The Sixers lost again on Monday night, this time with James Harden missing a three pointer that would have won it at the buzzer.

That’s three-straight games out of the All Star break that have come down to the wire, with a brilliant win against Memphis on Thursday, a buzzer-beater loss to Boston on Saturday night, and a missed opportunity against Miami on Monday night. All three games were at home.

“It’s good teaching stuff,” said Doc Rivers after the loss. “We’ve been a really good execution team down the stretch. We were the other night against Boston except for they just made a shot, but execution wise, we scored every time. (Monday night), we just didn’t really (execute) the whole game, just had a really sloppy game even out of timeouts and that’s an area we pride ourselves. We scored a couple of times. We also blew some plays out of timeouts. That’s something that just can’t happen.”

Sixers fans don’t want to hear about “good teaching stuff” at this point in the season, or after that game specifically, since the team was out-shot by eight field goals, gave up double-digit offensive rebounds, and turned the ball over 18 times. Tyrese Maxey scored 23 off the bench while the rest of the non-starter group combined for 13 points, five of which came at the foul line.

It’s a game they should win and/or need to win if they’re gonna get fans to give a shit. They had three-straight at home coming out of the All Star break and 24 hours to put aside the Boston loss, only to come out flat and concede an eight-point halftime lead. It got janky again with a scoring slump to begin the fourth quarter, which forced them to claw their way back into it, only to fall short at the buzzer.


“I thought we were really flat in the first half, and we had two games with a lot of energy,” Rivers added. “The way we looked at it early is ‘let’s get to halftime’ and that’s what we did. I think we did a much better job in the second half. In the first half, I think they had 18 more shots than us. We had 10 free throws, so it was really 13 more shots. It’s hard to win a one-point game in a slow-down game like it was (Monday night).”

With the Sixers mini-home stand against playoff teams wrapped up, some generic thoughts:

  • Georges Niang is 3 for 11 since the break and 1-8 from three. He can’t hit anything, and when the shots aren’t falling he’s not exactly contributing elsewhere. He’s not grabbing rebounds, playing lockdown defense, or getting to the foul line. I fear for the what the playoff rotation will look like if his shots aren’t falling.
  • Two points in ten minutes for Jalen McDaniels last night. You gotta open things up, give him more minutes with Embiid on the floor, and see what you have here. You went out and traded for the guy.
  • Danuel House didn’t have a great start to the season, but no one did. You at least have to pair him with Harden and give the guy another shot here and see if he gives you something better than what the rest of the bench is offering.
  • Maxey’s second half was encouraging, especially when you look at the performances against Memphis and Boston. He got some second half minutes with the starting unit (replacing De’Anthony Melton) and just took off from there.
  • Think you gotta let Embiid play with four fouls. They were getting nothing offensively from three other starters.
  • Not sure why the Sixers played so much zone in this game. Didn’t seem like it fit very well. Erik Spoelstra joked afterward that it felt like a Syracuse game.
  • SLOW and plodding game overall, especially in the first half. Didn’t look like the decisive Embiid we saw against Boston.
  • Tobias Harris two points on four shots in 35 minutes.
  • They’re a bottom-half defensive rebounding team right now.

I think everyone who got back on the bandwagon after the Memphis win probably jumped right back off. Razor thing margins, of course, with these three games. If they went 2-1 out of the break, I think most people would be happy with that, but 1-2 feels like a big disappointment, especially because they have some brutal road games in March.

“We got to execute,” said Joel Embiid. “Just got to be locked in. I think that’s what I see from these last games. Memphis, we had to come back. Boston, we had a lead, lost it, and then we had to come back. Like I said, it starts with me. I just got to be better.”