Even as the Philadelphia 76ers surged to eight wins in their first 10 games, Joel Embiid sensed occasional unevenness when his team had the ball.
Those concerns compounded during Friday’s 119-95 road loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, leaving the Sixers aiming for improvement when they visit the Chicago Bulls on Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Embiid said. “Especially our half-court offense; it just feels like everything is, like, crowded, so we’ve just got to find a way to get advantages. … Try to get a few easy ones for each other.”
To Embiid, “every action just ends in a jump shot.” That approach did not bode well Friday as Philadelphia went 36.5% from the floor, including 10 of 40 from 3-point range.
Jaylen Brown (20 points) and VJ Edgecombe (19) provided stability. However, Embiid scored each of his six points from the free-throw line, and LeBron James was limited to just eight points on 3-of-12 shooting.
“Definitely not feeling the good rhythm offensively,” James said. “We didn’t look like much offensively. We had a couple of spurts. We (were) able to cut it, I think, to three in the third quarter, but too many turnovers on my behalf, and I didn’t feel in the rhythm offensively.”
The Bulls have been idle since Wednesday’s 135-105 road loss to the New York Knicks, which was their sixth straight defeat.
Reserves Tre Jones and Jaylin Sellers tied for the team lead with 14 points apiece as first-year coach Tiago Splitter gave minutes to 10 bench players as he searches for a solution.
“Especially the first half, we were selfish, taking quick shots,” Splitter said. “Pullup 2s, pullup 3s at the beginning of the shot clock; that’s not how we are going to play. (It) was contagious to our defense. Nothing aggressive, letting them get to the rim, not contain. Not a great game, especially the first half.”
Chicago trailed 84-52 after two quarters.
“Halftime was about whoever wants to be ready,” Splitter said. “We’ve got to share the ball, get side to side, and that’s what the second and third units did. They played that way and competed on defense.”
More lineup shuffling is likely ahead with offseason acquisition Nic Claxton (hamstring) expected to make his season debut Sunday.
“To have an injury in camp with a new team is frustrating,” Claxton said. “But I’m ready to run through a wall.”
Philadelphia and Chicago have split the past 10 matchups between the teams.
Host Philadelphia led by as many as 22 points during a 126-107 victory over Chicago on Monday, fueled by double-doubles from Tyrese Maxey (26 points, 11 assists) and Brown (25 points, 11 rebounds).
Caleb Wilson scored 24 points to pace Chicago while collecting four of the Bulls’ 10 made 3-pointers. He became the first rookie to contribute four steals and four 3s against Philadelphia since James in December 2003.
The Bulls, however, shot just 26.3% from long range in the game and 22.7% against New York. Chicago entered Saturday shooting 27.2% from 3-point range, lowest in the NBA.
