The Philadelphia 76ers are looking forward to a new year. After a tough December schedule, the Sixers hope for some grace in January.
The Philadlepha 76ers have had a rough year, that’s been made clear. But December, at least for a while, had been particularly rough to them. Up until Christmas, the Sixers had yet to get more than a single win in December, with their most recent won game coming at the very begginning of the month against the Los Angeles Lakers. This was also the Sixers’ first win of the season. Fans are definitely wondering, especially with some recent changes to both the team’s roster and their managment, if January could be any better.
The Sixers’ record in December was 3-13. Although they kicked the month off on December 1st with a win over the Lakers, they wouldn’t see the next win until December 26th, 13 games following the Lakers game. In between these wins, the Sixers struggled to reach 90 points, regularly gave up over 100, and were even routed by over 50 points in one game.
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They lost by 20 to the Toronto Raptors, 19 to the Chicago Bulls, and 21 to the Atlanta Hawks. We knew this team was bad, and we didn’t even neccesarily think that they would win those games, but we had been used to them at least keeping things close in the beggining of the season. Up until late December, this is how things were, largely dismal, and largely upsetting for fans who wanted to see some quality basketball from the young and developing roster.
That mood did change very late in the month, in a surprising win over the Phoenix Suns. Starting off a road trip after Christmas with a win wasn’t a very typical thing for the Sixers to do, but no one, coaches, players, or fans, would be complaining that the Sixers were able to do this. Of course, it was against a tattered and bruised Suns team, but it was a win nonetheless, where the Sixers finally showed they could close out a game in the fourth quarter.
They followed that up with a rough start in a loss against the Utah Jazz, but came back and played the Jazz close for the rest of the game.
Lastly in December, the Sixers finished off a month that started with a win, with another win, going 2-1 in their final 3 games.
January poses a more difficult schedule for Philadlephia.
They start off the same way they did last month, against the Lakers, but then have the Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, and New York Knicks throughout the month. They have to finish off this month against the Golden State Warriors, the team that has seldom lost this season. A lot of these can be considered games the Sixers won’t win.
Luckily for Philly a majority of these games will be on their home court, making them a little less difficult.
Throughout the month there may be some experimentation between Ish Smith and Jahlil Okafor, so who knows if the team will be seeing many wins. If they can keep up the play that they have recently though, they could kick off their 2016 with a halfway-decent month.