By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
Memphis 92, Philadelphia 84 – Box Score
Capping off the holiday weekend in depressing fashion, the Philadelphia 76ers dropped to 0-18 on the season with a loss Sunday night in Memphis. In the process, they not only extended their historic losing streak spanning back to last season to 28 straight losses, but have now tied the record for consecutive losses to start a season.
Right now, the Sixers are like an old cartoon from the 70’s or 80’s where the writers shift the location and some of the characters around, but the basic plot remains the same and nothing has changed by the end of the episode. Tune in next time to see if the Sixers can finally get out of their own way!
For the fifth straight game, Philadelphia held a lead in the fourth quarter, as they led the Grizzlies by 5 points with 7 minutes left in the game. As predictably as a Taylor Swift single hitting the top of the charts, the Sixers fell apart from there. Philadelphia went ice-cold offensively and Memphis went on a 15-1 run, capped by 2 of Mike Conley’s game-high 20 points, to suddenly grab a 9 point lead with 3 minutes left.
It was a total 180 from the early part of the first portion of the frame when the Sixers were the team playing with all the energy and looked to have taken control following two straight charges drawn by Jerami Grant. How this team can consistently immediately go from the top of their game to looking like they’ve never played before will likely baffle the NBA analytics community for years on end.
After hitting a franchise-record 16 threes in their loss to Houston, the Sixers looked to be regressing to the mean hard early in the game. Philadelphia missed its first 9 shots from the field and was 1-10 from three in an ugly first quarter. The team would score just 31 points total in the first half. They did eventually put some semblance of offense together, basically behind the same pair that starred in the Rockets game.
Robert Covington stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, 7 rebounds, 7 steals, and unfortunately, 8 turnovers. Covington now has 21 steals across the last three games, looking like his defensive game is something he’s really focused on toward becoming a more complete player. Isaiah Canaan led the team with 16 points, but on just 5-15 shooting. Canaan takes more 25-footers at the end of the shot clock than I’ve ever seen, which isn’t his fault in itself, but just proves once again he should never be playing point guard minutes. He simply can not run the team and get them into any sort of offensive sets.
Tuesday night will be a matchup for the ages. Fresh off his retirement announcement, Kobe Bryant will be playing his final game in Philadelphia. The Lakers will enter the game at 2-14, and unlike the Sixers, they have not been at all competitive in their losses recently. It would not surprise me if Philadelphia was actually the favorite in that game, which is crazy for a 0-18 squad. As much as it might actually hurt the Sixers lottery-wise to beat the Lakers, I think it’s something badly needed for the collective psyche of the players, coaches, and fans. Hopefully, Kobe shoots his team out of the game with a 9-30 performance and the Sixers, finally, grab that first win.
Other Game Notes:
- T.J. McConnell shot a free throw! Remarkably it was his first career attempt, 18 games into his NBA rookie season. Since this is a member of the Sixers we’re talking about, he missed it, so he’s now a 0.0% shooter from the foul line on his career.
- Future Fast and the Furious star Jahlil Okafor was stymied by the stout defense of Memphis center Marc Gasol, shooting just 3-11 from the floor for 9 points. With Nerlens Noel once again sidelined, he did pick up the slack on the defensive boards, finishing with 13 rebounds in total.
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