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Things did not go well for the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday in their nationally televised matchup against the Brooklyn Nets. Given the recent mega-deal between these two teams at the trade deadline, there was no shortage of emotion surrounding the game. Philly fans would finally get the opportunity to let their voices be heard by Ben Simmons, but their hopes for revenge faded rather quickly.
Brooklyn's offense came out of the gates scorching hot, and from there, never looked back. Led by strong showings from Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the Nets walked out of the Wells Fargo Center with a 129-100 victory.
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From the Sixers' side of things, there was not much to positively takeaway from Thursday night. That being said, some players still managed to find a silver lining from the blowout loss. During his postgame media availability, Tobias Harris spoke on how the game was a much-needed wake-up call for the team.
“It does affect us, but it was also a wake-up call for us that we got a lot of work to do. We got to get better, in a quick period of time, and we got to figure out ways to better ourselves as a group. Some nights we'll have nights like this. It's a tough loss, but we got to bounce back from this,” said Harris.
James Harden later agreed with Harris on some good coming from this loss. He feels this experience is a coming-back-down-to-earth moment after how well things had previously gone since he entered the lineup.
“Tonight was good for us, we got our ass kicked. Since I've been here, everything has been sweet and we've been winning games. Tonight was good for us, we get an opportunity to come back down to reality, watch film, and continue to get better and making sure we're hitting the right strides,” Harden said postgame.
Both players make very valid points. Even with how things went down against the Nets, they can use it as a positive experience moving forward. At some point, the honeymoon phase had to come to an end. Realizing they are mortal once again, the Sixers can get back to preparing for a playoff run.
Since the trade happened, the Sixers have been one of the biggest talking points in the league. Everyone instantly put them in the title picture and started crowning Harden and Embiid as one of the league's top duos. Add that to multiple blowout victories since Harden's debut, and it could become very hard not to get caught up in the hype.
Thursday's game provided a clear message that some might have lost sight of: this team is still a work in progress. While the Sixers have managed to integrate Harden seamlessly, they still have a lot to figure out before they are truly ready to compete for a championship.
At the end of the day, this was only one game, and Harden shouldn't have too many 3-of-17 nights in the future. All the Sixers can do is learn from their mistakes and move on. With so little time left in the regular season, they are in no position to sit and dwell over one blowout loss, which was a perfect storm of bad for this team.
