With about eight minutes to go in the third quarter Wednesday night, Philadelphia 76ers guard Josh Richardson tried to throw an entry pass to teammate Joel Embiid, who had established a midfield position.
The pass was terrible. Richardson jumped to throw it, and it was loopy and wide right. Embiid waited hopelessly for the ball, when Boston Celtics center Daniel Theis easily stole it. About five seconds later, Embiid was back, this time with Marcus Smart when the Celtics’ guard received a foul and a foul.
From that moment on, the 76ers pretty much raised the white flag on Game 2 of this series – and maybe even their season – that falls 128-101 to Boston. Their energy levels, especially Embiid’s, collided as the Celtics galloped up and down the floor. At the time of that turnover, it was a 10-point game. By the end of the third, it was up to 23 points.
Maybe there are more symbolic moments to use to define this 76ers campaign, but that one is just as good as any. The table was set, there were good intentions, there were good people involved, and it was still a failure.
This is an expensive team with a playful strategy of an aggressive front office and a group of players who believed they were on the cusp of superstardom. Embiid, for example, declared at the start of the season that he intended to win the most valuable player and defensive player of the year.
Now, they are a 6-seed down 0-2 with a $ 150 million payout table on the books for next season, and everyone involved knows that there are likely to be changes up and down. Maybe they get a win or they even pull out two wins against the Celtics – though that’s unlikely if Jayson Tatum continues to play as a passing MVP candidate – but that will hardly change the reality.
It’s just visible on the 76ers’ faces and in their body language. Like many teams ahead of them over the decades and probably many teams to come, they are going through the motions of the end of the terrible letdown season.
This was extended by the pandemic and received an injection of hope when the delay gave the Sixers a chance to get Ben Simmons (short) healthy again. But it also took away her greatest strength, her 29-2 record at home, which she will not have when Game 3 arrives.
They had hoped to go into Game 2 because they believed unforced errors would have cost them Game 1, plus Boston had lost Gordon Hayward to the series. Philadelphia had Embiid, the perfect weapon against undersized Boston that had “playoff face,” according to coach Brett Brown. By the end of Game 2, it was a thousand yard stare. Embiid scored 34 points and 10 rebounds, which sounds amazing outside the context of how Game 2 actually played.
Just another disappointment in a season full of them. Brown has tried everything in his coaching career with this group. It just does not work. And by all accounts, it’s not because he’s not a good coach, or because the players have serious problems with each other; it’s because the collection of players in this team simply does not work.
Simmons made a famous 3-pointer in a 47-point victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Dec. 7, the second of his career. After the match, a jovial Brown tried to capture the moment.
“This is what I want, and you can pass it on to his agent, his family and friends. I want a 3-point shot a game, at least,” Brown told Simmons. “I’m fine with what’s open. But I’m interested in the 3-point shot.”
Simmons played 36 more games for the 76ers this season and attempted three more 3-pointers. Does that make Simmons petulant as Brown thin? No. It’s just a mismatched circumstance, like so many others around this squad.
Towards the end, Brown still tries to convey the right messages and instruct his players to be the best they can be.
“You make sure the group understands that there is enough character and talent in the room to regroup,” he said after Game 2. “If the planet were normal, you would be back in Philadelphia.”
It’s not normal.
The Celtics were in a similar position a year ago, as they similarly limped through a hefty playoff loss from the second round to the Milwaukee Bucks. It was clear that Kyrie Irving, once believed to be the premium addition that would bring Boston to title fight, was out of it. Al Horford, it turned out, was soon to leave Boston as well. Now in Philadelphia, the chapter of last summer’s gamble after playing enormously in a league that is getting smaller and smaller, Horford must ask if there is some kind of black cloud following him.
The 2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers, who traded for Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to add Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, finished a season 45 with a win and a first-round finish. Each season has a team like two with this designation, the only difference is usually the profile of the disappointment.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the bubble, Jimmy Butler has the Miami Heat believing they not only have a shot at stealing the Eastern Conference this year, but they have enormous purchase plans for the rest of Butler’s four-year deal. Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra love Butler’s mindset and how it led to the Heat emerging into a group of overachievers.
In Miami, they say Butler is like the son of Udonis Haslem and Dwyane Wade, the combination of the two most definite players in team history. In Philly, Butler feels more and more like the one who came away.
The late David Stern used to regularly remind owners, players, media and anyone who would hear that the NBA is a zero-sum game. For every team that comes up, one has to fall. For any team with too many achievements, there is an underprocess. And on the cycle goes.
History will probably be written that the 76-20-2014 was a case that was totally less than the sum of its parts. It’s a sad list to be on, but it’s not lonely.
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