Philadelphia 76ers: At least Andre Drummond secured a free frosty

If you paid $4,000 for a ticket to see Ben Simmons‘ return to the Wells Fargo Center, you probably aren’t particularly stoked on your ROI.

In a game as hyped up as any Philadelphia 76ers game in recent memory – playoffs or otherwise – Doc Rivers‘ squad laid an egg in front of the greater basketball world and watched their up 1-95 foes go up 2-0 at the 11:15 mark and never trail from any point thereafter.

Did fans get a good laugh out of heckling the man of the hour? I would assume so. There were more than a few very NSFW chants that echoed through “The Center” like only Philadelphia fans can provide, but ultimately, when the clock hit triple-zeros, and the half-empty arena of disappointed fans cleared out, none of that really mattered. It was Simmons who got the last laugh and Daryl Morey who had to boot up Spotrac to look for someone, anyone, with playoff eligibility who can knock down an open 3.

But hey, don’t look too down-in-the-dumps, Philadelphia 76ers fans. While it won’t magically get you your $4,000 back, you’re at least entitled to a free frosty at Wendy’s, thanks to our old pal Andre Drummond.

A free frosty is a nice consolation prize after a brutal Philadelphia 76ers loss.

Andre Drummond isn’t the best free-throw shooter in the NBA. He’s taken a lot, mind you, 3,215 to be exact, but he’s only made 1,516 over his 10-year NBA career, which is good for roughly 47.15396578538103 percent, give or take.

If ever there was a player on the Nets who would deliver Philly fans a free frosty, it would be Drummond, as he ranks dead last in free throw percentage at .500 on 40 attempts, and sure enough, when the pressure was on the line, and halftime was over, the “Big Penguin” did just that.

Unfortunately, that was the last positive moment in an otherwise ugly game.

Down 21 at the half, Doc’s squad came out of the half flat. After being overly eager in the first half, taking poor percentage shots, and expecting a foul every time the defense swarmed, the Sixers didn’t present the same sort of fight they typically bring in the third quarter of games during the James Harden era, with one particularly ugly three minute stretch from 7:00 to 4:00 in the third that saw the Nets score six unanswered points off of two back-to-back turnovers by Joel Embiid and Matisse Thybulle.

Despite entering the third with a 21 point deficit, the Sixers only scored 19 points over the quarter versus 30 by the Nets, which turned a pretty big hole into an insurmountable 32.

But why? How did the Sixers go from the hottest team in the NBA to a team that would have still lost a game by two even if their opponent didn’t score a single point in the entire fourth quarter?

One word: Efficiency.

Tyrese Maxey went from shooting 6-13 versus the Chicago Bulls for a tidy 17 points to only attempting seven shots and finished out the game with four points. After becoming a very efficient 3 point shooter, thanks in part to the wide-open looks generated by Harden and Embiid, Maxey only let two shots fly from beyond the arc and passed up more than a few more for largely unsuccessful drives.

Harden, too, struggled to both get his shots off and to see them go in. Whether due to the nerves of playing against his former team, or the sheer gravity of the moment, Harden went 3-15 in the first half, with four of his shots being blocked in the second half alone, and entered the half as one of the team’s lest efficient scorers.

Ideal? Hardly, but compared to the second half, it looked like a massive boon, as Harden only attempted two more shots from the field over his eight-ish minute run and failed to add a single point to his total heading out of the half.

Really, the only player who showed up and showed out was Embiid, and even his bread was largely buttered at the free-throw line, where he scored 15 of his 27 points. Tobias Harris, too, put points onto the board with an efficient 5-10 scoring from the field and 4-5 from beyond the arc, but his inability to keep Kevin Durant in front of him on the other end of the court led to more points surrendered than scored in a largely lopsided affair.

If ever there was a game for the “The Sixers don’t have enough shooters” crowd, this would be the one.

In the NBA, any given regular season game has very little impact on a team’s final record or standing in the playoffs. Sure, some games feel more important than others and can go a lot further in identifying a team’s ceiling and floor, but a win over the Orlando Magic on a Sunday is no different than a Thursday night loss to the Brooklyn Nets, especially when the team in question shoots 56 percent from the field and 45 percent from beyond the arc. And yet, the Philadelphia 76ers played this game like it was the Super Bowl. They rushed shots, made needless errors, and slowly watched a 2-0 lead balloon up to 32 over three brutally long quarters. There’s no doubt about it; the Brooklyn Nets are legit and are only going to get better when Ben Simmons actually takes the court. For the Philadelphia 76ers to secure more than an early playoff exit and some free frosties, they’d better get on their level and fast.