76ers get technical foul for too many men, drop to 0-12 with loss to Pacers
The Philadelphia 76ers entered Wednesday’s action as the league’s sole remaining winless team, at 0-11, and with the NBA’s eighth-worst defense, allowing 104.2 points per 100 possessions. It’s hard to blame them for trying something new to increase their chances of stopping the opposition; unfortunately, the rules say you’re only allowed to play five dudes at a time.
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Following a 20-second timeout late in the second quarter of Wednesday’s home game against the Indiana Pacers, the Sixers broke the huddle and headed out to the court, with Nerlens Noel, Robert Covington, Hollis Thompson, Jerami Grant and Phil Pressey taking the floor in hopes of reducing a nine-point deficit. Unfortunately, as they did so, rookie big man Jahlil Okafor joined them.
That’s six dudes. That’s one too many dudes. And since Indiana had already inbounded the ball to trigger live game action, that’s a problem. Specifically, it’s a technical foul, giving the Pacers a technical free throw. He made it, extending the lead to 10 and leaving head coach Brett Brown — who very understandably seems to be hanging on by a very thin thread right now — looking defeated on the sidelines.
Again, though, it’s difficult to throw stones at him. I mean, when the Sixers just let five players try to defend George and the Pacers, stuff like this happens to Nik Stauskas:
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Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? (Not that there’s much being gained in Philly these days anyway.)
Things got demonstrably worse for the Sixers from there. Brown’s club had no answers for George, who finished with 34 points on 13-for-24 shooting, including a 5-for-10 mark from 3-point range, to go with eight rebounds, five assists and four steals in 32 minutes of work. When the 76ers had the ball, they once again just could not stop shooting themselves in the foot, logging 29 turnovers (and 31 total team turnovers) that led to a whopping 37 Pacer points in a 112-85 rout. It’s the first 29-turnover outing in nearly 11 years, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
Philly trailed by 20 or more points for the final 21-plus minutes of the contest, which, sadly, is becoming an all-too-common occurrence:
The 76ers now stand at 0-12, drawing within six defeats of matching the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets for the longest losing streak ever to start a season. If you include last season, they’ve lost 22 straight games, drawing them within two losses of tying the 1981-82/1982-83 Cleveland Cavaliers for the third longest overall losing streak in NBA history. That’s the kind of thing that makes you think they should be allowed an extra man for at least part of the proceedings.
Even Sixers backers conditioned to approach the systematic multi-year sink-to-the-bottom rebuild pitched by general manager Sam Hinkie and signed off on by ownership seem to be losing faith:
Well, if nothing else, it seems you can trust that refs will notice when you try to check in six guys out of a timeout, and T you up for it.
Hat-tip to CBSSports.com’s James Herbert.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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