The Philadelphia 76ers have had a simple formula for most of their wins this season. Sixers fans like myself are all too used to them getting a decent lead in the first half, then utterly blowing out a poorer opponent in the third quarter. But against the Dallas Mavericks on Feb. 17, the Sixers were the further thing from the second half team they’ve usually been.

Philadelphia got more than a decent lead over Dallas in the first half, as it shut down the hot Mavericks and were as efficient as ever. But all of a sudden and without warning, the Sixers utterly turned the switch off and collapsed in the third quarter for once. What’s more, the collapse continued in the fourth and doomed the home team to an 82-75 defeat.

The loss couldn’t have been more disappointing, considering how it happened and who it happened to. The Sixers could have used a statement win over the defending champions, given how they lost their last two games to winning clubs like the Los Angeles Clippers and Orlando Magic. Snapping the Mavericks’ five-game winning streak would have also showed how the Sixers can beat elite teams at their best.

All signs pointed to such a win in the first half, as Philadelphia was up by 14 at halftime and Dirk Nowitzki only had four points. But out of nowhere, both Dallas and Nowitzki got hot again while the Sixers went ice cold. Although the third quarter is Philadelphia’s specialty most of the time, it was outscored by 24-8 in that period anyway before anyone knew it.

The Sixers did briefly tie it back up in the fourth, yet the Mavericks had come too far to stumble now. The defending champions had been woken up and let off the hook, as they still had one more 9-0 spurt in them that took Philadelphia out for good.

Although the Sixers scored 24 points in the second quarter alone, they would only score 24 points in the second half as a whole. This made their overall stats look quite ugly, as Lou Williams only shot four-for-15, Andre Iguodala merely went two-for-nine, the team shot 33.7 percent overall and the starters combined for only 29 points. Nowitzki nearly outscored the starters by himself in spite of how most of his points came in just one half.

Philadelphia has lost a few disappointing games to elite opponents this year, although this defeat took the cake. The Sixers have only really looked overmatched this season in their three defeats to the Miami Heat and Magic, yet at least those poor performances didn’t come from nowhere. The team that dominated the Mavericks in the first half utterly went to sleep in the second, leaving us to wonder if they have enough to beat the elite for 48 full minutes after all.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident and 76ers fan.

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