Sixers can’t overcome starting lineup’s first-half struggles in 124-117 loss to Milwaukee Bucks

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 they did 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 a 124-117 victory at Fiserv Forum.

“Yeah, it did,” Doc Rivers said of his starters’ first-half performance hindering them. “I mean you give up 40 points [in the first quarter] and I think they were shooting [73.7%] for ... the first quarter.

“You can make a case the game was pretty much decided.”

The 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 teams’ three-game season series. That’s important because, regardless of Saturday’s outcome, Milwaukee holds the tiebreaker. 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 2½ games back in third place.

» READ MORE: Sixers point guard Ben Simmons remains sidelined, didn’t make trip to Milwaukee

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, Korkmaz 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 ankle during pregame warmups.

Tobias Harris had missed the past three games with right knee bone bruise. 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.

“We didn’t have a lot of pop, you know,” Rivers said. “And Tobias, he was rusty. He just needed to go. That’s why we put him back, just to get some rhythm. The same thing for Seth. I thought it got it going a little bit.”

Rivers didn’t like the Sixers’ defense.

The Bucks ended up shooting 55.6% for the game, including making 20-of-40 three-pointers.

“That’s back-to-back games for us where we shot over 50% and lost,” said Rivers, who’s team shot 50.5%. “That’s unheard of, but it happened twice. It doesn’t matter who’s in or out, we got to defend better.”

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 to 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 three-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 6 assists for the Bucks. Khris Middleton added 24 points while making 4-of-7 three-pointers. Bobby Portis also came off the bench to torch the Sixers for 23 points while making all five of his three-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 three-pointers in the first half.

Looking tired, Embiid also took a lot of jumpers instead of posting up Lopez. The MVP candidate didn’t speak to the media after the game.

Asked if he thought the big man looked fatigued, Rivers said he didn’t know.

“We were going to watch his minutes anyway,” he said. “So I don’t know. Everybody seemed fatigued. I don’t think it was just Joel. I would love to say Joel played better than most of our guys tonight. I just felt that we were late on everything.

“We were soft tonight defensively. That first quarter we got every shot they wanted, and we didn’t put much resistance up.”

» READ MORE: Sixers rookie Tyrese Maxey stays ready to avoid having to get ready

Jrue Holiday and Middleton both made their first two baskets to give the Bucks a 10-0 lead 1 minute, 35 seconds into the game. That led to 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’s 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.

“They didn’t feel us defensively tonight,” Harris said when asked if fatigue was a factor. “Too many straight line drives. Too many short close outs to the shooters. You know they got where they wanted all night without any resistance. So, [there was some] fatigue, but not [an excuse].

“[Defense] is something we have to get better at.”