The Sixer Sense
Fansided

Philadelphia 76ers: Top 10 moments of 2018

By Joe DiProsperos

Markelle Fultz | Philadelphia 76ers (Photo by David Dowt/NBAE via Getty Images)
Markelle Fultz | Philadelphia 76ers (Photo by David Dowt/NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
9 of 11
Next
(Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images) /

3. The Streak

On March 27, 2015, the Sixers were on the losing end of a 119-98 contest versus the Los Angeles Clippers in South Philly. Nerlens Noel had a team-high 30 points to go along with 14 rebounds, while Ish Smith was second on the team with 18 points.

Why bring this up, you may ask?

Well that loss ended up being the genesis of a streak.

And it was not a good streak, my friends.

As you might remember, not only did the Sixers not manage to win another game the rest of that season, but it would be a solid 8+ months (249 days to be exact) before they would win again. They lost an NBA-record 28 straight.

Nearly three years to the day of the start of that excruciating, borderline impressive streak of defeat, on March 15, 2018, the Sixers started another streak.

This time, it was a very good streak.

It started with a 118-110 win over the New York Knicks. And then they won again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

They won their final 16 games to close out the regular season, breaking not only a club record for longest winning streak which had been set by the legendary 1982-83 squad, but it also set an NBA record for longest winning streak to close out a season.

The nearly month-long streak included:

  • Ben Simmons averaging a triple-double in that span, and by all intents and purposes locking up Rookie of the Year honors.
  • A nine-game stretch in which the Sixers were without Joel Embiid due to his orbital fracture.
  • Arguably the team’s (and Ben’s) best performance of the year in a 132-130 win against LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers to snag the third seed in the East.
  • Markelle Fultz becoming the youngest player in NBA history to log a triple-double on the final day of the regular season.

The streak lasted through Game 1 of their First Round series versus the Heat before it came to an end in Game 2.

When you put that streak into perspective, it makes you feel all the more proud of this squad. It wasn’t long ago that we cared more about how many losses they ended the season with let alone how many wins they had. To finally have a team that has a chance to win every single night it takes the court is quite a turnaround. And for a month we got to experience what it was like to call not just a winning team, but a seemingly invincible team our own, and what a time it was.