Sixers vs. Cavaliers takeaways: Doomed by lack of physicality early on, more production needed from Marcus Morris

The 76ers have to match an opponent’s physicality from the start.

Patrick Beverely’s presence helped them get back into the game. But they must get better production out of Marcus Morris.

Those three things stood out after Tuesday’s 122-119 overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in an NBA In-Season Tournament game at Wells Fargo Center.

Here are the takeaways:

» READ MORE: Inspiring basketball, but too little, too late as Sixers come up shy in overtime against the Cavs

It was the physicality on both ends of the floor that enabled the Cavs (8-6, 2-1) to build a 65-53 advantage at intermission.

“When we’d drive around them, they would body us out of the lane,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “We were just a little jumpy. I thought we were jumping our feet, trying our feet, not sliding early.”

The Sixers did a better job in the second half. However, Cleveland was able to extend their lead to 18 points early in the third quarter before the Sixers figured things out.

With the Sixers trailing, 86-73, Beverley subbed out Tyrese Maxey with 2 minutes, 28 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The Sixers responded by outscoring Cleveland, 6-2, the rest of the half.

Then in the fourth quarter, Beverley was a plus-9 in 9:43. His presence enabled the Sixers to force overtime.

“We were having a hard time keeping the ball in front,” Nurse said. “We were having a hard time with the pick-and-roll at times. He was able to shut the water off on a lot of that.

“I thought the group, [Danuel] House, [Robert] Covington, Pat, they were getting the deflections, knocking the ball, creating a few turnovers, which we needed because we were getting some good offense out of that.”

Beverley finished with two points on 1-for-2 shooting along with four rebounds, two steals and one block. He was a team-best plus 11 in 20:47.

The Sixers need to get more out of Marcus Morris.

The North Philly native was acquired from the Clippers along with Covington, Nic Batum, and KJ Martin in the Nov. 1 trade that sent James Harden and PJ Tucker to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Morris was expected to provide scoring off the bench. However, he’s been limited while trying to get into game shape. On Tuesday, the reserve forward didn’t register a single statistic in 2:54.

He’s scored a total of eight points on 3-for-10 shooting -- including making 1 of 5 three-pointers in seven games. Morris is also averaging 1.0 rebound and 7.1 minutes.