PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers submitted a strong contender for their worst loss of the season by squandering a 15-point lead to the Memphis Grizzlies. One of the worst teams in the league littered with injuries to almost all of its starters and several main backups overcame a big deficit to hand the Sixers their second straight defeat.
The 76ers being shorthanded doesn’t serve as an excuse in the slightest. Against a Grizzlies team consisting mostly of young and/or fringe NBA players, not having Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey or Kyle Lowry should not have prevented Philly from winning. Now just a half of a game away from the eighth seed, the Sixers' room for error is only shrinking.
“I'm gonna just say this: I think we could learn a lot from tonight,” Kelly Oubre Jr. said after the loss.
Coming into this game, the 76ers were on the heels of losing to the lackluster Brooklyn Nets. They held a comfy lead in that game, too, before a brutal fourth quarter undid their work. A surprising win on the road against the Dallas Mavericks has since been undone by losing a pair of easily winnable games.
“It was a real like testament of, ‘Hard work beats talent when talent don't work hard.’ I just think that was the whole gist of the game tonight,” Oubre said of the loss to the Grizzlies. “They just stuck with it for 48 minutes and I think we kind of lapsed in the third [quarter].”
Being outscored 34-16 in the fourth quarter by the G League-level remnants of the Grizzlies should serve as a huge wake-up call. Cam Payne seems to have realized this, saying that the 76ers need to do a better job at finishing games.
Cam Payne on the Sixers’ 4th quarter issues:
“I feel like we gotta keep playing. I feel like we slow down at times when the 4th hits and I feel like we just gotta keep the identity…We gotta keep being the enforcers for the whole 48 minutes.” pic.twitter.com/xuuYd13ypl
— Sam DiGiovanni (@BySamDiGiovanni) March 7, 2024
Life without Joel Embiid is hard, especially now with Tyrese Maxey dealing with a concussion. But it doesn’t have to be this devoid of easy successes. The 76ers can’t afford that as they look to secure the best possible playoff seed.
Tobias Harris was okay against the Nets and abysmal against the Grizzlies, unable to get any sort of rhythm going or weaponize the scoring gravity he got as the top option. Key players fouled far too often in each game (Kyle Lowry vs. Brooklyn, Paul Reed vs. Memphis). A lot went wrong in those games that Philly cannot brush off as just a bad night.
“I would rather just discuss it together as a team and just get better from it,” Oubre said. “But we have to learn from this situation. It's obviously an adverse time for Philadelphia. And it's tough as a player. Like, I can't even go on my phone, right? Because after the game you just feel so embarrassed and you feel like you let the city down, you let your team down and stuff like that. But it's something that we gotta face and get through.”
The 76ers cost themselves a pair of easy wins despite controlling each game at various points. In their next 15 games, they will match up with a team that owns a winning record 13 times. Only five of those games will be at home. They better heed Oubre's advice and learn from their mistakes before they make too many to come back from.
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