The Sixers didn't have a losing streak longer than three games for the entire 2018-19 season. They'll try to move to 6-3 and stop their current skid from bleeding to four games Sunday night against the 4-5 Charlotte Hornets.
Here are the essentials:
When: 6 p.m. ET with Sixers Pregame Live at 5:30 p.m.
Where: Wells Fargo Center
Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus
Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the NBC Sports MyTeams app
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And here are three storylines to watch:
Bouncing back from a brutal quarter
How bad was the Sixers' fourth quarter against the Nuggets? Their 13 points were the team's fewest in any quarter since April 8, 2017. Of course, Denver also scored 35.
The NBA did rule in its Last Two Minute Report that the offensive foul called on the Sixers' final possession should have been a defensive foul on Nikola Jokic instead. That error might make the loss sting a bit more, but the Sixers made a string of mistakes to put themselves in that spot where a missed call could decide the game.
NBA
A win over the Hornets would help push those bitter moments to the side.
Another game without Simmons
Ben Simmons and Shake Milton are out of Sunday's game, Simmons with a Grade 1 AC joint sprain in his right shoulder sustained Wednesday in Utah, Milton with a bone bruise and mild left knee sprain suffered Oct. 28 in Atlanta. Both players will be re-evaluated Monday and are progressing well, a team spokesperson told NBC Sports Philadelphia. For Simmons, this will be the first time in three seasons that he's missed consecutive games. Without giving it much thought, we'd been able to pencil him into the Sixers' starting lineup the last two years.
Raul Neto started Friday against the Nuggets, scoring 13 points on 5 for 6 shooting and six assists in 30 minutes, and Trey Burke made his Sixers debut, posting five points and three assists in 17 minutes. Those two figure to feature again tonight.
About those turnovers ...
The Hornets lead the NBA in turnovers per game (18.6), and the Sixers are close behind at 18.5. Charlotte can chalk some of that up to young players taking on major minutes. While the Sixers have the excuse of integrating a few new faces into the rotation, plenty of their recent turnovers have fallen under the careless category — uncontested passes thrown out of bounds, poor entries into the post, leaps into the air on baseline drives without an outlet.
Joel Embiid had eight of the team's 17 turnovers vs. the Nuggets. Some of them were a product of his troubles dealing with double teams, but his fatigue also seemed to play a role.
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