Sixers Play Dead in Milwaukee

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Milwaukee 113, Philadelphia 100 – Box Score

Christmas is right around the corner, but the Philadelphia 76ers treated Wednesday night like Groundhog Dog. Different day, same results. I’d compare the Sixers defense to a revolving door, but an actual revolving door at least gets locked after-hours. Instead, of the classic “Lock All Windows and Doors” from Marc Zumoff, the Bucks were out there shooting 60.0% from the field.

At the very least, the Sixers let fans know early they could spend a holiday evening engaged in other activities. Milwaukee immediately jumped out to a 10-0 lead and led by 17 after one quarter. Giannis Antetokounmpo started the game a perfect 11-11 from the floor, before slacking off and misses his last two shots; he finished with a game-high 22 points. Facing his old team, Michael Carter-Williams had a vintage Sixers stat line with 18 points and 9 assists, but 7 turnovers.

Speaking of turnovers, Philadelphia had plenty of those once again, as 23 giveaways led to 36 Milwaukee points. Taking over point guard duties from Tony Wroten on the second night of a back-to-back, Kendall Marshall threw it away 6 times in 24 minutes. Offensively, Jahlil Okafor had a much worse performance than the night before. Although he dropped a team-high 17 points, it came on just 5-16 shooting from the field. Okafor was blocked 6 times before finally deciding to try a pump fake to score a bucket late in the game.

One bright spot for Philadelphia was Carl Landry making his Sixers debut. The veteran forward appeared fully recovered from wrist surgery, finishing with 10 points and 5 rebounds in just 13 minutes, and looked generally sprier than his final days in Sacramento where he looked to be on his last legs. We’ll see if his “veteran presence” ends up making much of a difference going forward for the team.

The team now has a few days off before taking the court in Phoenix Saturday night, where Jerry Colangelo and Mike D’Antoni will be on hand to get a first-hand look at their reclamation project. The Sixers could probably use the break; I know we fans should could. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!