Well that wasn't good.
In a week full of absences form key players, the Sixers faced stiff competition in home tilts against a surging Golden State Warriors squad and a quietly dominant Phoenix Suns team, and a road double dip in Milwaukee to take on the Bucks. They ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard in all four outings.
This late in the season, a four-game skid is no bueno, and sure enough, the top of the Easter Conference hierarchy has shuffled. At 39-21, the Sixers now trail the Brooklyn Nets (41-20) by a game and a half, and their advantage over the Bucks (37-23) is down to two games. Philadelphia fortunately has a game in hand on Brooklyn, and after facing a brutal slate of opponents the past couple weeks, things get significantly easier over the final 12 games, but still, it would have been nice to remain in the driver's seat.
But no sense in dwelling on that now. Time for observations. I'm going to do this a little bit differently this time around, though. Because there is basically nothing good to talk about from any of these games, I'm going to do a few big broad strokes observations that cover the entire week's action as opposed to delving into each game for more acute details. Full disclosure: I just don't want to relive the week that was too intimately, so this surface-level analysis allows me to just kind of skate by.
Anyway, onto it.
Monday, 4/19/2021: Lost v. Golden State Warriors 107-96
Wednesday, 4/21/2021: Lost v. Phoenix Suns 116-113
Thursday, 4/22/2021: Lost at Milwaukee Bucks 124-117
Saturday, 4/24/2021: Lost at Milwaukee Bucks 132-94
--First, let me address the elephant in the room: the Sixers didn't have their whole ensemble available in any game. Ben Simmons missed the entire week's worth of games due to a non-COVID related illness; Tobias Harris lost two games (and three in a row dating back to the previous week) to a bone bruise; Seth Curry and Joel Embiid both missed a game apiece for injuries and maintenance. Even looking at the bench, Furkan Korkmaz, who had been playing very well lately, missed two games from a tweaked ankle. Yes, you play with the cards your dealt. But it was an ill-timed rash of injuries and absences, and thy definitely felt the strain. Let's just hope that this is all nipped in the bud come playoffs.
--The Sixers on average give up 109.2 points per game for the season. They gave up 119.8 in this stretch. They allowed their opponents to shoot 50.0% from the field and surrendered 67 threes at a 43.5% clip. And after holding the Warriors to a 109.7 offensive rating in the vicinity of their season long average (108.2, third in the league), they allowed that figure to creep into the 120s in each of their three subsequent games. I'm not going to delve deep into these numbers, folks. Those numbers are...bad. Their offense wasn't exactly a spitfire, either--105.0 points per game on 44.7% shooting collectively. They did hit 44 threes at 38.3%, but...It didn't matter much. At least they kept turnovers relatively in check at 13.5 per game. Gotta take small victories.
--Star power killed the Sixers this week. Stephen Curry hit ten 3-pointers en route to 49 points. Chris Paul cooked whoever tried to contain him and went for 28 points on just 17 shots and dropped eight dimes without a turnover. Giannis Antentokounmpo averaged 25.5 points, 15 rebounds, and 6.5 assists across the miniseries. Embiid did what he could in his appearances (he averaged 30 and 11 in three games), but only one other Sixer produced even a single 20-point effort, and that was Shake Milton with exactly 20 in the first Milwaukee game. I touched on the absences and the thinned out talent, but you would have liked to have seen someone step up.
That's all we're gonna do today, folks. I'm sad and tired.
What's Next?
The Sixers will have to put these seven days behind them in a hurry, because they have another four-game week. They get three straight home games at 7 p.m. every other day starting Monday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder before two straight against the Atlanta Hawks. Then on Sunday evening, they'll be in Texas for a showdown with the San Antonio Spurs at 8 p.m.
The Thunder, after being surprisingly spunky for much of the year, have seemingly fully embraced the tank. They're currently mired in a 13-game losing streak, and their brightest young star, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is out indefinitely. They've also shut down Al Horford, who had been playing very well, for the season. The Thunder have an extremely bright future with quality young pieces and approximately all of the draft picks ever, but the Sixers have to make sure their present stays dim.
The Hawks are trending basically the opposite direction of the Thunder, having won 11 of their last 14 to surge all the way up to fourth in the East. The Sixers will dodge a bullet with star point guard Trae Young sidelined with an ankle sprain, but after a slow start, Atlanta has seen excellent play from Bogdan Bogdanovic. The 28-year-old Serbian is averaging 20.0 points on 50.2/48.2/87.5 shooting over his last 21 games. With quality talent around him and guided by Nate McMillan's steady coaching (20-7 since he took over for Lloyd Pierce), the Sixers cannot sleep on this squad.
Lastly, the Spurs are no longer the same dynastic force that produced five titles and two consecutive decades of postseason appearances. They are a young, athletic outfit that is searching for a centerpiece talent to elevate the likes of Derrick White, Dejounte Murray, Keldon Johnson, and Lonnie Walker. They due have some veteran moxie keeping them in the playoff hunt, though, and that starts with DeMar DeRozan. The 31-year-old has had a quietly stellar season, averaging 21.2 points--his eighth consecutive 20+ point per game campaign--and a career-high 7.2 assists playing the majority of his minutes from the power forward spot.