Hornets hands Sixers 10th straight loss
Kemba Walker scored 30 points and Cody Zeller had 15 to lead the Charlotte Hornets to a 119-99victory over the defenseless Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.
PHILADELPHIA >> The plan for the 76ers to build a winner through losing officially has become self-sufficient. Finally, they are losing … because they’re losing.
While he didn’t say that preciselyWednesday before what would be the Sixers’ 119-99 loss to the visiting Charlotte Hornets, that’s what Brett Brown implied. Seems that he’s found that themore his teamloses, the less likely it is to stop.
“Losing at times makes it challenging to stay up as much as we have to stay up,” Brown said, “given the volume of losses that we’ve all experienced.”
The possibility of that was advanced three years ago when the Sixers officially, unashamedly rolled out a “Together We Build” marketing slogan, designed to turn a risky idea into a community-wide mission. The thinking, which remains the corporate policy, was that eventually there would be growth.
But the Sixers lost their 10th consecutive game Wednesday, their eighth since the All-Star break and their silent trade deadline, and their 14th out of 15 to drop to 8-53 and remain eligible to finish as the worst team in NBA history. That record belongs to the 197273 Sixers, who were 9-73.
With Jahlil Okafor missing a second consecutive game with a bruised right shin, and with Nik Stauskas, Richaun Holmes, Hollis Thompson and T.J. McConnell banged up and limited in minutes, the Sixers tried an old-fashioned approach to success. On the anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in 1962, they simply tried to out-shoot the Hornets.
The Sixers, who’d jumped to a 7-1 lead, canned six three-point shots in the first quarter, shot 13-for-33 overall from behind the arc and, oddly enough, continued a recent trend of scoring at a reasonable pace. In six of their previous eight games, they scored at least 103 points. Their trouble? Take a guess. “We have to do more,” Brown said, “especially on defense.”
That would be their trouble.
agging in transition defense, slow to defend against the three-point shot and just average around the rim, the Sixers surrendered triple figures for the ninth consecutive game.
Isaiah Canaan, Robert Covington and Nerlens Noel led the Sixers with 17 points apiece. Ish Smith added 12, Thompson 10.
The Hornets, still thick in the Eastern Conference playoff picture at 32-28, were led by Kemba Walker, who scored 30 points. Cody Zeller added 15. As the Sixers were outrebounded, 5038, an announced crowd of 11,143 endeavored to remain polite.
Despite their quick start, the Sixers trailed, 32-29, after the first quarter and were behind, 58-50 at halftime.
A Canaan three-pointer forced a tie, and when Covington made one of two free throws, the Sixers were ahead, 68-67, with 5:02 left in the third. Smith’s jumper made it 70-67, to which the Hornets responded with a 13-0 run. By the start of the fourth quarter, Charlotte was up, 83-74, and held a 119-96 lead in the final minute.
Thus, the pattern that has defined the Sixers since the All-Star break continued. They play well for spurts … then fade.
“It’s a reflection at times of age, how you navigate through 82 games,” Brown said. “It’s a long grind for anybody. And these guys are not used to it. So when I see defensive slumps, it is mind and energy related.”
The Sixers effectively were designed to be the NBA’s youngest team. For most of the season, which began with an 18-game losing streak, that was a problem. But amidseason flurry was a signal that the worst was behind.
It wasn’t. So Friday, they will drag their third double-digit losing streak of the season into the Wells Fargo Center for a game against the Southeast Division-leadingMiami Heat.
“I think some of it is that you have to play teams that are trying to claw their way into the playoffs,” Brown said. “All the teams that we’ve played are like ninth, 10th, eighth. I feel like we are in the part of the year wherewe are playing against teams that are fighting just as hard as we are.
“I feel that in some of it, talent is prevailing. And I think some of it is that we have to do more.”