MILWAUKEE — The 76ers can only hope to have a better start Saturday afternoon.
If not, odds are they’ll suffer a similar outcome to the Milwaukee Bucks as the one on Thursday night.
That’s when the Sixers’ starters looked sluggish, and at times disinterested, in the first half. That led to Milwaukee building a 20-point, first-quarter lead en route to taking a 124-117 victory at Fiserv Forum.
The two teams will meet again at 3:30 p.m. Saturday to cap the two-game series in the Cream City.
The Bucks also defeated the Sixers on March 17 at the Wells Fargo Center. As a result, they lead 2-0 in the team’s three-game season series. That’s important because, regardless of Saturday’s outcome, Milwaukee holds the tiebreaker over Philly. That would enable the Bucks to get the higher playoff seed if the teams finish with the same record.
The Sixers (39-20), losers of three straight games, dropped into a first-place tie with the Brooklyn Nets in the Eastern Conference with 13 games left. Meanwhile, the Bucks (36-22) are in third place.
The Sixers were without Ben Simmons and Furkan Korkmaz.
Simmons missed his third consecutive games with an illness. He did not accompany the team on the trip to the Cream City. Meanwhile, Furkan missed the game with a right ankle injury. The reserve swingman rolled his ankle early in the second half of Wednesday’s home loss to the Phoenix Suns. He returned in that game, but was originally listed as questionable against Milwaukee. He was ruled out after testing his knee during pregame.
Tobias Harris had missed the past three games with right knee soreness. Seth Curry sat out Wednesday’s game against the Phoenix Suns due to left hip flexor recovery. While he played on Monday versus the Golden State Warriors, Curry missed Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers with left hip flexor soreness.
With Simmons out, George Hill got his first start as a Sixer in just his third game with them.
The point guard’s first start came against the team that traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 23. The Thunder went on to trade him to the Sixers on March 25.
He was a part of an ineffective starting lineup.
Hill finished with six points on 3-for-4 shooting to go with four rebounds while finishing a minus-15.
Joel Embiid had 24 points on 9-for-21 shooting and go with a season-low three rebounds. Embiid, who didn’t play in the fourth quarter, was a minus-19.
Harris stepped up his shooting in the second half to finish with 18 points on 8-for-16. But the power forward had four points on 2-for-7 shooting the first half. He finished the game a minus-17, while Danny Green was a minus-18. The small forward failed to score after missing his lone shot attempt.
Curry had 11 points on 4-for-6, including making all of his 3-pointers, but was a minus-15.
Sixers reserve Shake Milton snapped out of his offensive funk, scoring 20 points.
Meanwhile, Giannis Antetokounmpo had 27 points, 15 rebounds and six assists for the Bucks. Khris Middleton added 24 points while making 4 of 7 3-pointers.
As a whole, the Sixers starting unit didn’t play well in the first half. It played with no energy or urgency. The second unit played better than the first, especially in the opening half.
During that time, Embiid was a minus-22. Harris, Curry and Green were all minus-18, and Hill was a minus-17.
Perhaps it was due to playing on the second straight night, but Embiid didn’t appear to exert a lot of energy on defense. Either that or someone kept blowing their assignment. That’s because Milwaukee center Brook Lopez, who Embiid guarded, was left alone. Taking advantage, he buried four wide-open 3-pointers in the first half.
Looking tired, Embiid also took a lot of jumpers instead of posting Lopez up.
Jrue Holiday and Middleton both made their first two baskets to give the Bucks a 10-0 lead one minute, 35 seconds into the game. That led to Sixers coach Doc Rivers calling a quick timeout.
The Sixers hit a couple of baskets after the timeout leading to Milwaukee calling one. But the Bucks went on to build 33-13 lead on Pat Connaughton dunk with 4:17 left in the quarter, forcing Rivers to call another timeout.
The Bucks went on to maintain a double-digit lead for most of the game.
