At Least This Series is Over: Sixers Suffer Worst Loss in 40 Years
This season was supposed to be different they said. It was going to be better they said. But in the end, it was all just a tease. We just got our hopes raised only to have them crushed in an utterly painful and humiliating way.
After two soul crushing losses in Games 4 and 5 the Sixers gave up hope with a win in Game 6. It seemed like things were going to turn around finally and they would win Game 7 and advance to the Conference Finals for the first time in 2 decades. Instead, they teased us and handed us what I think is their worst loss since blowing a 3-1 in the 1981 Eastern Conference Finals to Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics. Sure, Kawhi Leonard’s game winner in Toronto was awful, but that was on the road in a series they weren’t expected to win anyway. The best player in that series made the final shot in one of the best single postseason runs in NBA history.
This series loss however, is unacceptable and unforgivable. The kind of loss teams don’t recover from. The Sixers had the best player in the series, and probably the 3rd and 4th best player in this series in Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris. And what makes Game 7 even more excruciating is that it wasn’t Trae Young’s brilliance who beat the Sixers, it was the Sixers own incompetence along with role players stepping up for Atlanta.
There is nothing worse in sports than letting a role player dominate a game, which is what I call a “Brett Brown Special.” And in Game 7 we saw a classic Brett Brown Era game with Kevin Huerter having the game of his life with 27 points, even though it felt like he scored 37 with how clutch he was throughout the game.
Instead of continuing the momentum from their impressive Game 6, the Sixers suffered more of the same in Game 7. Too many turnovers, giving up too many lobs, dunks and killer 3-pointers, Dwight Howard committing stupid fouls, the role players doing nothing, Tobias Harris not coming through, Ben Simmons being scared, Embiid running out of gas despite his efforts. And of course bad officiating. Since the players can’t do much about incompetent refereeing at all I will speak on their behalf:
It boggles the mind to think that the Sixers played 4 games at home in this series and went 1-3. One of the best home teams in the NBA couldn’t fulfill the minimum amount of home games needed to win a series they were supposed to win.
This game also changes the legacy of this entire era. Instead of the Process Era being this period of success for a team that saw little in the many years before it, it will instead go down in history as a cautionary tale. Anger the basketball gods with blatant tanking and you will be cursed with endless bad luck. The players you draft are either historic busts or good players whose flaws are so strong that they overshadow their positive contributions on the court. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for this Era, only constant hair-pulling and eternal frustration, a lifetime of “What Ifs?” in which any small moment could change the entire course of history for the better. The past decade has unfolded in ways that no Greek tragedy, opera, or Shakespeare play could unfold, it truly is that fascinatingly bad and bizarre.
I know what’s gonna happen next year. The Sixers are gonna enter the season with high expectations, start out hot, cool off, become frustrating, raise endless questions, then get bounced in the 1st or 2nd round again. Maybe they’ll change coaches or general managers. Maybe they’ll make some big trades, likely reaches and desperate ones, but it will likely lead to nothing. This will continue for a few years before they finally admit they have to blow the whole thing up and start all over again. And also you know Al Horford will look like his 2018 self now that he is back with the Celtics so you know what will be a blast.
So go to hell or whatever Hawks. Go Bucks. I’m just glad this grueling and miserable series is finally over regardless of the winner. I need a hiatus from basketball for awhile.
Take it away Chris,