The road trip is over for the Philadelphia 76ers after they dropped a winnable game to the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night. The team went 1-3 on the road trip and they dropped to the 6 seed in the East standings as they further themselves from the important home-court advantage slot for the playoffs.
When analyzing this road trip, one must consider the uphill battle. The team was missing Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid going into the trip and then lost Josh Richardson in the first game of the trip. They showed off a lot of good things on the trip, but the losing is definitely a tough thing to handle right now.
“There are some good things that have come out of this road trip,” said coach Brett Brown. “Losing-wise, you can’t camouflage the disappointment of losing a game that you want to win and then get on a plane and go home. The closeout period, the fourth quarter, defensively, we were poor and when you look at bottom-line stuff, giving up almost 60 points in the paint is just a massive number. It’s tough to win by any situation if you’re giving up that many points in the paint and at the rim, so I assess this game and the trip like that.”
Philadelphia needs to pick itself up and push forward now. They cannot afford any more bad losses as they prepare for the playoffs.
“Ya know one and three that’s pretty bad in my opinion,” said Tobias Harris. “Not terrible but not what we expect as a group. Most teams are gonna split the road. We look to go undefeated on the road or win three outta four but we haven’t been successful on the road. Tonight is a game we will look back on and think we should’ve got that one, but we just gotta push forward.”
The defense left much to be desired on the trip. That also is expected with the players they were missing. They gave up 120.5 points per game over the four games on the trip and that is something that has dogged the Sixers on the road all season.
“I’m so tired of getting asked it,” said Brown on the road struggles. “We deserve to keep getting asked that question. I just go through the same thing and it’s true. I bet my answer of we’ve been missing some shots is haunting and being stingy and maniacal with some defensive mistakes ends up being the formula for losing on the road.”
The Sixers will now return home, where they have the best record in the NBA, and host the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday. [lawrence-related id=27300,27281,27273]