Joel Embiid had some harsh words for his Philadelphia 76ers after their blowout home loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night.
The Sixers lost 117-98 to the Mavericks and played poorly on defense. They allowed Dallas to shoot 51.8 percent from the field and 42.4 percent on threes.
Embiid said after the game that his Sixers “were playing scared” and “pretty bad” defensively.
Joel Embiid: "We just, I don’t know, I feel like especially tonight we were playing scared. Basketball is easy, you just shoot it, pass it, move it, if you don’t got a shot just pass it. But tonight, like I said, we didn’t make shots, and defensively we were pretty bad.” pic.twitter.com/rTn5J4J7Ax
— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) December 21, 2019
Embiid also believes the players got away from their gameplan, which included targeting Tim Hardaway Jr. Instead, Hardaway was allowed to have a huge game and scored 27 points on 10-for-21 shooting, with seven threes.
Dallas impressively won without Luka Doncic, who is out with a sprained ankle. They are now 11-2 on the road and handed Philly just their second home loss of the season. The Mavs are tied with the Bucks for the best road record in the league.
