This has been a miserable season for the 76ers philadelphia, but it has been miserable for mostly explainable and printingable reasons.
They signed the star striker Paul George in the free agency, but they have only had the combination of him, former MVP Joel Embiid and his own crop star Tyrese Maxey on the court 12 times due to injuries for Embiid and George. The rookie candidate of the year, Jared McCain, was ruled out for the year of January due to his own injury. They have even been relatively unfortunate when it comes to opposing shooters, who are winning more than 40% of their triples open this season.
But the 76ers have tried to persevere, believing that their talent would finally win.
“We will have to fight to probably enter the playoffs, and then we will have to fight to beat a very good team in the first round,” Daryl Morey, general manager of the 76ers, Daryl Morey He said to journalists After the exchange deadline. “But we felt that we would have had to play that team at some point to win the title anyway. And we are focused on [winning a] Championship, and I know you have to strengthen your eyes a little, but we feel that this group can still do that. “
Well, if you needed to strengthen your eyes to see those championship championships a week ago, you will need a couple of glasses quite strong to do it now.
Philadelphia possibly suffered his worst defeat of the season on Tuesday against the Toronto Raptors, and was mainly devoid of injuries when they played the core of three men from Maxey, Embiid and George. However, it was that trio that finally made them. Maxey was terrible, hitting only one of his nine shots per five total points. George was a little better, scoring 14 in reasonable shooting numbers, but Philadelphia still lost his minutes for 10 points.
And then there was Embiid, who, at a critical moment, gave Philadelphia a flashback to perhaps the worst time of his time with the team. Following two with less than 20 remaining 20 seconds, Maxey and Embiid ran a pick-And-volin at the top of the arch. Both defenders followed the leadership of Maxey, who passed the ball again to an open venture behind the arch. He held the ball for a second, considered shooting, and then decided to lead to traffic … just to turn the ball and fly a golden opportunity to take the lead. Toronto won, 106-103, after Maxey lost a tie in recent seconds.
If this brings some memories of past losses of Philadelphia, well, it should do it. Although the bets were not so high, Embiid’s decision to transmit an obvious shot attempt at the end of a game is evocative that Ben Simmons spent a tray in game 7 of the second round of Philadelphia against Atlanta in 2021. That was The last game Simmons played in Philadelphia, and remains a painful memory for the 76ers to this day.
Embiid did not get so far, but he had no obvious reason to let that shot. He had already taken five 3 in the game, and for the season, he is shooting just around his professional percentages since Deep.
This was just another brutal self -inflicted wound for a 76ers team that many of them have suffered in recent years. Now, with 20-33, Sixers have some difficult decisions to make with the rest of the stars. Entrepreneur You may need another knee surgery. George is having one of the worst seasons of his career. They currently owe their first round to Thunder, but is protected among the six.
Philadelphia has a path to one of the six main slots of the lottery, and does not even need to strengthen your eyes to see it. Probably begin with the closure of EMBIID and focus on the next season.
If it was an indication on Tuesday, it is not as if this season is likely to improve a lot in the near future. Even with a reasonably healthy version of your list, the 76ers simply cannot be kept out of their own way.
