The Sixers continue to pile up losses to close out Year 2 of the franchise's major rebuild.
The injuries are also mounting, and a major building block of that rebuild suffered one on Wednesday night.
Nerlens Noel sprained his right ankle during the fourth quarter of the Sixers' 119-90 loss to the Washington Wizards at the Wells Fargo Center (see Instant Replay). Noel did not return following the injury and wore a walking boot after the team's seventh straight loss.
"I am concerned," Sixers head coach Brett Brown said. "On tape I see him come down on Will Bynum's foot. That is a real turned ankle, a real sprain. We jumped on the treatment, but my guess would be that he would be unlikely to play in Chicago."
With just three games left in the regular season, Noel is unlikely to play again in 2014-15. If that's the case, the potential Rookie of the Year candidate finished his last game of the season with five points and eight rebounds.
Even with Noel in the lineup, it didn't make much difference against the Wizards. The Sixers allowed Washington to shoot a franchise-record 65.3 percent from the field and 53.3 percent from three-point range in the loss.
NBA
So much for Brown's closing-week goal for the Sixers to move from 11th in the NBA in defensive efficiency to a single-digit ranking.
"Our pick-and-roll defense has been simple all year," Brown said. "We gave them something new that is more complicated than we are used to. It is normal NBA terms that experienced teams are going to bite on, but we could not handle it."
After allowing the Wizards to score 65 points in the first half of a 106-93 loss exactly one week ago, the Sixers were jumped on right from the start again on Wednesday. They were down double digits just minutes into the game.
Brown was not happy with his team's effort to start the game, so he tried to change things up by substituting for all five of his starters with 7:25 to play.
"We subbed our first group out quickly in an effort to find some life," Brown said. "I thought the first half defensively we were just poor."
Very poor.
The Sixers gave up 70 points in the first half this time around despite the fact that the Wizards were without starters John Wall and Nene.
Seven Wizards scored in double figures, led by Bradley Beal's 21 points on 7 of 9 shooting.
Marcin Gortat continued to own the Sixers, finishing with 18 points, seven rebounds, six assists and four blocks.
Robert Covington scored a career-high 27 points on 8 for 11 shooting, but that wasn't nearly enough thanks to the Sixers' leaky defense.
Brown was not angry with his players for not being able to adjust. He actually took responsibility for putting them in a situation that they may not have been ready to handle.
"The last 10 games that we have experienced with Nerlens here and Furkan (Aldemir) there, and JaKarr (Sampson) at the point, there are some moving parts," Brown said. "The numbers we have been producing defensively are going down because of me.
"I have changed rotations. I have put Nerlens at the four. I ask them to go blitz a pick-and-roll. I wish I could say they should figure it out. It is not that. I am a part of that."