Talk about a forgettable day for the Sixers.

It began with General Manager Bryan Colangelo having to address the media after Markelle Fultz’s agent decided to go rogue with conflicting information on the rookie’s injured shoulder.

It ended with a dramatic collapse in a 105-104 home loss.

Neither situation had to happen. The Fultz drama could have been averted with better communication between club, agent, and media. The buzzer-beater was only made possible by wasted possessions in the game’s waning moments. There’s blame to go around.

Concerning the latter, Brett Brown did not help himself or his team, taking a hands-off fourth quarter approach. T.J. McConnell, who Brown described as “inspirational” on the night, was not in the game. Timeouts were left unused. The Sixers caved down the stretch, going scoreless in the final 3:05.

Said Brown of the final minutes and the offensive execution down the stretch:

“I think the look JJ had on the broken play at the end of the game would have been the dagger. I thought JJ, on another play we run a lot, got tripped by James Harden as we were kind of stagnant. I think the play we call where Ben was at the rim and (Clint) Capela makes a great block would have put the game away. I don’t have any buyer’s remorse there.”

“I feel like the growth we’re going to make to be in the game, and the chance to win a game against a really good Houston team, isn’t good enough. ultimately we do have to be able to lock those games down with a little more authority. I feel that when we look at the tape, we’re all going to be a little bit smarter, but I wished that some of those shots fell. Ben’s at the rim and they block his shot. JJ has a dagger just to end the game. JJ drives and gets tripped. I’ve never really seen games where you (finish with) 10 free throws. There are some things there that are disturbing, but by and large we’ll go back and we will find a way to close out with 5, 6, 4 possessions a little bit better than we did today.”

He’s not wrong. His team had multiple chances to end it. Redick had a chance. Simmons had a chance. Houston benefited from swallowed whistles and a questionable goaltending call. That’s fair to point out while not making excuses for the loss.

Young teams need to learn how to win, but they also need in-game guidance when they get into these situations, and Brown didn’t provide that. You can look for moral victories here, but I see this one as a blown opportunity against a beatable team missing three players.

 

1) Final possessions

After a missed Harden three-pointer, the Sixers were up 104-96 with 2:35 on the clock. They finished the game with these five offensive possessions:

  • Simmons blocked at rim, Covington rebound, Redick tripped, turnover
  • Simmons turnover
  • Redick misses 3
  • Redick misses 3
  • Jerryd Bayless blocked, shot clock violation

They struggled to get into the offense and managed two late looks for Redick, who couldn’t hit.

On the final play, Ben Simmons ended up giving it to Bayless, who had his shot stuffed as the shot clock expired:

Joel Embiid didn’t touch the ball.

It started as an isolation set with P.J. Tucker on Simmons.

Then, after a Covington pick, Simmons got the switch and had a chance to drive on Eric Gordon, who held his ground and forced the pass instead. The Sixers had two timeouts left on the board and didn’t use them. Embiid didn’t leave the three-point line until the shot clock hit five seconds:

Those are the moments that will turn Ben Simmons into a superstar someday, and while Brett Brown trusts his guys down the stretch, you’ve gotta use a timeout before or during this possession.

 

2) An inspirational performance

T.J. McConnell had himself a game, finishing with 6 points, 6 steals, 9 assists, and 5 rebounds while frustrating James Harden for a good chunk of the third quarter.

It was typical T.J. on a play where Amir Johnson missed a wide open dunk, McConnell stole the ball back, and immediately fed his teammate for a second try. Amir laughed while thanking the heavens for the second chance.

McConnell played excellent defense on the night but was not on the floor during the game’s final minutes, when Brown opted for a lineup of Simmons, Embiid, Redick, Bayless, and Covington.

I asked him if he was disappointed not to be out there.

“I mean, that group had it rolling, so the coaches know what they’re doing. The players out there are playing their butts off and the ball just didn’t bounce our way really.”

Fair enough, I guess, even if the starters weren’t exactly rolling. Not sure what I was really expecting him to say.

But I’ll answer the question.

He should have been out there, especially on the final defensive possession when you knew Harden was going to be involved on the perimeter.

 

3) They’re your minutes now

With Fultz shut down for at least three games, there will be some extra minutes to hand out.

They went to Justin Anderson last night, who hit a couple of early three-pointers, but only snagged one bucket the rest of the way. He played 19 minutes, finishing with 8 points on 3-7 shooting and adding 3 rebounds. He was -13 on the night, but lead all Sixer bench scorers.

McConnell was second with his 6 points and Johnson added 4 to go along with 7 rebounds and 3 blocks. A fan sitting behind the media area kept yelling, “Get Amir Johnson off the floor. He’s ass!”

Dario Saric again did not look like himself, going 0-1 in 17 minutes with 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal. He did not attempt a two-point field goal. He’s averaging 5.6 points per game this season against a career average of 12.4.

Nik Stauskas, Jahlil Okafor, Furkan Korkmaz, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot did not enter the game. The Sixers bench scored 18 points.

 

4) Pick, roll, and pivot

He struggled late, but Ben Simmons finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists. We saw a nice addition to the offensive arsenal when he did this in the first quarter:

I’d like to see more pick and roll with Simmons. He was very effective running it with Embiid in the Detroit win, especially in the fourth quarter when he was able to draw defenders and kick it out for those late three pointers for Covington and McConnell. I’ll take that any day of the week versus putting a rookie in iso with the rest of his teammates standing around.