The Philadelphia 76ers have had a tough go at it to begin their road trip following an impressive Christmas Day win over the Milwaukee Bucks. They first opened the trip with a disheartening effort in a loss to the Orlando Magic and then the crazy loss to the Miami Heat following that one.
The loss on Tuesday to the Indiana Pacers brought more concerns as they trailed by as many as 36 and were outscored by 22 points in the second quarter. They shot 40.7% from the floor overall and they shot 6-for-29 from beyond the arc.
All of this leads to a lot of frustration on the roster and Tobias Harris, who finished with nine points, had a lot to say. He told the Inquirer.com’s Keith Pompey:
Obviously, we need to build consistency. That’s a big thing. But I think as an individual, one-on-one, man-to-man, we got to look ourselves in the eye and come to the table on what individually we can do better as a collective group.
#Sixers @tobias31: "Obviously, we need to build consistency. That’s a big thing. But I think as an individual, one-on-one, man-to-man, we got to look ourselves in the eye and come to the table on what individually we can do better as a collective group.”
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) January 1, 2020
Harris has expressed his frustrations a lot in 2019-20, most recently in Orlando after a loss to the Magic, but he is absolutely right. This is a team that has a lot of expectations. They should not be losing this badly to a Pacers team, while still a good team overall, that is missing their star in Victor Oladipo.
Their efforts lately have rendered that win over the Bucks meaningless. It makes that win seem ages ago due to their poor effort on this road trip and the final one of this trip, Friday against the Houston Rockets, is going to be another tough one with James Harden and Russell Westbrook waiting for them. [lawrence-related id=22504,22497,22484]