“Together We Build,” the Philadelphia 76ers slogan has been all season. Well, for now, they are building history—not the good kind. Philadelphia lost its 24th consecutive game Saturday night to the Chicago Bulls, 91-81.
The loss was their second this weekend. They now stand two games away from matching the NBA’s record losing streak and three loses away from establishing a new one. With loss number 24, the streak is now the second-worst in NBA history, behind only Cleveland’s in 2010-11.
It is the longest losing streak by a professional sports team in Philadelphia history.
Joakim Noah led the Bulls with 20 points. Chicago played their usual style of bothering teams defensively and getting by on offense. Taj Gibson and D.J. Augustin each added 16 points off the bench. Jimmy Butler had 17 points.
Thaddeus Young led the Sixers with 28 points, playing a phenomenal, hard-nosed game. Equally impressive was Henry Sims, who added a double-double. He dropped 18 points and collected 15 rebounds, handling himself well for being matched up against Joakim Noah.
Outside of the duo, the team received very little help elsewhere. Eight other players combined to score just 35 additional points, as the team lacked fire power. Sixth man Tony Wroten did not play after suffering an ankle sprain on Friday night.
Philadelphia flirted with single-game history as well in the game. The team missed their first 18 three-point attempts of the game. The NBA record of most attempted three’s without a conversion is 15, which remained safe in the fourth quarter. Byron Mullens’ fourth quarter trey allowed them to finish 1-for-20.
Despite the struggles and picking up yet another loss, Philadelphia remained encouraged. True to the “Together We Build” mantra, the team seemed to take another step forward in being more collective as a team.
"We're learning to play better with each other," Sims said. "We're learning to make better decisions down the stretch. We're growing right now, and that's the main focus right now. The games we have left, we want to keep growing."
And so they build.
