There was garbage time as far as the eye can see Monday night at Wells Fargo Center.
The Sixers’ 32-point margin of defeat against the Bulls was flattering. They trailed by as many as 50 in their eighth consecutive loss, allowed 142 points and plummeted to 20-37 this season. Chicago snapped a six-game skid and improved to 23-35.
Nothing about the night suggested that, with better health and luck, everything may eventually click into place.
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Paul George acknowledged as much in the locker room.
“Regardless of who’s playing, who’s not playing, to have (aspirations) or for this group to believe we can be … not even to get to the playoffs, but to make a push toward it … we’ve shown no signs of a team that will compete,” George said. “We just don’t have the habits of a champion or that a playoff-contending team would have.
“So to be honest right now, it’s a little far-fetched. All we can do is work hard, try to just keep going for one another, but we’ve shown no signs of — forget championship, but a playoff-contending team here.”
Indeed, the Sixers’ outing made it very logical to think more about draft lottery odds and the team’s top-six protected first-round pick than any sort of potential play-in tournament exploits.
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The Sixers ended the game with seven players out because of injuries. Joel Embiid is sidelined again by his left knee injury and the Sixers are assessing his options. Guerschon Yabusele hurt both eyes against Chicago, including a corneal abrasion to his right. Quentin Grimes exited with right knee soreness.
On top of escalating injuries and ever-shifting starting lineups, the Sixers have grown accustomed to dismal defense and losing this year. Since Jan. 1, they’ve gone 7-20 and ranked 26th in the NBA in net rating, 30th in defensive rating.
According to Cleaning the Glass, they’re 28th on the season in how often opponents have gotten shots at the rim and 29th in opponents’ field goal percentage at the rim.
“Just have to be more dialed in,” George said. “More effort, more energy and more pride on the defensive end. Again, it’s the same conversations we’ve been having. It baffles me how (easily) we give up layups in this league. I just don’t understand it.”
Of course, head coach Nick Nurse’s postgame message to the Sixers didn’t revolve around sophisticated strategies.
“I just said there’s a lot of games left and we’ve got to be professional,” he said. “We’ve got to go out and play. First of all, everybody needs to look at themselves and what they can do better, and then look at what they can do better for the team. And do our jobs, man. Be professional.”
Nurse called his team’s showing “very, very disappointing.”
Tyrese Maxey certainly shared that view, describing the Sixers’ performance as “unacceptable.”
“It’s hard right now,” Maxey said. “It’s very difficult. It’s hard to see a vision … but we have a lot of games left, a lot of time left with each other. I think one of the messages that I’m going to give is we all started playing basketball because we love the game and it’s fun. A lot of us should be competitive. That’s how I feel.
“I play the game because I love it. I play the game because I’m extremely competitive and I like to win, and I’ve got a lot of pride about winning, just putting forth the effort that I put in. … When we step out on the court, we’ve got to go out there and show that.”
On one hand, it would reasonable to say just about everything needs to change for the Sixers.
On the other hand, George kept it rather simple.
“We’ve got to want to do it,” he said. “It’s what it comes down to. You’ve got to want to do it. Either you commit to put your body on the line or you don’t.”