Oohweee, that was some rollercoaster of a day in Philadelphia 76ers land. Never in Our Dark Lord Sam Hinkie's tenure have we simultaneously had as much to celebrate and curse the skies about simultaneously — more the latter than the former since hey, it's the Sixers, but some semblance of balance is appreciated in a season as crappy as this one.
Let's start with the bad, since, uh, there's a whole lot of it. The foreboding news last night that the Sixers were waiting a day to decide what to do about Jahlil Okafor's recent CT scan of his sore knee — yeah sorry I was insinuating that this was a fake injury to get you out of the lineup for a couple games Jah BUT C'MON IT'S HARD TO TELL WITH THIS TEAM — paid off this afternoon with the announcement that Okafor had indeed suffered a small meniscus tear. He'll be evaluated again in six weeks, which those of you half-good at math and/or sitting in front of a calendar can probably deduce means he's donezo for 2015-16. The Sixers' full medical statement, courtesy of His Infernal Majesty:
“Jahlil recently started to experience discomfort in his right knee, which we immediately investigated. After a comprehensive series of tests and additional evaluation by our medical team, it was revealed that he has a small tear of the meniscus. Jahlil will undergo a minor arthroscopic procedure to address the injury. Timing and details of the procedure will be finalized in the coming days.
"Our medical team will continually monitor and evaluate Jahlil's progress, and we anticipate he will resume full basketball activities in
approximately six weeks."
All right, then, Jah, see you when we see you. News can't get worse than that for the Sixers this week, then, right? Not so fast, Rodriguez — things got potentially much, much worse during the third quarter of last night's SIxers-Nets game, when a three-car pileup between Robert Covington, Jerami Grant, and our old friend Thaddeus Young occurred underneath the Brooklyn basket. Thad eventually shook it off, and after a couple minutes of lying motionless on the court Jerami was helped to the locker room, but Cov, who'd caught a stray Jerami sneaker to the head, had to be very slowly lifted off on a stretcher.
It was a very scary couple of minutes, and we're not totally out of the woods yet — Covington was reportedly moved to Jefferson Hospital for evaluation of a possible neck injury, and Jerami is being tested for a possible concussion. At the very least, both regained consciousness, and Cov gave a quasi-affirmative gesture on his way off the floor, which probably counts as some kind of good sign. But man, the bad karma with this team... you have to wonder if the Hink pissed off even more agents of second-round picks in a previous life or something.
So, you said there was good news too, right? Well, there's this: The Sixers actually won a game. Seems like small potatoes amidst word of potentially life-threatening collisions and yet another big-man prospect on the IR with lower-body problems, sure, but after 13 straight losses and with 8-74 still technically in play, it's not entirely negligible, either. It was also heartening to see the Sixers gutting out a tough W — not in terms of opponent, of course, considering we were hosting the friggin' Nets, but just in terms of real-world circumstance — when rolling up the tent on the season would have been a not altogether unjustifiable response to the day's events.
A real team effort, too — no Baller scored more than Carl Landry's 16 points off the bench, but seven different players posted double figures, including a double-double for Nerlens Noel (13 points, 11 boards) and nearly a rather meek one from Ish Smith (10 points, nine dimes, and zero TOs to boot). It looked for a minute like we might give this away late, but Landry was huge down the stretch, and the Sauce punctuated an uneven performance with one huge three and one jaw-dropping off-the-backboard pass to himself for a layup. The Sixers were repeatedly punched in the mouth down low by Thad and Brook Lopez (45 points and 16 boards combined) but got just the stops they needed late, and emerged with the 95-89 victory.
NBA
So hey, nine wins! One more and we can officially put an ellipsis on the rest of this season, having escaped the specter of the '72-'73 season once more. We'll get another chance against Brooklyn next week, but next we host the Detroit Pistons for the 53rd and final time this season at the Center tomorrow night. Double-digit wins is not a myth, I have seen it. Get well soon, Bob, Jerami, and Jahlil.