The Philadelphia 76ers had a pretty frustrating road loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday night as they let an opportunity for an impressive win slip away. They held a lead late before allowing the Raptors to end the game on a 13-2 run to fall 101-96 to the defending champs.
The big talk was superstar big man Joel Embiid going scoreless for the first time in his NBA career, but there were other reasons why the Sixers let one slip away. They were not able to score for the final four minutes of the game as they missed their final eight shots and committed three turnovers in the guts of the game.
Josh Richardson led Philadelphia with 25 points as he continued his strong play from the previous win over the Miami Heat, but his hands were not clean in the loss. Richardson went 2-for-5 from the foul line as the three missed free throws came an inopportune time. Richardson does believe that it’s good for the Sixers to go through these growing pains now as the team continues to grow.
Richardson told the Inquirer.com’s Keith Pompey in Toronto:
“I think we have four or five games we should have won,” said Sixers guard Josh Richardson, agreeing this was a missed opportunity. “I think it’s good to go through this right now instead of later.
“We’ve talked about those games. So it’s just something going forward, we have to get better at.”
Richardson has preached patience in the past as this team continues to put together the pieces. This will take a while to really have the pieces come together and really find their groove. It’s hard to throw five basketball players who haven’t played together out there and expect success right away. The fact that they’re 11-6 despite so many road games and all of the newness as a group is impressive enough.
Philadelphia will host the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday. [lawrence-related id=20085,20074,20064]