If the Sixers lost by 20 in Brooklyn, but everybody was distracted by the Eagles win, then did it really happen?

Unfortunately, yes, it still counts, a bad loss minus Joel Embiid, who missed the game via illness. Three games in four days makes for a packed slate, especially when that stretch starts with a tough win in Boston on national television. I’d advocate for a 70-game NBA schedule, but that’s another story for another time.

Brett Brown’s team looked out of sorts offensively Sunday night, putting up a season-low 89 points, which was seven points worse than the Joel Embiid Toronto donut game.

In previous games without Joel, Ben Simmons has been able to play a bit like Giannis, a downhill athlete surrounded by shooters and given space to work inside. The Sixers just didn’t replicate that this time out, with Ben putting up a 20 point game while other guys unable to do much from the perimeter to help him out, which resulted in a 43% shooting night with a 5-26 mark (19.2%) from three:

That’s not gonna get the job done on most nights.

The Sixers are actually a top-eight three-point shooting team this season, hitting at 36.5% on 29.2 attempts per game, which is way down at 27th overall. You could actually make an argument that they should shoot more from three, based on that discrepancy, but then you’d be getting away from the paint-pounding and post-up game that has seen them get out to a 20-8 start this season.

One thing about last night is that Al Horford didn’t look like himself on his return from injury. He wasn’t moving like he usually does and his shots weren’t falling, all 15 of which I clipped here:

Decent looks, the three pointers, and he’ll hit those short hooks typically at a higher percentage than what we saw last night.

Couple of other notes:

  • The Sixers were only 10-17 from the foul line last night. They’re now 26th in the NBA at 74% overall, which is poor.
  • Raul Neto continues to be preferred to Trey Burke off the bench. Burke’s dad tweeted about it (spoiler: he’s annoyed).
  • Josh Richardson was 5-15 and had a 0-4 three point night. He’s been rusty offensively since coming back from the hamstring injury.
  • Norvel Pelle got 20 minutes last night while Kyle O’Quinn only played five. Interesting storyline developing there.
  • 12 offensive rebounds for Brooklyn with Embiid not in the picture.

Just a throw away game for the Sixers. Don’t really need to spend more than 400 words talking about it.