Sixers takeaways: Third-quarter blues persist, costly turnovers and more in loss to the Thunder

OKLAHOMA CITY — The 76ers must solve their third-quarter problem.

They also need to take better care of the ball.

And with the schedule getting tougher, the Sixers look like they blew golden opportunities to get much-needed victories against the struggling Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls.

» READ MORE: Sixers lose third straight game in 129-104 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder

These things stood out in Sunday’s 129-104 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Paycom Center.

The Sixers (16-14) are now riding their first three-game losing streak of the season. But for a half, they appeared capable of beating the defending NBA champion Thunder (27-5), who have the league’s best record.

The teams played through six lead changes and 12 ties before Oklahoma City took a 64-62 advantage into the intermission. Afterward, the Thunder ramped up their defense, taking the ball out of hands of Tyrese Maxey, who had 23 points on 8-for-10 shooting in the first half. The Sixers point guard was held scoreless on 0-for-3 shooting in the third quarter, while the Sixers were outscored 38-24 in the quarter. Maxey added five points in the fourth to finish with a team-high 28 points on 10-for-18 shooting — including missing five of seven three-pointers — to go with five assists and a game-high four steals.

But the damage was done in the third quarter as the Thunder stretched a two-point lead into an 18-point cushion. They extended their lead to 27 in the fourth.

“The last game [against the Bulls], I was really aggressive in the third, which kind of helped us a little bit,” Maxey said. “Tonight, I got in the paint and passed a few times, like they were collapsing. But you know, Joel [Embiid] was on me, third quarters you got to go out there and go for it every single time. I’m going to try to do that.”

But in Maxey’s defense, he made the right plays. He just didn’t get a lot of help.

The Sixers were also doomed by turning the ball over.

They committed eight that turned into 14 points for the Thunder in the third quarter. And 14 of their 23 turnovers came in the second half.

“Just the whole second half was we were playing, obviously, the big amount of turnovers put us in trouble, getting our defense set up,” coach Nick Nurse said. “It’s obvious zero points per chance on 14 turnovers. It’s just way too many. I told the guys, the No. 1 key to the game. And a few of them, were like they are going to guard, they are going to pressure, they are going to deny, you know that. But there’s a good 10 of those are just our fault that we just didn’t make a strong enough play or the right read or whatever.”

» READ MORE: Rookie VJ Edgecombe knows he can score. He still defers to the Sixers’ Big Three.

Beating the Thunder was always going to be a tough task for the Sixers. But now, they take their longest losing streak of the season into Tuesday’s matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedEx Forum.

The Grizzlies were 15-16 heading into Sunday’s game against the Washington Wizards. Memphis had won six of their last nine contests.

As a result, the Sixers are preparing for a tough test. Then their final two games of the road trip are against the Dallas Mavericks (Thursday) and the New York Knicks (Saturday) before hosting the Denver Nuggets (Jan. 5).

With that, the Sixers could be in a downward spiral.

That’s why they blew opportunities in losses to the Nets (on Tuesday) and Bulls (on Friday).

“I don’t really look at it in any of those ways,” Nurse said. “I mean, I thought we played well enough in Chicago to win. Just needed to play a little bit better down the stretch. Brooklyn, we didn’t play well enough to win. They had a big night. They continued that.

» READ MORE: Why are the Sixers winless with their Big Three? A lack of rhythm.

“I don’t think that who we’re playing and who we played matters that much, because certain teams get in hot streaks. Doesn’t really matter what their records are.”

Nurse added that teams with good records don’t always play well, either.

“So we just got to play what’s in front of us,” he said, “and try to bounce back.”