The 76ers are one of 146 teams in NBA history to take a 3-0 series lead in a best-of-7 series.
They’re now one of just 13 to lose the next two games.
These are not fun stats, and they are not encouraging stats, but they are revealing stats as the 76ers scramble to avoid becoming the first team in NBA history to blow a 3-0 series lead.
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So here’s tonight’s edition of Roob’s 76ers Stats off a lifeless 103-88 home loss to the Raptors in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.
MAKING HISTORY: This is the ninth seven-game series in 76ers history that they’ve led 3-0 after three games but the first that hasn’t been over by the sixth game. They’ve swept five of the previous eight series and won the other two in five games. They’ve lost nine straight series in which they’ve lost back-to-back games at any point. The last time they won a series in which they lost consecutive games was a 2003 first-round series against New Orleans when they won the first two, lost the next two, then won the last two.
3’S NOT DROPPING: After shooting 40 percent or better from 3 in each of the first four games, the 76ers took 37 3-pointers, 4th-most in franchise postseason history but made just 10 and shot 27 percent. The 27 missed 3’s are 2nd-most in 76ers playoff history. They missed 30 in a 102-94 loss to the Celtics in the first round in 2000. Danny Green was 4-for-9 from 3, and the rest of the 76ers were 6-for-28.
JUST 14 POINTS: Their 14-point second quarter was the 76ers’ worst in their last 167 home games dating back to the 2018 playoffs and a 13-point second quarter in a 113-103 loss to the Heat in Game 2 of their first-round series. The only other time in the last five years the 76ers scored 14 or fewer points in any second quarter was this past December when they were outscored 30-13 in the second quarter of a game in Atlanta that they wound up winning 98-96.
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WHAT'S THE POINT? Overall, the 76ers’ 88 points are their 5th-fewest this year and 2nd-fewest at home. They lost to the Celtics 135-87 in February. This was only the fourth home playoff game in franchise history in which the 76ers scored 88 or fewer points and lost by 15 or more points. It also happened in 1962 (the Syracuse Nationals vs. the Philadelphia Warriors), 1991 (vs. the Bulls) and 2008 (vs. the Pistons).
BRICK AFTER BRICK: In that second quarter, the 76ers shot 5-for-22 from the field. Danny Green was 3-for-5 – all 3’s – and the rest of the team was 2-for-17 from the field and 0-for-6 from 3. James Harden, Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle and Georges Niang were a combined 2-for-16 from the field in the quarter.
AN OMINOUS TREND: This was the 14th home playoff loss in 76ers history by 15 or more points, the first since a 16-point loss to the Celtics in Game 3 of their 2012 Eastern Conference semifinal series. They lost all 13 previous series in which they lost a home game by 15 or more points, including two when the franchise was based in Syracuse.
READ: 3 observations after Sixers' woeful Game 5 loss to Raptors
CLANK: James Harden had another poor shooting game on 4-for-11 for 36 percent. He’s shot 36 percent or worse in four of the five games in the series and going back to the first week of March he’s shot 50 percent in only three of his last 22 games, and he’s been at 36 percent or worse in 11 of those 22. Harden also had five more turnovers and now has 18 turnovers in the five games. The last 76er to shoot below 40 percent and commit 18 or more turnovers through the first five games of a series was Andre Iguodala in the first-round series against the Pistons in 2008. George McGinniss in 1978 and Andrew Toney in 1981 also did it.
ANOTHER QUIET NIGHT FOR JOEL: Joel Embiid shot 3-for-4 and scored 10 points in the game’s first nine minutes. He made just four baskets and scored just 10 more points over the final 39 minutes on 4-for-11 shooting from the field. He was 4-for-4 from the line in the first nine minutes but only shot two more foul shots the rest of the game. His six total free throw attempts match his 2nd-fewest all year. He was 1-for-4 from the line back in early December in a 22-point home loss to Utah. Embiid was also 0-for-4 from 3 and is now 4-for-17 from 3 in the series.
MAXEY’S STRUGGLES: Tyrese Maxey continued to struggle, shooting 5-for-14 for 36 percent on the heels of his 4-for-12 performance in Game 3. After making 22 of 32 shots in the first two games [69 percent] and scoring 38 and 23 points, he’s shooting 39 percent [17-for-44] in the last three with 19, 11 and 12 points. This is the first time since late November he’s had consecutive games with 12 or fewer points on worse than 40 percent shooting. Maxey, the 3rd-most accurate 3-point shooter in the NBA during the regular season, was 0-for-3 from 3 Monday night and is 2-for-11 the last three games.
RAPTORS CAN’T SHOOT EITHER: The Raptors shot just 8-for-31 from 3 two days after shooting 8-for-34 from 3. They’re the first team in NBA history to win consecutive playoff games while taking at least 30 shots from 3 in both and shooting worse than 26 percent from 3 in both. The Raptors are shooting 32.1 percent from 3 in the series, which equals the worst 3-point shooting ever against the 76ers through five games of any postseason series.
CHASING HISTORY: In NBA history, 146 teams have led a series 3-0. The first 145 all won that series. Of those 145 series, 91 ended in four games, 41 in five games, 10 in six games and three in seven games. So this is only the 14th time in NBA history a team has led a best-of-seven series 3-0 and then lost the next two games. The three times a 3-0 series went seven games: The 1951 Knicks lost to the Rochester Royals in the NBA Finals in seven games after losing the first three games, the 1994 Jazz lost to the Nuggets in seven games in their Western Conference semifinal round series after losing the first three games and the Mavs won the first three games of their 2003 Western Conference first-round series, the Trail Blazers won the next three, and then the Mavericks closed out the series in seven games in Dallas.