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The Philadelphia 76ers are on a cold start. Although the Sixers have faced two legitimate NBA title contenders so far in the 2022-23 NBA season, their 90-88 home loss Thursday night to the Milwaukee Bucks nevertheless has put them in an early hole. Plus, their latest loss came at the hands of an undermanned Bucks team that did not have the injured pair of Khris Middleton and key reserve Pat Connaughton.
Making both losses even harder to swallow for the Sixers and their fans is the fact that James Harden has actually played like an MVP in those contests. Harden balled out anew Thursday, as he posted 31 points on 13-of-24 shooting from the field and also further stuffed the stat sheets with eight rebounds, nine assists, two steals, and a block. While he shot just 1-of-7 from behind the arc, he did turn the ball over just two times despite another heavy-usage outing.
James Harden this season:
35 PTS | 8 REB | 7 AST
31 PTS | 8 REB | 9 AST0-2. pic.twitter.com/U2UKuYumnY
— StatMuse (@statmuse) October 21, 2022
Here are some more Twitter reactions to the Sixers' early season struggles.
Sixers fans seeing James Harden return to MVP form but they are 0-2 https://t.co/QVgejlmbPX
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) October 21, 2022
Harden they didn’t wanna believe us when we said you were injured man
— AFC-KNOWLEDGE (@chealseagbeint) October 21, 2022
I haven’t seen Harden cook in the midrange like this since the Obama administration
— 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒆 🌩 (@Three_Cone) October 21, 2022
waste of time and energy to care about the Sixers until Glenn is gone
— Nick Piccone (@_piccone) October 21, 2022
Not panic time for the #Sixers. They're integrating new pieces and have played the top two teams in the East. That said, there's clearly work to be done.
— Michael K-B (@therealmikekb) October 21, 2022
https://twitter.com/sixersJay/status/1583267058187661314
I feel like a broken record but it is a miracle the Sixers have been in these games when our best player has been a disaster
— Subscribe to the You Know Ball Patreon (@TrillBroDude) October 21, 2022
All things considered, I expected more rust than what we saw. Bucks collapse was awful but to beat the sixers at home, when they already had a game under their belt, with no Khris and without your best bench scorer, that’s big
— 🦌 (@SnellSZN) October 21, 2022
https://twitter.com/CallMeDee_11/status/1583276199065030656
As you can glean from the other reactions above, Joel Embiid has also garnered some negative reactions from Sixers fans. Embiid played 36 minutes against the Bucks but mustered just a total of 15 points on a highly inefficient 6-of-21 shooting from the floor. He also apparently lacked aggressiveness, as he was just 2-for-3 from the free-throw line.
Meanwhile, Tobias Harris, who is supposed to be the third wheel for Harden and Embiid, also sputtered in the Bucks game, coughing up just nine points, though, to be fair to him, he had a better plus-minus of +2 than Embiid, who finished with a plus/minus of -10.
The Sixers will be the heavy favorites to win their next game, which will be against the San Antonio Spurs at home on Saturday.
