Kelly Oubre Jr. details why Sixers fell to Knicks, what needs to be better

Kelly Oubre Jr. details why Sixers fell to Knicks, what needs to be better

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers had a tough night on Friday as they fell to the New York Knicks 128-92. The Sixers jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first quarter, but New York busted the game open and led by 20 at halftime and led by as many as 39 for the game.

The Knicks drilled 13 triples in the first half to help them open the lead. The Sixers were able to generate a lot of good looks, but they weren’t able to take advantage of the shots they were able to get.

Kelly Oubre Jr., who had 15 points and seven rebounds on the night, went into detail about why the Sixers were unable to get consistent stops early against New York.

“The pace that they were playing with,” Oubre explained. “They were executing really well despite us stopping their first initial offense, and yeah. They just stuck with it a bit more tonight than we did, and the results showed for themselves.”

As far as the big deficit, it was a combination of poor defense and not being able to take advantage of the open looks they received on the offensive end. The Sixers had a big chance to rally and get back into the game.

They got after it defensively and gave New York a lot of trouble, but they had their own offensive troubles. Philadelphia held New York to just 27.8% shooting in the third while the Sixers shot 50%, but they only outscored the Knicks 21-18 in the third.

“I’m not sure,” Oubre said of the tough third quarter. “I just gotta go back and watch the film, but yeah. The rhythm and the flow wasn’t all the way there for 48 minutes tonight and we’re a big rhythm and flow team. We have to get better in those situations to get defensive stops, and if we’re not scoring, make sure the other team doesn’t score, and they were really hot tonight. I think that was the difference maker.”

The Sixers do have a big opportunity to bounce back on Saturday. On the second night of a back-to-back, they will play host to the Utah Jazz. It’s a chance to get after it again and flush the loss to the Knicks.

“Absolutely,” said Oubre. “That’s the beauty of the NBA. Some days, the back-to-backs are really tough, but this is the back-to-back we’re looking forward to. We gotta go attack it and come with our right head on our shoulders tomorrow.”

Now the question becomes, what needs to be better when the Sixers take on the Jazz?

“Game plan discipline,” Oubre finished. “Knowing which direction each player likes to go. Knowing what we’re doing in our coverages and schemes and actually executing the game plan that we talked about before the game. I think that’s the biggest thing for us is to be detailed.”

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