Philadelphia 76ers: No Super Bowl for the Sixers after a tough loss to Memphis
After being promised a trip to the Super Bowl if the team could win eight in a row, the Philadelphia 76ers’ dreams of watching the Eagles have been dashed.
Well, that escalated quickly.
After being promised a trip to Minneapolis if they could go undefeated over the next eight games, Brett Brown‘s Philadelphia 76ers squad couldn’t make it out of Memphis with a win and now must make new plans for February 4th.
Though the team lead an incredibly undermanned Grizzlies squad for the first three-quarters of the game, the 76ers literally fell apart in front of our eyes in the fourth, and somehow give up 31 points in the game’s last 15 minutes.
And the team looked down right ugly.
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Sure, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot had by far his best game of the season, scoring 20 points on nine shots while hitting six of his eight three-point attempts, but the team also turned the ball over an insane 24 times, which turned into 39 points for the Grizzlies.
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Had the team been a bit more patient, and held onto the ball when up by nine, the Sixers likely would be heading home ready to rock the Chicago Bulls at the Wells Fargo Center, but instead, the team will have to stew in their own failure.
In his post-game interview, Coach Brown called out his players directly, stating that “Our stars weren’t stars tonight”, and after watching the game, it’s hard to argue with the fifth-year head coach.
Without the veteran presence and smooth shot of J.J. Redick anchoring down the team’s starting lineup, as he’s still recovering from a leg injury he suffered in the waning minutes of the Sixers 117-11 win over the Raptors, the Sixers looked rushed and failed to play disciplined basketball. When Robert Covington took an ill-advised three-point shot with only six seconds to go, with the team down by two, it effectively sealed the team’s fate.
While the team will surely learn from this experience and get better, it’s unfortunate that the team’s young core still can’t hold onto a lead in a game they should have won.
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Some may try to downplay this loss, as Brown’s squad was without it’s top two go-to shooters, Redick and Jerryd Bayless, but at some point, the team needs to find a way to win games like this, especially if they want to make a trip to the NBA Playoffs for the first time in the Brett Brown era.
And while this loss will be hard to swallow for Sixers fans, it could also have grave consequences for the Philadelphia Eagles.
In a recent interview, Joel Embiid stated that the Eagles have won every game he’s attended, and having the 7-foot tall All-Star could have been the edge the Eagles needed to finally bring the Lombardi Trophy back to South Philly.
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While the Eagles could still win the Super Bowl against everyone’s least favorite team, the New England Patriots, if they lose, we can blame the loss on Brett Brown, Robert Covington, and the Philadelphia 76ers’ inability to close out a close game..