the toughest quarter on the Sixers this season, but they’re sticking with their plan to only have George play four minutes, even with Maxey out. Things once again got out of hand despite strong efforts from McCain and KJ Martin. While they ended the quarter down 15, Yabusele ended it on a high note.

Fourth Quarter

George hitting McCain for a transition three was the only thing to start this one that wasn’t completely terrible. There have been several games so far where the Sixers have driven directly at shot blockers with no plan and that happened tonight. The Lakers had three different players with at least three blocks.
One small positive on the night is that Caleb Martin finally saw some three-pointers go down. He finished 3-of-4 from downtown after coming into tonight having only made four threes all season.
Checking out with a little over three minutes left felt odd, but it was the right call for George at the moment. Another small positive were some of the passes he threw on the way to his eight assists — it’s not something he’s known for.