The Eastern Conference standings are not a pretty sight at the moment for the Sixers. Their performance Saturday night in Boston wasn’t either.
After a 116-95 loss at TD Garden (see observations), the Sixers are sixth in the East, 11 games behind the Bucks and 4.5 games back of the second-place Raptors. There’s now a three-game gap between the Sixers and the Celtics.
Tobias Harris was asked at what stage the team’s position in the standings becomes a concern.
“What point? Probably about 10 games ago,” he told reporters.
Ben Simmons performed well Saturday night, scoring 23 points on 9 of 14 shooting. In Brown’s words, he played with “a committed, downhill aggression.”
Besides that, it’s difficult to identify other positives. The Sixers registered season lows in field-goal percentage (36.9 percent) and assists (15). Joel Embiid made the game’s first basket, then misfired on his next 10 attempts. Boston established a 22-8 lead and never appeared in danger of losing.
“You don’t leave Boston thinking any other thing than that’s a disappointing loss,” Brown said. “I thought that really it was never a game.”
Though there’s nothing to be gained from being preoccupied with the standings, the Sixers know where they sit.
“Been looking at it,” Al Horford said. “We are aware of it. Not where we want to be. … It’s very important — we were counting on tonight. … We have a very difficult one going into Miami. All of our focus has to be on that.”
The Sixers’ final game before the trade deadline Thursday is against the Heat on Monday. Miami is 21-3 this season at AmericanAirlines Arena, while the Sixers have a 9-17 away record.
Then, the team will be in Milwaukee on Thursday to play the Bucks, who are 41-7. In theory, the first two games of this road trip — Saturday’s loss to the Kemba Walker-less Celtics and Thursday’s defeat to the 13-win Hawks — should have been easier than the final two.
“We’ve just got to win games,” Simmons said. “We can’t focus on the rankings right now. It’s just one day at a time. One practice at a time, one game, try to lock in and focus on each day.”
Throughout the season, the Sixers have collectively preached patience, giving new pieces time to fit together and readiness for the playoffs mattering more than anything else. Even if one buys into that messaging, it’s clear they’re not where they aspired to be.
“We’ve gotta get our flow back,” Harris said. “We’ve gotta just get our identity of how we play. Right now we’re kind of still trying to figure a lot of things out there on the floor, and it’s hurting us.”
They’re certainly not in a hopeless position. The team’s schedule over its final 32 games is the sixth-easiest in the NBA. The regular starting five, which has only played 19 games together, should have more time to gel after the All-Star break once Josh Richardson returns from a left hamstring strain.
Still, according to Brown, it’s not too early to look at the standings.
“I quietly pay attention,” he said. “But if you said what’s more important, you looking at the standings and really studying that vs. do you just feel like you’re playing good basketball? Do you feel like there’s a semblance of order to what you’re trying to do defensively and what you’re trying to do offensively? When I feel good about that — and I don’t [right now] — at times I really do, but right now we’re not equipped to go into the playoffs. We need to be equipped to go into the playoffs.
“That’s what I think about more than the standings. The good news is there’s certainly, completely enough time for us to move some things around. The spirit of the group is an A-plus. The guys are good, so that’s not the issue. There are some internal things with our structure that we have to keep paying attention to. But the standings don’t really trump those other things that I just said.”
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