It’s one thing to lose to playoff teams. It’s another to lose twice to Brooklyn and get clobbered at home by Chicago like the Sixers have recently.
It doesn’t take a film guru or an analytics expert to tell Sixers fans how bad the team has been defensively this season. The final score on Monday night, a home game against the lowly Chicago Bulls, should tell you all you need to know. The Sixers were throttled by the Bulls 142-110 in a game the Bulls led by as many as 50 points.
The final scores of a pair of February losses to the Brooklyn Nets aren’t nearly as lopsided, but those that suffered through both games know that there were plenty of lowlights for Philadelphia in each one. The Nets held a lead as large as 15 points in the final game before the All-Star break two weeks ago. Last Saturday, after getting smoked at home by Boston coming out of the break, the Sixers proceeded to allow 40 points in the first quarter against Brooklyn. It bears mentioning that the Nets are currently second-to-last in the NBA in points per game.
Defense is often a measurement of a team’s effort. Being more athletic allows players to get more hands in passing lanes for steals and to block more shots. But there’s a reason the phrase “defense is a mindset” exists. Teams that buy in and play hard will often not stink on defense. Their defensive ceiling might depend on things like how well they are coached or how athletic they are, but a roster full of NBA players that are committed on the defensive end of the floor wouldn’t be giving up 142 points to this season’s Chicago Bulls. When that happens, it’s fair to conclude that the team just doesn’t care that much anymore.
It’s worth asking how it got THIS bad. The Brooklyn losses would have been hard to fathom at the beginning of the season, but those games weren’t blowouts. Even tank enthusiasts couldn’t have envisioned a game script like Monday night’s against Chicago. The best explanation is that the cumulative effect of all the different injuries and lineup combinations has taken a toll on the players. Additionally, being so bad before the deadline fueled Daryl Morey’s desire to get younger. The team has since brought in Quentin Grimes, Jared Butler and Lonnie Walker IV. That’s three more new players to a rotation that has never been consistent from the day the season started.
At the end of the day, the problems on defense all stem from the top of the roster. Joel Embiid had been an other-worldly defender prior to this season. Defense had been a hallmark of Paul George’s game and for as poor as George has played offensively this season, he’s mostly held up on the defensive end of the floor when available. The lack of availability from Embiid and George has had a trickle-down effect both tactically and emotionally on this Sixers team.
George is in his 15th season in the NBA. He’s played in the postseason in 11 of the previous 14. Injury barred George from competing in the play-in tournament with the Clippers in 2022 and the 2023 playoffs, also with the Clippers. The only other season he did not participate in the playoffs was 2014-15 with Indiana, a season in which he suffered a major leg injury in the offseason and only played in six games. That makes the 2024-25 Sixers the worst team George has ever played on. None of this is to excuse George from an otherwise terrible first season in Philadelphia, but it is meant to highlight the mental toll that I’m sure this season has had on George.
If a 15-year veteran and nine-time All-Star is enduring the worst season of his career from a team standpoint, how do you think the other players whose resumes are far less decorated than George’s feel about this season? They’re all humans too. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the latest Embiid injury news dropped on Sunday, and about 24 hours later the team mailed it in and got shellacked by a terrible Bulls team.
Even with whatever the load management plan was that the Sixers had in place for Embiid at the season’s onset, everyone still knew the 2023 MVP was the straw that stirred the drink. Considering this season has gone about as bad as it could go for Embiid individually, it’s no surprise there’s been a mental trickle down on the rest of the roster. It certainly doesn’t help that while Morey tried to get younger at the deadline by shipping out Caleb Martin and Reggie Jackson, Andre Drummond is still here and getting a ton of the non-Embiid minutes.
It seems obvious at this point that the players have no interest in the season’s final 25 games. They’re professionals and paid large sums of money to care. However, the human side of such a disappointing and miserable season is understandably going to have lots of the players struggling to give it their all at this point. That lack of care is likely going to continue to be most evident on the defensive end of the floor.