It’s sure not early anymore for Sixers team facing bleak big picture

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It’s sure not early anymore for Sixers team facing bleak big picture originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Sixers know they played Friday night against the Pelicans like a team taking its shaky first step or two in a long season.

They also know that the season’s halfway point is creeping up, they’re 15-21 and losses like this make the big picture even bleaker.

“It’s not panic mode, but there’s sort of a desperation that we need to start to play with,” Paul George said. “And look at every game like it matters. From this point forward, every game matters. I think we do have to approach it in that manner, because it’s not going to get any easier.

“We lost tonight. Not going to discredit how they played tonight, but it’s a team we should’ve beat. And we’ve got (the Knicks) coming in, we’ve got (the Thunder) coming in. … We’ve got to put teams like this away early. That’s a team you’ve got to beat if you want to compete to be one of the teams standing in the end. These are the games that we put teams away.”

The Sixers indeed failed to defeat an 8-31 Pelicans team that announced Zion Williamson was suspended Friday for violating team policies. Brandon Ingram, Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones were out injured, too.

In that context, the shorthanded state of the Sixers doesn’t mean much. Joel Embiid missed a third straight game with a left foot sprain — he’s still “day-to-day,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said pregame — but George and Tyrese Maxey both suited up.

Maxey led the team with 30 points and 12 assists, but his outside shooting was poor — two air balls in the second quarter, no three-point makes until the final two minutes. George had a shorter first half than planned because of foul trouble and managed a mere two points before intermission.

His 23 second-half points weren’t sufficient because defensive blunders kept sinking the Sixers’ comeback effort. The Pelicans regularly put the Sixers’ defense on its heels, capitalized on miscommunications and found themselves with unguarded shots.

According to Cleaning the Glass, the Sixers rank 29th in the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/sure-not-early-anymore-sixers-151317009.html

Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia

Publish date : 2025-01-11 15:13:00

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