76ers vs. Celtics: Score, Highlights and Reaction from 2015 Regular Season
A flicker of hope was aflame, but it was ultimately extinguished. The 2015-16 Philadelphia 76ers, at Wednesday's end, still hadn't won a basketball game.
Squaring off against one of the NBA's premier franchises Wednesday, Philly found a way to blow a late lead to the Boston Celtics and lose 84-80 at TD Garden, worsening its record to 0-16.
The NBA on ESPN encompassed what happened toward the end and what the Sixers' loss means in terms of historic futility:
Whoever runs the Sixers' official Twitter feed, you did well here to react to the team's collapse:
Baby-stepping their way through a long-gestating reconstruction project masterminded by general manager Sam Hinkie, the Sixers have a moral victory of sorts to build on. That's about all the consolation coach Brett Brown's squad can have after another display of undeniably awful basketball.
After a 23-14 second quarter, the Sixers entered the locker room with a comfortable seven-point cushion. This was a moral victory in and of itself, and ESPN Stats & Info provided more context for the advantage:
Scott Souza of the Providence Journal could only imagine how Celtics head coach Brad Stevens was berating his players at the intermission for letting such a winnable game begin to slip:
Something must have resonated, because Boston played with enough urgency in the fourth quarter to get the job done.
With less than four minutes remaining, the Sixers had a 77-70 lead, only to see everything go south. They were still up by three points with just over a minute left, but back-to-back turnovers led to a bucket by Boston point guard Isaiah Thomas and a Jae Crowder three-pointer to seal the Celtics' comeback.
Renowned sportswriter and Boston fan Bill Simmons was soaking in the moment:
It's hard to believe this was the same Boston team that lit up the scoreboard and crushed the Sixers 112-95 in their regular-season opener. Thomas led the Celtics with 30 points Wednesday during an otherwise awful shooting night for the hosts, who hit at a 34.1 percent clip from the field.
Philadelphia's apparent frontcourt of the future, rookie No. 3 overall draft pick Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel—Joel Embiid notwithstanding—didn't exactly light it up amid a floundering fight for traction.
Noel was 1-of-7 shooting and did little else en route to a minus-20 net rating, while Okafor notched four blocks to go with nine rebounds and 19 points—though he needed 17 shots to reach that total. It was unheralded small forward Robert Covington who came through with 11 points, 14 boards, six steals and two blocks.
Hollis Thompson came off the bench to net 15 points for the visitors, and ex-Celtic Phil Pressey had a fine outing against his former squad with a team-high four assists.
Matt Moore of CBSSports.com commented on how hard it must be for Brown to coach the personnel at his disposal:
When players such as Covington, Thompson and Pressey are the best sources of help for the still-developing, talented big men in Okafor and Noel, perhaps something is wrong. The Sixers nevertheless continue to march on with a roster mostly bereft of viable NBA players.
Derek Bodner of Philadelphia magazine alluded to how the perpetual losers could have redeemed themselves but instead appeared to fall into the habit of what their organizational culture has become:
Stevens had to be close to hyperventilating down the stretch in almost witnessing a catastrophic defeat on the Celtics' court.
Following the close call against the Sixers, Boston welcomes the Washington Wizards to town Friday—an opponent that was outscored 27-6 in the fourth quarter of its loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday
Philadelphia's final two contests of a six-game road trip feature matchups against the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies. The talent disparity between Philadelphia and its next two opponents from the Western Conference is astonishing.
Per ESPN Stats & Info, Philadelphia is the first NBA team ever to start back-to-back seasons with an 0-16 record.
The lowly Los Angeles Lakers may be the Sixers' best chance at a win when they return home this coming Tuesday. But with the losing run the team is on now and the plan to land another high lottery draft pick advanced so far already, a "W" might be viewed as detrimental by Philadelphia's unconventional brass.
Postgame Reaction
Brown tried to downplay the latest standard of losing the Sixers have pioneered.
"I don't care.... How many streaks have I been a part of? I'm numb to it. I'm honestly numb to it," said Brown, per CSNPhilly.com's Sean Kane. Brown added, per 97.3 ESPN radio personality Mike Gill, "I love coaching those guys and I bleed for them."
After Boston lost by double digits to the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks leading up to Wednesday, Stevens implied afterward how well his group bonded toward the end, per the Celtics' official Twitter account:
In a creative cross-sports analogy, Thomas compared Stevens' message to what New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick preaches to his NFL powerhouse, as reported by ESPN's Chris Forsberg:
Stevens also praised Boston's response to halftime adjustments, adding, per the team, "I thought we really defended during the second half, and during the fourth quarter especially."
With how tight and competitive the Eastern Conference is to start the season, it's imperative for the multitude of teams hovering around .500 to take care of business against the NBA's basement dwellers. The Celtics didn't do that in their defeat to the Nets but managed to fight back and improve to 8-7 Wednesday.
Meanwhile, there seems to be no end in sight for a Sixers team led by an understandably weary leader whose patience is being pushed to the brink.
