The Philadelphia 76ers were soundly defeated by the Brooklyn Nets by 25 points on Sunday night. Embarrassed by his team's performance, sophomore star Ben Simmons blasted Philly for playing soft.
Simmons says the 76ers have been playing soft, throwing in an expletive to back it up.
— Brian Mahoney (@briancmahoney) November 5, 2018
Predicted by many to be a top-three team in the Eastern Conference this season, the Sixers have been playing below expectations thus far. They are giving up 112.9 points per game, good for a lowly 20th ranking in the league. More importantly, that defensive ranking is nine spots lower than they were last season.
Article Continues BelowWhile there's no need to push the panic button just yet, head coach Brett Brown also sounded off on his team's lack of fire and enthusiasm in their recent games.
Via Noah Levick of NBC Sports:
On Tuesday in Toronto, the Sixers also struggled with turnovers, giving it away 23 times, and they also fell behind a large margin — as many as 26 points. On that night, they worked their way back into the contest, cutting the Raptors' lead to single digits. That sort of effort was lacking Sunday.
“Tonight, for whatever reason, it just didn’t feel like we were going to have that firepower, that fight that we need to have,” Brown said. “We’ll see how we respond after we all get back after a day off tomorrow.”
According to Embiid, Brown “was ashamed” by the Sixers' performance.
The road doesn't get easier from here as the Sixers next face the streaking Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.