The good news is that even when the Philadelphia 76ers lose to the Houston Rockets, it still counts as half a win for us. There's so much overlap between the two franchises at this point — between Sam Hinkie, Robert Covington, Isaiah Canaan, K.J. McDaniels, did Andrew Goudelock ever play for us at Summer League? — that the shared DNA gets us a demi-W whenever the Rockets emerge victorious. Good thing, too, because the Rock Boys snuck a tough one out against the Sixers last night, weathering a couple late surges by our not-quite-Veteran Varsity squad to win 118-104.
Really looked like we had a chance in this one, because our wings were hitting (multiple threes for Hollis Thompson, Isaiah Canaan, Robert Covington, and even Ish Smith), the Rockets have no interest in playing transition defense, and James Harden was on an off night — which, of course, still equates to a 29-9-8 for the Beard, but considering he needed 26 shots to get there (and he dropped 50 on us not all that long ago), we'll take it. Nerlens Noel, in his first game back in nearly a week, was also supremely active early, looking like he was on his way to a season-best performance. He still ended up with a 17-9-4-2-2, but he missed a couple crucial shots late — a couple seemingly easy putbacks and gimmes at the cup — and he somehow managed just one defensive board the whole game, as Dwight Howard feasted for the Rockets on the offensive glass.
And actually, post scoring kind of ended up the difference last night, as both Nerlens and Jerami Grant were given seemingly countless opportunities in the dwindling minutes of this one to score at and around the basket, but just couldn't put ball in hoop. Would be nice to have Jahlil Okafor available for some such situations, but Jah missed his fifth straight with calf soreness, resulting in a trip to the doctor's for a CAT scan that should determine when (and indeed, if) he plays again this season. The team is scrapping more without him, but we've certainly proven that he's not the source of all our defensive woes — without Okafor these last five games, we're still giving up about 114 points a game.
Next up: A Friday home date against the Brooklyn Nets, maybe our best chance left to at least tie the nine-win Sixers of 43 years ago this season. Just 18 games left, can we really not escape with a measly two more victories? Even the Lakers appear to be getting their crap together, how hard can it possibly be?