Feels Good to Be Dead Inside Again: Sixers Loss to Nets Couldn’t Have Gone Much Worse
JJ Redick, while commentating the Miami Heat game for ESPN last night, referenced a quote about things going badly for a basketball team. To paraphrase the quote from Flip Saunders, “don’t say you’ve hit rock bottom because it can always get worse from there”.
It took the Sixers about 24 hours to prove that statement true over the course of a single NBA game. That was the WORST! Aside from a bone sticking out of one of pur players legs that was the worst case scenario. The Sixers didn’t lose, they were flat out emasculated by the Nets. Here are some takeaways from the worst game of the year.
The Kevin Durant Led Play-In Tournament Nets:
Nobody wants to see the Nets in the first round of the playoffs. Would be a great storyline for the Sixers if they did but it would be a Hunger Games style fight to the death way too early into the playoffs. As long as Kevin Durant is healthy, this team is one of the top teams in the league.
That’s it. You can talk about this trade. You can talk about their bench. You can talk about New York City’s vaccination mandates. None of it matters. The only thing that matters is Kevin Durant effortlessly scoring a basketball because it can keep you in any series.
Everyone played their roles for that team tonight: KD and Kyrie attacked on offense, role players like Seth Curry hit their threes, the bigs played with high energy and blocked shots, and Ben Simmons hid like a fucking coward. Like I said, everyone played their roles to perfection!
Sixers down 21 at the half
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Seth Curry combined for 49 points
pic.twitter.com/i0AzyVQ9OT— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) March 11, 2022
What Was That Sixers Offense?!
Before James Harden even got here, the Sixers had a relatively nice flow on offense. They don’t have many shot creators so they relied on sets to get open shots and help Joel Embiid when he is double teamed. They had become really good at entry level passes to Embiid to put him in positions to score.
Well, they did the exact opposite of that tonight. It looked like a shell drill to get the defense warmed up in practice where you just move the ball around the perimeter to get the juices flowing. James Harden missed a ton of shots because he was stuck with a hot potato at the end of the shot clock and forced into a contested step-back three pointer.
The Nets really ratcheted up the defensive intensity but oh my goodness, that was IT 2 level tough to watch from the Sixers tonight.
Tyrese…You Were the Chosen One
I’ve always loved Tyrese Maxey because the moment never looks to big for him and he has a sense of belonging on a floor that features stars. The most shocking part of tonight was how lost he looked. On defense, he was completely lost guarding Seth Curry. Also sidebar, the level of intensity Curry had playing defense tonight was annoying. 4 steals?! Where did this new lockdown defender, Seth Curry come from?!
Back to Tyrese and his shortcomings tonight. There were multiple times he badly trailed Curry and flew by on a pump fake. He switched over to Kyrie Iriving and immediately got called for a foul on a shot. Then, on offense he msutered up two points.
I felt this bad performance like it was my own son barring my family name playing a bad game. I love you ‘Rese. Please never let me down like this again.
Tyrese Maxey is getting picked on defensively. He's bit on three different pump fakes, two from Seth Curry and one from Kyrie Irving, and all led to buckets. The #Sixers are playing antsy out of the gate and are struggling, down 26-15 with 4:50 remaining in the first quarter.
— Matt Gregan (@Gregan_Sports) March 11, 2022
Red Flag Alert:
A lot of tonight comes down to that Nets team was locked in and focused for a team that has spent all year neither locked in nor focused. They shot what felt like 80% and held the Sixers to 28% shooting by the time the Sixers starters came out. They had season highs in transition points, blocked shots and three pointers made. A lot of that is hard to duplicate.
From a Sixers standpoint, here is an issue that sticks out to me beyond this one isolated game. At the half, they were discussing how KD and Kyrie don’t require plays called for them. Everything just works out if you give them the ball and they will score.
Philly is spending so much time trying to figure out how Tobias Harris works beside James Harden. You know what, if you’re truly good at basketball, this shouldn’t be that perplexing to figure out. Like what they said with Kyrie and KD, the good ones just score. Everybody knows a guy who walks into a pick-up game where there are no plays called and just gets buckets off pure hooping ability.
The Sixers dedicating 5 years and $180 million to someone who they are now fitting into the offense and piece it together like it’s the Da Vinci code is pure insanity. That’s why there are Bradley Beal rumors already. And this is a story that could carry beyond tonight.
Regroup!
That was truly embarrassing. In front of Jalen Hurts and Travis Scott, the Sixers embarrassed me in front of my friends.
But we are back at it on Sunday in Orlando. Don’t sleepwalk through that one and get your focus back.
Because Monday, we go right back to war. The VORP King of the West is in town.