Nobody wants to get swept in the NBA, especially in Round 1. Unfortunately, for the Philadelphia 76ers, that is exactly what happened as they could not overcome the injury to Ben Simmons and they were ousted by the Boston Celtics on Sunday afternoon.
It was a season of disappointment, riddled with drama and injuries, but they were right there in a couple of games in this series and they just could not close it out.
“It’s frustrating.,” started team leader Joel Embiid. “We had a lot of injuries and then during the playoffs, we miss a big piece in Ben especially defensively. During the season playing against Boston, he was a huge piece especially defending Jayson (Tatum). It was just a weird season. One where we can all look back and have a lot of regrets.”
Josh Richardson, who came over from the Miami Heat, was not happy about the team’s performance and even had a criticism of coach Brett Brown after the game. The Heat are a team all about culture and hard work and the Sixers just never seemed to be on the same page when it came to accountability and things of that nature.
“I’m pretty pissed. I’m really pissed,” Richardson explained. “I’m not in a good mood. I’m not happy. I’m not here for moral victories. We got whooped and I’m not happy about it. It is what it is.”
Tobias Harris had himself a rough series as he was not able to find the rhythm he needed to help the Sixers in this series until it was too late expressed a lot of disappointment. Philadelphia paid him a large sum in 2019 in hopes of him becoming a top performer in the playoffs and he was not good in this series.
“Disappointment. It’s tough to lose with all the circumstances,” Harris explained. “All the variables. Ben goes down and with everything going on, it’s tough. Disappointed because as a competitor, you want to win you want to be successful in the playoffs and have a run, and I felt as if we have enough talent to make that run and we didn’t get it done. It’s just frustrating and disappointing at the end of the day.”
The Sixers now head into an offseason filled with a lot of questions to answer and there are some inevitable changes on the horizon. [lawrence-related id=37132,37128,37123]