Philadelphia 76ers: A win over the injured Brooklyn Nets means nothing

Some regular season wins just mean more than others.

Now sure, technically, that isn’t true. NBA games are a fixed commodity, and since they can’t end in a tie – I’m looking at you, the Philadelphia Eagles– each one has an equal, binary outcome of either a win or loss.

You win more than you lose, and in the NBA, that’s usually enough to earn a spot in the playoffs – or at least the new play-in tournament – and if you win 55, 60, even 65 percent of your games, that’s typically enough to earn home-court advantage and a cushy matchup in the first round.

Considering the Philadelphia 76ers are currently sitting pretty with a 67.27 winning percentage, theoretically, the team should be able to ride their current wave of success into the playoffs as a top-seed in the Eastern Conference without much worry, right? Especially after picking up a second win versus the Brooklyn Nets to secure the tiebreaker should both teams finish out the regular season with the same record.

Yes, but my goodness, it would have been nice to see how Doc Rivers‘ squad would have stacked up against James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving had both squads been at full strength for their Godzilla versus King Kong-esque throwdown at ~~Mt. Fuji~~ the Farg.

The Philadelphia 76ers have to wait for the playoffs to play the real Nets.

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Kyrie Irving is a problem.

He’s one of the NBA’s best ball handlers, a wickedly creative scorer who can make something out of nothing, and such an offensively talented player that two of the best wing defenders in the NBA – Ben Simmons and Matisse Thybulle – were only able to hold him to 37 points despite being the Brooklyn Nets’ first, second, and, at times, only offensive option.

Facing off against a team led by the star of Uncle Drew is no joke, and at times during the first half, the Philadelphia 76ers’ chances of securing the series win against Brooklyn felt touch and go, but even the most hardened Irving fan will attest that facing off against Steve Nash’s three-headed monster – plus Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge – is a completely different beast, if you will.

For many a Sixers fan, this was a game marked on the calendar with a big red, white, and blue X since the second half of the 2020-21 NBA season schedule was officially announced back in February. After playing the team’s first showdown during the pre-James Harden-era, and their middle contest without Durant and Irving, Sixers fans the world over were ready to see how their collection of wing defenders would be able to contain Brooklyn’s Big 3, and if any of the Nets’ new additions would be able to slow down Joel Embiid in the paint more effectively than DeAndre Jordan.

That obviously didn’t happen.

No, due to injuries and a surprise back-to-back contest versus the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday afternoon, Brooklyn opted to rest four of their top-six players and accept a far lower winning probability in the name of the almighty “load management”.

Gone where the plays where Thybulle and Simmons would have to switch off from Harden to Irving, and back to Harden, and in its place came an ugly effort from Rivers’ cleared bench that forced Embiid back into action in a game where he’d already well exceeded his season averages in points and rebounds.

Again, a win’s a win, but this one had the makings of a regular season all-timer a la the Sixers’ January 25th win against the Los Angeles Lakers last season, or Embiid’s 32 point game versus the Rockets as a rookie. Instead, fans tuned into an ugly, sloppy effort that left a few more questions than answers.

If the Sixers struggled so mightly to slow down a Nets lineup highlighted by Bruce Brown and our old pal Landrey Shamet, how on earth would they have faired in a game versus Durant and Harden? Then again, if those two were on the court with Irving all game, would Rivers have ever pulled out his starters, even up 20?

See what I mean? This game really tells fans nothing other than that their all-bench unit certainly isn’t ready for primetime.

Next. Has Furkan Korkmaz found a spot in Doc Rivers’ rotation?. dark

So… yeah. Good showing from Tobias Harris, good to see Joel Embiid put up 39 in a game where he looked at times like a human cheat code, and good to come out of that certified slobberknocker with a W, but somehow, this particular Philadelphia 76ers’ wins feels rather hollow, as it really doesn’t answer any questions about a playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets other than that Alize Johnson and Nicolas Claxton can be an effective one-two double-team punch against “The Process”, which is a win for Steve Nash, not Doc Rivers.