Ad Disclosure
It’s Staggering Just How Bad the Sixers are in the Third Quarter
Published:
The Sixers lost 135-118 in Portland on Monday night. They’ll finish 3-2 on the road trip as the Knicks and their little rat fans come to South Philly on Wednesday night.
This was a 65-64 game going into halftime, then the Sixers got their doors absolutely blown off in the third quarter, giving up 49 points while going down by 26.
They are the NBA’s worst 3rd quarter team with a -234 point differential:
It’s almost 100 points worse than the Utah Jazz and is actually the 9th-worst third quarter differential a team has posted since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to our in-house A.I., the Sixers are 23-10 when leading at halftime, a .697 win percentage that ranks 19th in the league.
They’re bad on both ends, too, so it’s not one single issue. They’re giving up 30.6 points on average in the third quarter (4th most) while scoring just 26.2 (dead last), so they are -4.4 on average over the course of 53 games. They have a -85 rebounding differential in the third quarter and are -5 in turnovers, to go along with a -46 free throw attempt number. They’ve allowed 237 fast break points in the third quarter, which is also 4th-worst and suggests they’re not locked in and not focused coming out of halftime.
Even last night, they gave up two three pointers right off the bat after Portland offensive rebounds. That was followed up with four guys falling asleep in help defense, then a Jrue Holiday elbow jumper and another three coming off a missed free throw.
The Sixers have a good team but these quarters have been killing them.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com