Philadelphia 76ers need to figure out their road issues fast

The Philadelphia 76ers dropped another loss on the road Tuesday night to the Toronto Raptors, meaning the team is still winless away from home so far in 2018-19.

Rightfully so after last year’s success, expectations are high for the Philadelphia 76ers to be one of the top contenders in the Eastern Conference after reaching the semifinals of the playoffs during the 2017-18 season before coming up short to the Boston Celtics.

Even if the Sixers failed to land that big superstar in the offseason they seemed to need after seeing how they compared to the Celtics, this team still has the right talent to make a serious run in the Eastern Conference.

So far, there have been times in which Philadelphia seems capable of living up to that hype since Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid continue to be two of the league’s top younger stars on the rise. But when it comes to playing away from home, the Sixers have been an absolute disaster.

Just look at Tuesday’s 129-112 loss to the Toronto Raptors in which the team had zero answers to stop Kawhi Leonard after the star forward finished the game with 31 points to go along with seven rebounds and four assists. Along with Leonard, the Raptors saw Philadelphia native Kyle Lowry finish with another strong outing by scoring 20 points to go along with 12 assists.

Even more frustrating, there was a point in the third quarter when the Sixers found themselves trailing by 26 points, which is the last thing any playoff contender facing another playoff contender see take place.

Of course, if Philadelphia had to choose the most frustrating factor of all in this one, there’s no question that Ben Simmons technically coming up two rebounds shy of a quadruple-double as a result of 11 turnovers definitely ranks near the top of the list.

As one of the leaders to this young Sixers squad, these are the kinds of mistakes Simmons can’t afford to make, and hopefully this will be used as motivation to protect the basketball better in the future.

With the loss on Tuesday, Philadelphia’s record away from home now sits at 0-4, but at least they’re next two games will be at home against the Los Angeles Clippers and Detroit Pistons. Maybe with the team hitting the road again this upcoming weekend for a game against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, the Sixers will finally earn that first road win of the young 2018-19 season.

Otherwise, the frustration is only going to continue for Philadelphia, and hurt their reputation of being a serious contender in the Eastern Conference when compared to some of the other teams that are actually living up to the hype so far.