NEW YORK — One of the best parts about having an 82-game regular season is that it allows NBA teams to recognize an area of weakness and then take the steps to address it.
The 76ers struggled mightily in many areas during Thursday’s blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors. One of those areas was transition defense. And they were determined to improve that Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets.
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“They knew they had a team on a back-to-back, and knew they were going to play super fast,” coach Nick Nurse said of the Warriors. “We didn’t do a good job catching up with them. I think we were a step behind on everything.
“So transition defense, and then just the energy level from the last game hopefully will be improved.”
It definitely was, as the Sixers prevailed, 123-94, on Saturday inside the Barclays Center.
They limited Brooklyn to 12 fast-break points on a night Joel Embiid and Caleb Martin dominated.
Embiid finished with 28 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists in his second straight double-double and fourth of the season. With the outcome all but decided, the 7-foot-2, 280-pound center sat out the fourth quarter. Fifteen of his points came in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Martin had close to a perfect game. The forward finished with 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting. He made his first seven shots. Like Embiid, Martin and Paul George sat out the final quarter.
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Tyrese Maxey (18 points, seven assists), George (17 points, six assists), and former Imhotep Charter standout Justin Edwards (a career-high 11 points) were the Sixers’ other double-digit scorers.
The victory improved their record to 14-19 and snapped a two-game skid. They also finished 4-2 during their six-game road trip.
Meanwhile, the Nets (13-22) lost for the fourth time in five games. And this outcome was far from surprising.
Brooklyn announced a couple of hours before the game that its leading scorers, Cam Johnson and Cam Thomas, would be sidelined for an extended time.
In Thursday’s road game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Johnson sustained a sprained right ankle. The swingman torched the Sixers for a season-high 37 points while making 9 of 13 three-pointers in the teams’ Nov. 22 meeting, a 113-98 Sixers home win.
Meanwhile, Thomas strained his left hamstring against the Bucks. He’s averaging a career-high 24.7 points.
Things got worse for Brooklyn before tip-off when Ben Simmons (left calf soreness) was scratched . Also, De’Angelo Russell also missed the second half with a bruised right shin.
Not counting Russell, the Nets were without seven players on this night due to injuries. Capitalizing on that, the Sixers built a commanding 31-point lead en route to their 29-point victory.
Embiid benefited the most after being called for a technical foul with 8 minutes and 15 seconds left in the first quarter after refusing to let go of a Nets player who had possession of the ball. The technical appeared to motivate the 2023 MVP, who had been scoreless up until that point.
Embiid responded by dominating the quarter, finishing with 15 points on an array of jumpers, layups, and a three-pointer. The seven-time All-Star also grabbed seven rebounds and had two assists in the quarter.
On this night, the Sixers unveiled their 20th different starting lineup. This one featured Martin, Guerschon Yabusele, Embiid, George, and Maxey.
The Nets jumped out to an 11-0 lead after making their first four baskets. But the Sixers outscored them 29-8 the rest of the way to take a 10-point lead into the second quarter.
“They were undermanned and we got off to a slow start, coming all the way back on the trip,” Nurse said. “But once we got our legs under us, we obviously did a good job of creating shots. I thought we did a good job of contesting shots, too.”
The Sixers were active while using several defensive schemes, leading to a lot of deflections.
“Again, they’re severely undermanned, but we did our job,” Nurse said. “We did it for good stretches of the game.”
Up next
The Sixers were scheduled to travel to Philly after the game for their upcoming three-game homestand at the Wells Fargo Center. They’ll kick things off against the Phoenix Suns on Monday (7 p.m., NBCSP). The Suns defeated the Sixers, 118-116, in Phoenix on Nov. 4.