DALLAS – It was Turn Back the Clock Night for the 76ers.
Tyrese Maxey was back in the starting lineup Thursday night at the American Airlines Center. Meanwhile, James Harden reminded everyone early on of his time as a prolific scorer before settling into more of a distributing role.
The only problem is starting Maxey and Harden together against the Dallas Mavericks is an extremely tough defensive assignment. While they battled hard, their inability to stop the Mavs All-Star backcourt of Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić was the difference in Dallas’ 133-126 victory.
Thanks to a 16-0 run, the Sixers (40-22) closed the gap to four points (110-106) with 9 minutes, 22 seconds remaning.
However, Irving reponded with a three-point play. Then after the Sixers’ Paul Reed hit scored a basket, Irving, Dončić and Reggie Bullock hit consecutive three-pointers to put the Mavs up 14 points. The Sixers made another run, pulling within five points late.
But then Irving hit pair of foul shots with 8.8 seconds left to give the Mavs the final 133-126 advantage.
Dončić and Irving torched the Sixers, combining for 82 points. But in addition to torching the Sixers, they got their teammates involved on a night the Mavs shot 54.9 % and made 25 of 48 three-pointers. Bullock benefited from their presence, scoring 15 points while going 5 of 10 on threes.
Dončić had 42 points and 12 assists and Irving added 40 points, six assists and four rebounds. They became the first Dallas teammates to both score at least 40 points in the same game.
Joel Embiiid paced the Sixers with 35 points to go with seven rebounds. Maxey added 29 points with 17 coming in the fourth quarter.
Starting off with a hot hand, Harden made his first five shot attempts. Harden finished with 27 points on 8-for-12 shooting to go with 13 assists. The point guard secured a double-double in the second quarter with 19 points and 10 assists. He tallied 16 points and seven assists in the first quarter while going 4-for-4 from the field and 5 of 5 from the foul line.
The loss dropped the Sixers to 40-22 heading into Saturday’s match-anticipated road game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Milwaukee has the Eastern Conference and league’s best record of 45-17. The Bucks are riding a 16-game winning steak.
Unfortuntely for the Sixers, this outing was reminiscent of when the Oklahoma City Thunder shot 51.2% against them on Jan. 12. On that night, All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 37 points on 10-for-16 shooting.
At the time, that was just the latest example of how the starting backcourt of Maxey and Harden had been a defensive liability. Seeing how the Thunder dominated the duo left one to wonder how long would coach Doc Rivers stay with the pairing to start alongside Tobias Harris, P.J. Tucker and Joel Embiid.
The Sixers needed Maxey to start in their Jan. 14 victory over the Utah Jazz because Harris was sidelined. But that changed in the next night’s victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. In that game, the Sixers went away from their season-opening starting lineup for the first time when all five players were healthy and off minutes restriction.
Instead, Rivers went with a lineup of Harris, Tucker, Embiid, Harden, and De’Anthony Melton. Melton has struggled of late and was the odd man out on Thursday. By contrast, with Embiid out in Wednesday’s victory over the Miami Heat, Maxey shined while starting alongside Harden and Melton in a three-guard backcourt.
