Philadelphia has lost eight straight games and any thoughts of a season turnaround are officially gone. Let’s head to the Garden!
Losers of eight straight games, the Philadelphia 76ers are now so far into tank mode that the United Nations is investigating their status as a hostile aggressor. The craziest part is the Sixers are emerging from a relatively easy stretch of games. They just lost to Toronto, Chicago, and Brooklyn twice — teams that have circled the date of the NBA draft lottery on their calendar for months. Now, Philadelphia has a much tougher portion of the schedule coming up, facing the Knicks, Warriors, Blazers (playing relatively well lately), Wolves, and Celtics. If they were sinking against the dregs of the league, they’re about to go subterranean. As an added bonus, the Sixers’ next two games are nationally televised, because everyone is absolutely clamoring to see what passes for basketball from them recently.
Meanwhile, tonight’s opponent, the New York Knicks, are chugging along at 37-20, good for third place in the Eastern Conference. Their issue is the absence of a clear path to closing the gap between the top tier of teams in the East, Boston and Cleveland, and themselves. Mitchell Robinson’s return isn’t going to suddenly make New York true contenders. Still, New York is at least within striking distance where if they catch one of those other clubs in the playoffs and an injury happens, they could certainly capitalize. It’s obviously a much better place to be than Philadelphia, where every single thing that has happened this season has either immediately or eventually sucked the joy out of the game of basketball.
In true tanking fashion, the Sixers’ injury report is getting longer by the week. Joel Embiid is out as the organization evaluates what to do in the wake of more knee swelling. We’re awaiting word on a seemingly inevitable season shutdown. Eric Gordon is now out indefinitely due to wrist surgery. Guerschon Yabusele got scratched in the eye of all things last game and will be unavailable. Kyle Lowry and Jared McCain are also both out. Justin Edwards (ankle) and Quentin Grimes (knee) are both listed as probable, and Paul George (finger) is labelled available.
The Knicks’ report is cleaner. Robinson is still out, though his return is upcoming, as mentioned. Karl-Anthony Towns is questionable with a left knee issue, and OG Anunoby is probable with a right foot sprain. Towns hurt the knee against Boston the other night, and in classic Thibs fashion, was sent back into the fourth quarter of a game that was already decided to limp around. What kind of organization plays a big man in spite of a knee problem?
Clearly, we’ve reached the point of wanting the Sixers to lose. The way they’ve been playing defense, that shouldn’t be a problem. But can we get one of those fun games and hard-fought efforts that still end in defeat? Those are definitely more entertaining than trailing Chicago by 50 points. A loss seems unavoidable; let’s cross our fingers for some measure of amusement along the way.
Game details
When: Wednesday, Feb. 26, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia, ESPN
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Follow: @LibertyBallers