The 76ers faced off against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday afternoon. Each team’s mindset was totally different for this matchup. The Sixers are dealing with injuries and decided to rest all their starters except Shake Milton. The Suns are fighting for their playoff lives. They are 6-0 in the bubble and looking to force themselves into the play-in game for the 8^th seed in the Western Conference. The Sixers started Alec Burks, Shake Milton, Matisse Thybulle, Mike Scott, and Kyle O’Quinn.

The first quarter kicked off with the Sixers running a lot of dribble hand-offs and pick and rolls and it proved to be effective. The Sixers lead 21-12 just over halfway through the first period. Mike Scott stood out in the first quarter being aggressive and led the team with 9 points. The key was on Devin Booker defensively throughout the first quarter being guarded by Matisse and GRII. Booker was initially held in check, scoring only 6 points with his Suns trailing 27-23 after one period.

The second quarter was a back and forth scoring affair between both the teams with the Suns taking some control late in the quarter. Suns SF Mikal Bridges, who was originally drafted by the Sixers but traded for Zhaire Smith, did a lot a damage in the second quarter. Devin Booker got going from the free throw stripe, but otherwise was 3-9 from the field. The Sixers were led by Mike Scott, Alec Burks and Kyle O’Quinn, who happened to be on triple-double watch in the first half (7 pts, 7 asts, 5 rebs). The Suns played their way into a 63-58 lead at halftime.

The third quarter opened with Matisse Thybulle picking up two early fouls attempting to guard Devin Booker. Matisse had to sit with five fouls, limiting the time he had to guard Booker. Raul Neto gave the home team some quality mins in the third quarter scoring 14 points, but I’d still rather not see him on the floor. Norvelle Pelle had to play mins in the third and really didn’t make a difference defensively (more on that in my observations). Unfortunately, the best play of the third quarter was when Devin Booker drove to the lane and put Furkan Korkmaz on a poster.

The fourth quarter was pretty much the same, as Booker controlled every offensive possession. He got to the line, made pull-up jumpers, and found his teammates after double teams. The Sixers got the lead down to 5 but ultimately lost 130-117. The Sixers were led by Alec Burks (23 pts), Raul Neto (22 pts), Mike Scott (17 pts) and Kyle O’Quinn (9 pts, 10 rebs, and 11 asts). The Suns leading scorers were Devin Booker (35 pts, 7 asts, 9 rebs) and Mikal Bridges (24 pts).

Quick Observations from the game:

• Norvelle Pelle is a fouling machine. It is hard watching him play and foul everyone moving in an opponents’ jersey. He had some good spurts in some earlier regular season games but I can’t watch him any longer.
• It is good to see Glenn Robinson III back in the rotation trying to work his way back from his injury. It had been said that he had one of the best bubble camps out of all the players and I can see him really helping in the playoffs.
• Kyle O’Quinn is such a good passer. He had a career high 11 assist tonight. Earlier in the season when he received regular rotation mins, he showed he can operate from the high post and create for others. I still wonder how or what caused him to fall out of rotation.
• Devin Booker is such a savvy player. He knows how to get to all his spots on the floor and has great body control to finish through contact. It is a shame that he’ll never get a chance to play meaningful basketball in Phoenix long term.
• Brett Brown should never play Raul Neto that many mins ever again no matter what the situation is. I’m just not a fan of his game and I think he’s a huge liability on defense.