Someone in the Sixers’ organization must’ve stepped on a broken mirror while walking under a ladder and petting a black cat.
This is fine.
We’re just watching the Sixers’ 2019-20 season crumble right before our eyes.
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SIGN UP HERE Some of this is horrendous luck. Some of this is of their own doing. In some cases, it’s a little of both.
Just a day after we found out Ben Simmons would be out for at least two weeks with nerve impingement in his lower back, Joel Embid was forced to leave Wednesday’s game in Cleveland with a shoulder sprain.
The team then went on to lose to a Cavs team that had won 16 games coming in, putting the Sixers at 9-21 on the road this season.
While we don’t know the full extent of Embiid’s injury, it doesn’t bode well. With Simmons already out, the Sixers need Embiid to be the dominant player that put up a career-high 49 points on Monday. If both players are on the shelf for an extended period, who knows how far this team could fall.
NBA
This is fine.
Thanks to the Miami Heat’s recent swoon, the Sixers remain just a half game out of the fourth spot with 23 games remaining.
The fourth spot. The fourth spot.
This team was supposedly built for the playoffs and to conceivably win a championship. Their head coach boldly claimed he wanted the No. 1 seed. Instead, they may end up a fifth seed, meaning they’d start the playoffs on the road, where I’m sure their woes away from home will get sorted out — because that's the time you sort these things out, right?
Where’s the smash mouth offense and bully ball defense Brett Brown promised? The Sixers instead got smacked in the mouth away from the Wells Fargo Center yet again by a team playing out the string.
This is fine.
The players who were supposed to complement Embiid and Simmons and pick up the slack for them when they were off the floor have not done so. The trio of Tobias Harris, Josh Richardson and Al Horford — that will make over $70 million combined this season — shot 12 of 35 Wednesday.
Second-year guard and 2018 second-round pick Shake Milton outplayed Harris and Richardson. Kyle O’Quinn, who makes the veteran minimum and hasn’t played meaningful minutes since Jan. 20, outplayed Horford. That can’t happen. That especially can’t happen when you’re missing your two All-Stars and playing the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In his first season here, Richardson has questioned his team's lack of effort, accountability and on Wednesday, its heart.
This is fine.
Maybe Embiid’s injury won’t be serious. Maybe Simmons’ absence won’t extend for too long beyond the two weeks. Maybe the five starters can figure it out and Harris, Richardson and Horford will be able to space the floor like GM Elton Brand thought they would. Maybe they can become a defensive bully yet.
Maybe.
"That still is my goal — keeping the boys in the boat, landing the plane, keeping our form, our health all that stuff — [keeping] our spirit the way that it needs to be," Brown said to reporters postgame. "We will move on from this. It’s a good thing we’re in the NBA. In 24 hours you’ve got a chance to move this aside and go try to find a way."
You figure the Sixers’ luck has to change at some point, but time is running out. This season is getting away from them.
This is fine.
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