The last time the Philadelphia 76ers won a basketball game we were going to spend the next four days talking about how Peyton Manning was going to carve up the Seahawks defense. We had nine more days of hype until the Sochi Winter Olympics opened (and one Olympic ring didn’t).
Since Jan. 29 the Philadelphia 76ers have not won a game — that stretch reached 26 in a row at the hands of the Rockets Thursday night, 120-98.
That ties the NBA record set by the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers. The Sixers can break the record and own the dubious distinction outright Saturday night when they host the Detroit Pistons.
Loss 26, like so many of the losses before it, was simply a matter of the more talented team exerting itself. The Sixers went into this season looking to compile draft picks and be bad so those picks had value. The result is that most nights Philadelphia is outclassed.
The Rockets start All-Star Dwight Howard at center, the Sixers start Henry Sims, a guy who has bounced around between the NBA and the D-League and was a throw in as part of the Spencer Hawes trade with the Cavaliers. The Rockets have James Harden — who had a triple double of 26 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists — while the Sixers gave pretty good run to 10-day contract guys Casper Ware (22 minutes) and James Nunnally (18).
The Sixers tried to show some fight early on. It was 43-43 as the Sixers were hanging around midway through the second quarter, but then Howard (5-of-5 for 15 points in the first half) and Harden returned to the game and led a 20-6 run to pull away 63-49 lead at the half. Houston shot 52 percent and had 20 fast break points in the first half.
You had a feeling how the second half would go… and it did. Houston blew it open in the third quarter, scoring 37 points (to the Sixers 31) and it was 100-80 at the end of three. The fourth quarter was just garbage time.
Like the last couple months, really.
James Anderson put up 20 on the Rockets for the Sixers, he has big games against them. But that was about the only performance of positive note.
I’d say Sixers fans should blame management for this mess, except most of them seem to be on board with “Team Tank.” They will not be booing the Sixers if they lose on Saturday and set a new record, they will be cheering. This is Philly — they are both harsh and smart fans. They know (or at least hope) this is temporary. This makes more sense to them then cheering for Mark Sanchez.
The Sixers players, they will just keep trying. And one night they will not be overmatched. One night they will win.
