WASHINGTON — The Philadelphia 76ers had their eight-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday with a loss to the Washington Wizards created by a very disappointing effort.
The Sixers fell behind by double digits in the first half for the third straight game and weren’t able to recover this time.
Some familiar issues popped up for the Sixers. They played down to their competition. Had they played with the right energy from the jump rather than waiting until the second half, the outcome might have been different. However, Philadelphia let a Wizards team that was eight games under .500 entering the night hang around, and they took advantage.
The Sixers were bad defensively. They could not keep Washington off the offensive glass which led to a loss. These were not issues during the winning streak, but they are issues that have popped up in the past and this loss was a reminder of them.
“Obviously, we’ve had eight really good games with good flow, but we also have to know we have a consistent play each and every night of what we can hang our heads on and know what works for us,” said Tobias Harris. “In those eight games, it’s been aggressive defense and being able to get stops and then offensively moving the basketball and finding easy buckets.”
The Sixers continue the road trip on Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans, who will enter the night as one of the top teams in the West. If they repeat these same issues, they will be handed another loss. That is where the learning process has to come in.
“Obviously, there’s no moral victories in NBA, but we can learn something from this game,” Harris added. “We can take from it. Obviously, it’s a disappointing loss, but we do have to take a few things out of this game that we can improve on to be better at for the next and just get back on another winning streak. So that’s how we got to look at it and keep our heads up and be ready.”
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