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The Philadelphia 76ers suffered their latest loss on Friday night, looking lethargic, out of it and lost in a 118-108 defeat at the hands of the Houston Rockets.
The game wasn't even as close as the final score.
The Rockets dropped a 40-spot on the 76ers in the second quarter, Clint Capela severely outplayed Joel Embiid, Al Horford struggled once again and Philadelphia looked like it stopped caring after a while.
Of course, the “stopped caring” thing is probably wrong, as you can only tell so much with the naked eye, but that's how it appeared when the Sixers fell behind by double figures.
Philly has now lost four games in a row and has fallen to 23-14 on the season overall. Not a bad record by any stretch of the imagination, but not what people expected going into the year.
The 76ers' dreams of earning a No. 1 seed are also becoming more and more unlikely as each day passes, as they are nine losses behind the Milwaukee Bucks for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
So what exactly is wrong?
Well, remember last year's Boston Celtics? The team that was supposed to mow through the East and challenge the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals?
The problems seem eerily similar.
The talent isn't meshing, the players don't seem to be getting along and there may be too many mouths to feed.
Brett Brown is on the hot seat. Embiid is not happy. The typically reserved Horford has expressed displeasure about his role. Josh Richardson said there is not enough accountability. Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons basically said as much.
You also had Embiid taking a subtle shot at Simmons, saying that guys need to be willing to step out and space the floor (who else could he be talking about?).
While the Celtics' issues last season were centered around Kyrie Irving's impending free agency, the overall feeling when it comes to the 76ers remains the same.
There is a whole lot of talent here, but it isn't mixing, which led to Simmons even saying that the players can't grow distant from one another following the loss to the Rockets.
Those are not the quotes you want to hear.
Yes, there is plenty of time for Philadelphia to turn things around, but at the same time, we are nearly halfway through the season, so we have a pretty decent sample size to go off of.
I thought the same thing about Boston last season. That eventually, the C's would turn things around. But it never happened.
And a legitimate argument can be made that the issues plaguing this Sixers club are even more problematic, because, unlike that Celtics squad, the 76ers have never even made it past the second round of the playoffs, and unlike Brown, Brad Stevens was never in any danger of losing his job.
Plus, Philadelphia's roster is obviously flawed in general.
It has no floor spacing, limited depth and its frontcourt is just too big and too slow in an era where switching everything defensively is paramount, particularly on pick-and-rolls.
People didn't make enough of the Sixers losing JJ Redick over the summer, both from a perimeter shooting and a leadership standpoint. Having Jimmy Butler want out was bad enough, but seeing Redick walk was more devastating than everyone initially wanted to admit.
The 76ers' roster construction is a big issue, and anyone who has watched basketball for any length of time likely saw the potential problems before the season began. People just assumed that Philly's overall talent would mask them.
But not only have those issues not been masked, they have been magnified.
Last year's Celtics showed flashes of brilliance at times, much like the Sixers did when they beat the Bucks on Christmas Day. But they also displayed moments of head-scratching incompetence against teams they should have easily beaten, like Philadelphia did when it was blown out by the injury-riddled Brooklyn Nets. Or the two times it lost to the Orlando Magic this season (coincidentally enough, the Magic beat the Celtics three times last year).
Sometimes, the most talented squads end up being the teams with the most problems. Boston was able to win 49 games during the 2018-19 campaign based on raw talent alone, but the second the C's faced adversity in the playoffs, they crumbled, and that's what happens when your locker room isn't together.
Those same issues seem to be rearing their ugly heads in the City of Brotherly Love this season, and it has resulted in the Sixers finding themselves in sixth place in an Eastern Conference that includes the Bucks, a vastly improved Celtics team, dangerous clubs in the Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat and a nasty Indiana Pacers group that should be getting its best player in Victor Oladipo back relatively soon.
All last season, I ignored the ominous signs in Boston because of how the C's looked on paper. I won't make that same mistake again when it comes to the 76ers.
Something is amiss in Philadelphia, and I'm not sure the Sixers will find a cure.
