Sixers KO’d by Knicks to Drop to 1-27

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

New York 107, Philadelphia 97 – Box Score

This year’s Philadelphia 76ers already set the record for longest losing streak in NBA history (28 straight dating back to last season). With a 9th straight loss Friday night dropping them to 1-27 on the year, they look to be on the fast track to joining the history books again for the worst season ever.

Once again on this latest losing streak, the Sixers weren’t even in the realm of competing for victory, trailing by around 20 points for the majority of the game and as many as 30 in the third quarter. The only reason the final score looks even somewhat respectable is that the Sixers are more adept in garbage time than Leroy from MTV’s The Challenge.

There weren’t any huge stat lines from New York, as the Knicks sat out its starters for the majority of the second half. Arron Afflalo ate Isaiah Canaan alive both out on the perimeter and posting up on the block, finishing with a game-high 22 points in 26 minutes. Canaan is much too small to guard larger wings like Afflalo, but he’s also much too terrible to play point guard, which circles back to the main problem that the Sixers are counting on someone like Isaiah Canaan.

If there was any positivity to be gleaned from this contest, it was that Jahlil Okafor ostensibly won the matchup with fellow first-round pick Kristaps Porzingis. Okafor had an efficient night offensively with 20 points on 9-17 shooting and zero turnovers. Meanwhile, K.P. had just 8 points on 3-9 from the field (although he did have 3 blocks). Big Jah took it to New York’s latest young star with a great move in the first half.

Okafor takes it to Porzingis https://t.co/UWz8sd4f8Y

— Michael K-B (@therealmikekb) December 19, 2015

Hopefully, if guys around Okafor ever start hitting the occasional shot (6-24 from three as a team), his game will start to lift others up around him in addition to just the empty counting stats we’re seeing now.

Meanwhile, in this week’s episode of As the Point Guard Turns, Kendall Marshall was very quiet in limited action and Tony Wroten continued to struggle in his return from ACL surgery. Wroten scored 15 points but turned the ball over a whopping 15 times in just 23 minutes. This tweet from Philly Mag’s Derek Bodner nicely sums up Wroten’s season thus far:

Tony Wroten has 17 made field goals and 20 turnovers on the season. #sixers

— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) December 19, 2015

Before the game, Sixers mascot Franklin presented Knicks center (and notorious mascot abuser) Robin Lopez with a pair of boxing gloves. Franklin, dressed as full boxing regalia himself, squared up to Lopez before a half-hearted tackle from the big man laid the blue dog out on the court. A member of the Sixers hype squad came over to the lifeless body of the mascot, declaring him down for the count. At this point, we can safely do the same for the Sixers.

Other Game Notes:

• Nerlens Noel returned to the lineup after missing a pair of games with a corneal abrasion. Although he went 4-4 from the field and had 3 blocks, he was mostly invisible throughout the game. Whatever happened to the rookie of the year finalist who was the backbone of a defense in the top half of the league? We need a plucky, female private investigator to get to the bottom of this. Veronica Mars, Jessica Jones, come on down.
• The team made it official earlier in the day Friday that Mike D’Antoni was joining the organization as an associate head coach. I wrote about D’Antoni being brought aboard for Today’s Fastbreak back when it was first rumored, and hopefully the innovative offensive mind can make some headway in helping turn around the league’s worst offensive attack. I also liked how it was reported by ESPN that D’Antoni’s motive for coming in is that he’s bored. Your Philadelphia 76ers: Passionate. Intense. Bored.