Have we mentioned the Philadelphia 76ers are now officially as bad as we expected them to be this season? If not, well then: The Sixers are now officially as bad as we expected them to be this season. We're 2-9 in our last 11 games, with the only two wins coming at home against the even woefuller Bucks and Magic--two wins that took a combined three overtimes and several Spencer Hawes miracles to secure. Last night's loss to the Bobcats wasn't the worst, but it was pretty bad--105-88 in a game that was never really in question at any point in the second half.
But at the very least, it's usually an entertaining awful--high-scoring affairs in which it's always just higher-scoring for the other side, which is always an easier tanking pill to swallow to a team that just can't put the ball in the basket. Still, it does mean that every now and then--and really, each and every now and then--you watch a defensive sequence with this team that just makes you want to fast forward the calendar to June.
The nadir probably came last night in the fourth quarter Charlotte. It didn't really matter, because the game was already well over, but still, it was the kind of defensive breakdown that was so bad that you couldn't help but see the objective hilarity in it:
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That's right: One, two, three, FOUR Sixers surround Al Jefferson, who dumps off to Gerald Henderson for the easiest half-court bucket of the Charlotte Bobcats' or anybody else's season.
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Now, Jefferson was having a good game against the Sixers, but 1962 Wilt Chamberlain he is not, and if the Sixers' post defense is really so bad that we need to send THREE help defenders at Big Al, we have problems much bigger than losing to the friggin' Bobcats by 17 on the road.
Sixers get to make up for it tonight against the Nuggets, 7:00 from the Wells Fargo Center. What should have been a matchup of young star point guards will instead be our old friend Andre Miller vs. our new soulmate Tony Wroten, as both Ty Lawson and Michael Carter-Williams are out tonight with injury. The 12-9 Nuggets are way better than we are, but they did just lose to the Cavs and Celtics in back-to-back games, so maybe lousy East teams are their kryptonite. Hollis Thompson 4eva.