The Philadelphia 76ers came up short to the Brooklyn Nets in the playoff opener. In a game where it seemed the Nets could not miss their shots, it seemed that the Sixers could not make any. It was a tough loss, but it is only one game. The good teams are able to pick themselves up and get back to business.
Some losses are taken with pride. A squad plays their tails off and were simply the lesser of the two teams.
Other losses are embarrassing. For 48 minutes, discombobulation and lethargy manifest in the form of a half-hearted basketball game.
Philadelphia 76ers fans should receive full refunds and free road beers after that game. There was no cohesion and it seemed like they did not want to be there, save Jimmy Butler.
More from Sixers News
- 3 Sixers players who could help Team USA Basketball
- 76ers 2k24 ratings: 3 most underrated players on Philadelphia roster
- 76ers head coach Nick Nurse bares lofty plans for Paul Reed this season
- Grade the Trade: 76ers swap Tobias Harris for superstar PG in mock deal
- Breaking Down Bombshell Report on Sixers Star James Harden
For 11 months there have been countless jokes on Twitter of Ben Simmons being a “coward” following his less-than-mediocre series against the Celtics in the second round all year. For right now, those jokes are all welcome. The Sixers could have played 4-on-5 basketball with Simmons off the floor and they would not have been any worse.
J.J. Redick and Tobias Harris appeared to sink beneath the moment.
Aside from the emotional distress from the ugliest performance by the Sixers all year, the Brooklyn Nets deserve credit. They are a real team.
They had six players in double figures and D’Angelo Russell continues to stick it to the Los Angeles Lakers for cutting ties. The young stud led the way with 26 points.
Brooklyn shot 11-26 from three-point range (42.3 percent) and the Sixers could not match. They seemed to halt every rally by quickly reversing momentum, thus disallowing the Sixers to get back into the game minus an early third quarter charge.
The Sixers committed turnovers and fouls at inopportune times. For three hours on a Saturday afternoon, the Wells Fargo Center was NOT the place to be for the Philadelphia faithful.
The Sixers will need to look at everything they did in this game and do the exact opposite if they want to avoid going to Brooklyn down 2-0.
Hopefully The Process will be able to maintain his health and provide that interior presence that the Nets simply have no answer for, despite Jarrett Allen showing lots of promise this year.
It will be interesting to see how Brett Brown has this team prepared coming out the gates in Game 2. There was no sense or urgency in this one.
It is unlikely that the Nets will snipe from long range like this moving forward but there cannot be a major discrepancy in future games. It is a shooter’s league and the five best shooters on the court all wore white jerseys with “BROOKLYN” stitched across the front.
An overreaction would be declaring this Sixers team doomed. A knee-jerk analysis would be discussing how the Nets can make it a competitive series against the Raptors while the Sixers blow up everything outside Joel Embiid.
At The Sixer Sense, we are honest. We do not let our bias in the way of delivering the truth.
What we all saw Saturday afternoon was a pathetic display of basketball.
Time to show heart. Time to take the Nets seriously. Time for Amir Johnson and Joel Embiid to keep social media scrolling away from the bench.
Game 2 will take place in Philadelphia at 8 PM E.T. on TNT.