Sixers Show No Progress in Loss to Nets

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Brooklyn 100, Philadelphia 91 – Box Score

Almost exactly 11 months ago, the Sixers beat the Nets in the Barclays Center on a last-second Nerlens Noel dunk. Thursday night in the same arena, Philadelphia blew another fourth quarter lead and Noel was glued to the bench for the last 7 and a half minutes of the game. Looking back at those two games was a stark reminder for me, that while the team’s asset sheet has improved a bunch on paper, the on-court product has been zero progress during this rebuild. It’s no wonder people are frustrated.

Instead of having the team’s best player from last year out on the court, Brett Brown opted to roll with Jahlil Okafor, who had a nice game offensively with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while shooting a perfect 8-8 from the foul line. Unfortunately, there are two ends of the court and of all people, it was Andrea Bargnani who went off against him, scoring a season-high 23 points. I say it’s fitting it was Bargnani because his time in Toronto represents one of the black marks against former Raptors executive Bryan Colangelo, the son of purported Sixers “savior” Jerry Coangelo.

Brown also went with Isaiah Canaan, Point Guard for the final 4 and a half minutes of the game, which is perplexing given a season’s worth of evidence that he absolutely cannot be the team’s lead ball-handler in crunch time. But honestly, all the lineup decisions in the world aren’t going to matter when the Sixers shoot as poorly as they did in this contest. Philadelphia finished 4-31 from three, with Robert Covington, Isaiah Canaan, Hollis Thompson, and Nik Stauskas combining to shoot 0-22 from downtown. T.J. McConnell was the only guy who brought his shot on the train ride up to Brooklyn, recording a career-high 17 points on 3-4 shooting from three. Just another reason it was confusing Brown didn’t stick with T.J. down the stretch.

The other bright spot for the Sixers came from another rookie, Richaun Holmes, who also had a career-high with 14 points on 5-6 shooting from the field. Holmes has nice hands and a great ability to finish around the rim, which should be showcased more and more once real ball handlers start making their way back on to the Sixers roster.

Now 1-22 on the year and 0-2 in the Jerry Coangelo era, the Sixers are right back in action tonight at home against the Pistons. If Andrea Bargnani had a field day against Okafor, I shudder to think what Andre Drummond will do. The Sixers will get Kendall Marshall back on a minutes restriction, so hopefully between his and the limited minutes from Tony Wroten, the team can form some kind of mega-point-guard and end the Isaiah Canaan late game reign of terror.