With the Philadelphia 76ers resting all of their regular players in the rotation after a tight contest, the Boston Celtics, to the suprise of no one, mauled them in their third preseason outing. The defending champions made light work of the depleted visitors, turning in a margin of victory of 50 points with a 139-89 walloping.
Save for the injured Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics trotted out their barrage of stars, and the 76ers’ third unit simply cannot overcome the insurmountable talent deficit. Nonetheless, here are the three biggest takeaways from
3. The 76ers absolutely lack natural playmakers beyond their regulars
Beyond Tyrese Maxey, a converted point guard himself, the squad is bereft of natural playmakers. At this point in their careers, Kyle Lowry and Reggie Jackson should not be banked on to handle a full-time, table-setting role, making it crucial for the other guards in the roster to step up and accelerate their growth in that end.
No player logged more than three assists, not even Jeff Dowtin Jr. nor rookie Jared McCain. While this can be tossed up to horrible shooting from the team across the board, they simply failed to muster varied actions that can put them in the position to score against the tight Celtics defense.
As things currently stand, the 76ers would be better off assigning the backup minutes and second-unit playmaking duties to Lowry and/or Jackson. The other options on the roster don’t have enough playmaking reps yet to handle the role off the bench.