Nothing like an absolute clunker to ruin what could have been a decent enough road trip.
The 76ers finished their four-game west-coast swing at 1-3 with a disappointing win to the NBA’s worst team, a Stephen Curry-less Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.
“I think this is a missed opportunity,” 76ers head coach Brett Brown said. “We were on the cusp of coming back and feeling like we deserved and should feel like this was a pretty good trip, this was certainly a dampener.”
“You can’t camouflage your disappointment. This was a game you wanted to win and get on a plane and go home.”
The 76ers dropped the first two games of the road trip to the Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers — expected results without Ben Simmons or Joel Embiid in the fold as they deal with injuries.
Embiid will be re-assessed on Monday as he looks to get back from a sprained left shoulder.
A win over the Sacramento Kings stopped a nine-game road losing streak with the Warriors offering an easy chance at a second-straight triumph.
But the Warriors outscored the 76ers by 12 points in the fourth to come away with the four-point win as Brown lamented his team’s lack of defense.
“We needed to play better defense and close out a game on the road and we didn’t do it,” Brown said. “You can point at different things, but that’s the bottom line, just trying to keep guys in front of you. We just couldn’t do it and we need to.”
The 76ers’ defense has had its fair share of troubles as of late. While the NBA is all about high-profile scoring, it has grown concerning that the Sixers haven’t held an opponent under 100 points for 17-straight games.
On their west-coast trip, they allowed an average of 120.5 points per game.
Philadelphia’s ridiculous road woes continue as their record away from Wells Fargo Center dropped to 10-24 on the season. Only the Atlanta Hawks have more road losses than the 76ers.
It continues to be the main reason why Brown’s men have now dropped into sixth place in the Eastern Conference — a disappointing standing considering this was a team with NBA Finals aspirations heading into 2019-20.
Their inability to meet expectations will only make the hot seat beneath Brown that much warmer, especially when considering that the Nets just let go of Kenny Atkinson — who is expected to be a hot commodity on the market this offseason.
