PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers had a good chance to get in the win column on Saturday when they welcomed the San Antonio Spurs into the Wells Fargo Center. The Spurs are a young and rebuilding team with an average roster age of 23.81.
Instead, the Spurs used a heavy dose of Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson early and received a huge lift from Jakob Poeltl late to shock the Sixers, 114-105. Philadelphia, which has title aspirations, fell to 0-3, which has raised some questions.
“We’re not ready yet,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Honestly, we’re just not. We’re not ready to win yet. You can feel that, and so we got a lot of work to do. It’s almost like we played these first two games hard, competed and then felt like ‘OK, now we can win some games,’ you still gotta go out and earn the game.”
PJ Tucker, Philadelphia’s prized free agent addition, was yelling that message in the locker room. Considering everything he has been through during his career, he has expertise in this area.
“Tuck was yelling that after the game,” Rivers added. “He’s right. No one’s just gonna give you a win. You have to go get it, and you have to do it a lot every night. You can’t just pick and choose when we’re gonna show up right now and that’s what we’re doing.”
Tucker and the Sixers will take on the Indiana Pacers on Monday for their next chance to get in the win column.
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