The Sixers are certainly looking ahead to the postseason.

That’s the only explanation for a couple of pitiful performances against a couple of pitiful lottery teams in Dallas and Atlanta. I know the Hawks have been better in the second half of the year, but even without Joel Embiid, the Sixers have much more talent than that 29-win team.

You could put on your tinfoil hat and do the conspiracy theory routine. Are the Sixers tanking for the 4th seed? Are they point shaving? Do they want Milwaukee in the second round? Probably not.

So what gives?

I wrote on Tuesday that the Dallas game meant less than zero when figuring in to the playoffs, but unless the team had tonight’s matchup with Milwaukee circled on the calendar, there was no good reason to half-ass it for a second straight game when they could have pretty much wrapped up the three seed and then put the plane on auto-pilot next week. Why make it hard on yourself? Just lock in the seed, then take a Fortnite break. Get the job done now and stop procrastinating.

Defense was optional last night, as the Sixers rolled out the ole’ matador scheme, offering about as much resistance as Team LeBron in February’s All-Star Game. Atlanta shot 52.2% from the floor, which was their 8th best number of the year in that department. They shot 56% against the Sixers in Philly back in January. Brett Brown’s team was a pathetic 22-38 from the foul line (57%) and 4-18 in three-point attempts from players not named JJ Redick.

This game, however, was close for a couple of reasons:

  1. the Sixers pulled down a ridiculous 26 offensive rebounds, leading to 35 second-chance points and a 98-92 shot disparity in their favor.
  2. Atlanta committed a couple of boneheaded late-game fouls and turnovers, killing the clock and allowing the Sixers to make a final push.

With the Sixers down five and 33 seconds on the clock, Trae Young was whistled for a flagrant foul when he hit Jimmy Butler in the face during a scramble for a loose ball. Pretty terrible decision, in my opinion, and one that Philly would bitch about if it was called the other way. The Sixers had a chance to sink two free throws, cut the lead to three, and then get the ball back in a one-possession game.

Instead, Butler missed both, and then missed an ensuing three point attempt. Maybe his eye was bothering him after the wayward hand from Young, maybe not. He took a pretty hard whack in the face and his next action was a pair of free throws, so I can’t say whether his vision was good or not.

That was the game right there, those missed free throws. If the Sixers decided to play even half a modicum of defense or if they had even hit 70% of their foul shots last night, they would have won.

Instead, they return home tonight with unneeded pressure on their shoulders, the pressure of avoiding their first three-game losing streak this entire season. They put more pressure on Joel Embiid to be the savior, whenever he returns to the lineup. They put more pressure on their coach, who already has a legion of critics in Philadelphia. They continue to paint themselves into a corner and make life difficult when it really does not have to be this way, not at all.

I’m one of those people who believes this team can “flip the switch” come playoff time and clobber whatever opponent they’re pitted against in round one. That belief is anchored more in the idea that they simply have more talent than a Brooklyn, Orlando, Miami, or Detroit. Problem is, as Brown mentioned last week, this team really hasn’t earned the right to act like the Warriors and just cruise to the finish line. They haven’t even wrapped up the three seed yet, and even if dropping to fourth isn’t the worst thing in the world matchup wise (I prefer Milwaukee to Toronto as a second round opponent), that would be an ultimately negative thing that weighs on the coach and players and bleeds into the fan base as well, carrying us into the postseason with a lot of bad juju, a lot of surfacing pessimism. One good playoff win erases that bad taste in your mouth, but the Sixers had a chance to use the Listerine last night, and they didn’t do it.

So they need to come out tonight and get the job done. Beat the Bucks the way you beat Brooklyn last Thursday, with energy and purpose. Prove something to your fans and to the NBA and lock up that three seed, then put the plane on autopilot as we begin our final descent.

We’re close to extending the landing gear, but there’s still some work to be done, so finish your work, then you can go outside and play.

That’s it.

That’s the entire story. No graphics, no video clips, nothing at all.

If the Sixers didn’t give a shit about that game, then why should we?