Third Quarter Disaster Sinks Sixers as Blazers Torch Them From Deep

The Sixers reached halftime in Portland in a competitive game that was still there for the taking. By the end of the third quarter, it was gone and wiped out by the same problems that keep resurfacing and refuse to be fixed. What followed was not surprising anymore, just damaging. If everyone in the building knows the third quarter is coming, the real question is why the Sixers keep walking into it unprepared, as another third-quarter collapse swallowed a winnable night and exposed a flaw that continues to define this team.

The 76ers closed out this west coast trip, taking on the Portland Trailblazers, looking to finishthe five-game travel strong. This game would be played without Joel Embiid, Dominick Barlow, and Quentin Grimes, raising the difficulty level for closing out this road trip with a win.

The first half was a back-and-forth track meet with the Blazers shooting from deep, which has been their identity all season, and the Sixers kept fighting back with Kelly Oubre Jr. and Tyrese Maxey both chipping in 16 going into halftime. Though the Blazers went 12-28 from beyond the arc, the Sixers dominated in the paint 30-18, which kept them in the game, taking a one-point lead into the locker room at the half.

The second half was the return of a familiar foe for the Sixers, who have had trouble in the third quarter all season, and tonight this was one of the biggest downfalls of the season, where the Blazers outscored the Sixers 49-22. This was because the Blazers got hot from distance, and they were shooting the lights out all third quarter. Led by Toumani Camara, who had a career high in points and three pointers made with 30 points and 8 three pointers made. Deni Avdija dropped in 26 the Blazers en route to a 135-118 Portland win.

Maxey Finds New Ways to Get the Job Done In Loss

Maxey is an All-Star starter for a reason, and this game was a clear example of why, even when his jumper was nowhere to be found. He went 2-for-9 from three and still got to 30 points on 10-for-21 shooting because he stopped waiting for the outside shot to bail him out and started driving and chasing points the hard way. He went downhill living in the paint, and he made Portland send him to the line where he went 8-for-8, which is exactly what stars do when their primary angle isn’t there. The Sixers were missing so much firepower tonight that they had so little margin, and Maxey still put the Sixers on his back for long stretches tonight as he has all season.

This is the version of Maxey that we want to see moving forward: cool, calm, and consistent. When teams take away the serious threat from beyond the line, the confidence to get thirty comes from decision-making, not just sinking shots, and he kept making the right reads even as the game got out of control. He mixed decisive drives, then used those drives to catch the defense sinking back to make pull-up jumpers that at least forced Portland to defend multiple actions instead of sitting on the first look, and he still added four assists despite the spacing problems around him. The promising thing that wasn’t always the case early in the season, if Maxey’s three is cold, he can still control a game with rim pressure and free throws. This will give him a chance to get himself into the groove.

The Third Quarter Descends the Sixers

The third quarter has turned into the Sixers’ nemesis this season, and tonight in Portland, it did real damage fast. The 76ers lost the third 49-22, which is the kind of swing that makes all of the hard work they did in the first half feel pointless five minutes into the second. This is not tonight, either. Over 52 games this season, the Sixers are -206 in third quarters, which works out to almost 4 points lost per game after halftime. When you carry that stat into every game, you aren’t just coming out of the half slow; you’re handing opponents a built-in run window every night, and you’re forcing your best players to spend the fourth quarter trying to fix something that should never have broken.

What makes it worse is the contrast. The Sixers score 61.1 points per first half, which sits near the top of the league, so the game plan is working early, and then it falls apart after halftime adjustments. In the third quarter, they averaged only 26.3 points, dead last in the NBA. That’s the part that should scare you moving forward, because the postseason is basically teams making adjustments on the fly, and the adjustments are more pronounced coming out of the half. If your normal pattern is to lose the first six minutes after the break, your margin for error shrinks to almost nothing, you invite whistles and turnovers by chasing, and you put the entire night on late-game shotmaking. Ask yourself this — when your opponent knows that the third quarter is your weakness, why would they ever let you get into a rhythm out of the locker room?

The Trailblazers Bring Rain From the Outside

Portland did not just shoot well from deep tonight. They drenched the court in threes and turned the Moda Center into a torrential downpour. The Blazers finished 18 of 37 from three, good for nearly 49 percent from long range. That means nearly half of every deep ball they launched went in, and since this is the Blazers’ identity, they took command in the third quarter and never looked back. Portland’s heat from outside accounted for 54 of their 135 points. Meanwhile, the Sixers couldn’t do anything with that volume and accuracy with little resistance, and the scoreboard reflects it.

The rain of threes didn’t start in bursts; it started early and kept pouring all game, especially in that third quarter where Portland used the three-point shot to pull ahead to stay. It was all set up by Portland’s incredible ball movement and the Sixers’ overpursuit, trying to choke off the three-point attempts. Because of the chasing, on defense, the Sixers played soft on the perimeter, and against a team like the Blazers, that is a quick path to a loss. When the opponent scores 54 points on threes, and you still lose by 17, you have to ask yourself if defending the arc is a priority or an afterthought. The Sixers dominated the paint tonight, but that set up Portland to do what they do best.

If everyone in the building knows the third quarter is coming, the real question is, why do the Sixers keep coming out of the half unprepared?

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