By Sean Kennedy
Memphis 103, Philadelphia 77
The Sixers expended so much energy and effort in a tough loss to Indiana Friday night; it was like Brett Brown squeezed every bit of talent out of his group to try and take down the Pacers. However, you know what happens after you squeeze everything out of a piece of citrus fruit: you’re left with a useless, torn-up piece of rind. This Memphis game was the rind.
The game remained close in the first half, mainly because, like the Sixers, the Grizzlies were uncharacteristically having turnover difficulties of their own, as each team finished the game with 22 giveaways. Memphis cleaned up its act in the second half though, and once they started getting shots off, they easily pulled away because the Sixers were having no part of putting the ball in the hoop. Philadelphia shot just 37% from the floor, a number which drops to 31% if you take away the 10-16 from Michael Carter Williams, who finished with a game-high 23 points. The glorious ball movement we saw against the Pacers gave way to passes being flat-out through out of bounds.
Other bright spots for the Sixers included Thad Young finally ending his slump from the outside going 4-5 from three, while also collecting 6 steals, and Tony Wroten whipping out his ‘wreckin’ ball Wroten’ persona (and showing off the right hand again!) as he shot 6-11 for 13 points. Still, the turnovers, the poor shooting from the support cast, and the inability to stop Mike Conley, who finished with 19 points in just 23 minutes, all added up to the 20th-straight defeat for the Sixers. As SportsCenter seems intent to make sure everyone in the world knows, that ties the franchise’s longest losing streak in history. With the upcoming slate of games featuring Indiana, Chicago, New York, Chicago, San Antonio, and Houston, the NBA-worst mark of 26 straight losses by the 2010-11 Cavaliers is firmly in sight.
Notable Observations:
- After a nice stretch of games, James Anderson came back down to earth with an ice-cold 2-11 shooting performance, including 0-6 from three and 5 turnovers. Adding injury to insult, Anderson bumped knees with a Grizzly, suffering what was later diagnosed as a quad contusion; he will not be traveling to Indiana for Monday’s game.
- Recent 10-day contract signee Darius Johnson-Odom made his debut with the Sixers, and fit right in with the rest of the boys, going 0-5 from the field and 0-2 from the line for zero points in 10 minutes. The Sixers are cycling through players so quickly that Malik Rose can’t even keep track of them, as he mistakenly called Darius ‘Odom-Johnson’ during the broadcast.
- Brandon Davies was back on the court after missing 2 months following finger surgery. Hopefully, his return to uniform won’t take away from his expert towel-waving on the bench. No one on the sidelines got quite as excited as a suited-up Davies for those rare occasions when the Sixers had a big play. I would hope having to focus on intermittently entering the game again won’t take Davies away from his true calling as a sideline hype man.
Tanking Implications:
Sadly, Milwaukee refuses to do the Sixers any favors, as they lost Saturday night as well and remain 2 games back of Philadelphia in the standings. Michael Carter-Williams played well in spurts, continuing to develop his floater in the lane among his team-high 23 points, but 6 turnovers against just 3 assists isn’t a sign of progress for the rookie. Hollis Thompson, Byron Mullens, and Darius Johnson-Odom combined to shoot 0-13, and those three plus James Anderson were 0-11 from three (#TogetherWeBuildUsingShotsAsBricks). 3/5 tanks
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