Philadelphia 76ers Woes Against East Continue In Loss
By Josh Wilson
The Philadelphia 76ers were unable to use a winter storm to their advantage to secure a win against the Boston Celtics on Sunday.
The Philadelphia 76ers had just about every advantage imaginable coming into Sunday night’s game against the Boston Celtics. Home court, not having to change travel plans due to winter storm Jonas, an extra day off, and they were coming off of their first win over an Eastern Conference team all season.
The storm and snow in the area yielded a small crowd of just over 9,000 people, (which may have been an overstatement) and fans who had seats in the upper 200 level sections were invited to secure open seats in the inner ring once the second half had started.
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The East has been fairly strong all year, and the Sixers impressively knocked off the Orlando Magic–who they had fallen to earlier in the season–on their home court.
The Celtics had to change the day of their flight, and arrived in Philadelphia just a few hours before tip-off. You would think they would be at a disadvantage, and play at a lower level than usual, but they proved to be the better team by far on Sunday night.
The Celtics would escape the Center with a win by 20 points on Sunday. The Sixers didn’t have much going for them, and they really looked like the pre-Ish Smith Sixers we knew from the beginning portion of the season.
The Celtics had 29 assists on 43 field goals, and turned the ball over 16 times. The Sixers dribbled the ball way too much, only having 17 assists on 35 made field goals, turning the ball over an ugly 23 times. The Sixers shot below 40 percent from the field, and hardly broke into 30 percent from beyond the arc.
One of the most frustrating parts of this loss was that the Sixers were taking a lot of long 3-point shots with over 20 seconds left on the shot clock. Richaun Holmes, Jerami Grant, Nik Stauskas, T.J. McConnell, and Kendall Marshall all hit zero of their attempted 3-pointers. Combined, this crew went 0-for-9. There seemed to be no play development, and that’s really what the team did well as of late.
Robert Covington filled up his stat sheet with 25 points and 8 rebounds, but there was reason to even be upset with him. After starting the game 5-for-5 from beyond the arc, he went just 1-for-8 for the rest of the game. He was one of the worst offenders when it came to chucking up long pointless 3-pointers once the second half began.
Nerlens Noel had 12 points, and Jahlil Okafor had 10. Other than that, points were scattered everywhere, with no noticeable impact from anyone else. Nik Stauskas returned to the floor for the first time since a double-overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls only to score 2 points and go 0-for-4 from beyond the arc.
On the Celtics side, a lot went right. Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder both had 20 points, and Avery Bradley had 19. Jared Sullinger had 8 points and 7 assists. Sully also had 11 boards on the night. Evan Turner did well off of the bench with 11 points and 5 assists.
Although this loss was dismal, and hard to watch, Sixers fans can rest easy knowing that the team is one step closer to the first overall pick in this year’s draft. Winning two of the last four games prior to this game, fans were getting a bit uneasy thinking that the team was winning too much.
Next up for the Sixers is the Phoenix Suns at home on Tuesday. The Sixers beat the Suns earlier this year on the Suns home court. It was Ish Smith’s first game this year as a Sixer, and their first road win of the season. That game was a turning point for both teams. The Sixers started playing much better after that, and things really fell apart for the Suns after that game, so it will be interesting to see where each team stands and how they match up now about a month later.