The Sixers Are Giving the Teams they Beat an Existential Crisis
The Sixers haven’t beaten many teams this season. And the ones they have been victorious over aren’t exactly making title runs. But when you’re playing a team in December or January, and you’re only their second or fourth win, losing might lead to some soul-searching. For a couple of teams, a loss to the Sixers sent them spiraling into full-on “what does it all mean” mode.
First, they beat the Lakers, but no one really cared because the Lakers are garbage. They’re not even trying:
Lakers GM tells ESPN that this season is all about Kobe and development takes a back seat until Kobe is gone: https://t.co/EAlQwEvUEn
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) January 6, 2016
The Sixers’ second win was against the Suns. That one almost cost head coach Jeff Hornacek his job, and actually did get assistants Mike Longabardi and Jerry Sichting fired. A couple of days later, they beat the Kings, which led to the Sacramento fans booing their own team and George Karl questioning his roster.
The Sixers’ fourth and most recent win came against the Minnesota Timberwolves. They took it the hardest. After being straight-up outplayed and outworked by Richaun Holmes, Carl Landry, and Ish Smith, the T’Wolves had a breakdown yesterday:
The day after the Minnesota Timberwolves’ most embarrassing performance of the season, the reeling group gathered at their practice facility ready to get back to work.
Only they didn’t practice at all. Instead, interim coach Sam Mitchell brought the team together at center court for 90 minutes of talk and soul searching, giving each player the opportunity to offer his view on what wasn’t working and what had to change going forward.
The T’Wolves loss to the Sixers was so earth-shatteringly awful they weren’t even able to practice. Ricky Rubio asked what it all means, finally realizing the absurdity of just tossing a ball around. Zach Lavine broke down crying after a windmill dunk, whimpering that “none of it even matters, because we’ll all be dead someday.” Kevin Garnett still yelled at everyone. And then the team resumed the Sisyphean task of trying to battle their way into the playoffs, only to settle right in the middle and start all over again.