After the ugliest loss of an ugly season, Paul George didn’t mince words about the current state of the Sixers.
It’s official — the focus can now shift from the play-in to ping-pong balls.
The Sixers put an ugly exclamation point on an ugly season with a horrendous 142-110 loss to the Chicago Bulls on their home floor Monday. The Bulls are now 3.5 games up on the Sixers for the 10th seed and final play-in spot.
Even after an abysmal start to the year the Sixers had a glimmer of hope at the All-Star break that they could get healthy and get right. Instead, they’ve dropped three straight since — eight straight overall — and it feels like Joel Embiid’s season could be over any day now.
Most Sixers fans will view this game as a positive result. Looking at the bigger picture, it is. The Sixers now own the sixth-worst record in the NBA. The suddenly healthy Toronto Raptors are only two games behind them and appear poised to blow past them. If the Sixers finish with the fifth-worst record in the NBA, they’d have a 63.9% of retaining their pick, which would go to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls outside of the top six.
But it’s not a great look when the team was actually trying to win. What do you even say after a performance like that?
Paul George didn’t mince words.
“We’ve shown no sign of a team that will compete,” George said. “We just don’t have the habits of a champion, or a playoff contending team, would have. To be honest, right now it’s a little far-fetched [to think we can make the playoffs]. All we can do is work hard and try to just keep going for one another.”
If the Sixers were ever going to show signs of life this season, this would’ve been the time. Coming out of the break they had three home games lined up against the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets and Bulls.
Nobody would’ve expected the Sixers to beat the Celtics, but showing a little fight might’ve gone a long way. Instead they were thoroughly dominated.
Up next were the Nets, who the Sixers were tied with coming into the game. A win would’ve put them a full game over Brooklyn and had them nipping at Chicago’s heels. Instead a slow start doomed them and Embiid didn’t play the fourth quarter after being ineffective all night.
The Bulls were the team the Sixers were chasing for the final play-in spot. If there was any fight left in this team this season, this would’ve been the game to show it. Instead they got routed by a bad Chicago team down starting center Nikola Vucevic. The Sixers trailed by as many as 50.
It looked like an effort from a defeated team. While their actions showed otherwise, Tyrese Maxey refused to accept that his team had given up on the season. He said as long as he’s healthy and playing, his goal is to win.
“I’m never gonna sit here and lace my shoes up and be expected to lose,” Maxey said. “That’s just not how I’m wired. That’s not how I play basketball. That’s not how I live my life.”
Asked if head coach Nick Nurse had lost the team, Maxey was quick to deflect the blame onto the players.
“At the end of the day, we’re the ones on the court,” he said. “We gotta go out there and play harder and play better.”
This season has been enough to make Tyrese Maxey miserable.
That says it all.