By Matt Gregan, Sports Talk Philly Staff Writer 
The Philadelphia 76ers were riding high over the past few weeks. They were undefeated in the first five games with James Harden in the lineup, and their offense was functioning at a high level. However, things all came crashing down in a brutal blowout loss to the Brooklyn Nets that turned out to be a reality check for an otherwise incredible start to the Harden-Embiid era in Philadelphia.
The loss to the Nets exposed one of the team's major flaws: Perimeter defense. Outside of Matisse Thybulle, the Sixers have nobody who is an above-average perimeter defender. Tobias Harris has proven to be a capable defender at times, but he is far outmatched by the likes of either Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving. Tyrese Maxey was absolutely picked apart by both Irving and Seth Curry.
Takes the contact… still gets it to fall ? pic.twitter.com/f9NKylL9rW
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) March 11, 2022
The Sixers were outmatched from the very beginning of the game. The Nets built up a 40-23 lead while shooting a red hot 65.3 percent from the field in the first quarter. They were able to get to their spots at ease due to a combination of the Sixers' poor game plan and terrible defense.
"They were so much more physical," head coach Doc Rivers said after the loss. "That was the only thing: I thought we succumbed to their physicality tonight. When you see guys running through dribble handoffs, that’s a problem. That should never happen. And I’m going to say nine times that happened tonight. So it’s something that we’ll look at the film and we’ll fix."
Harris, as mentioned above, has proven to be a capable defender when he is locked in. However, he joined in the team-wide poor defensive effort.
That's not nice, @KDTrey5 ? pic.twitter.com/MUtgbgXoLC
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) March 11, 2022
Harris' goal on this possession was to take away one of Durant's options, forcing to go one way or pass the ball. Joel Embiid did a good job stepping up to provide the help defense, but Harris also went in the same direction, leaving Durant wide open for an easy three early in the second half. The Sixers were not locked in from the outset defensively, and the Nets took advantage of it all night long.
Things were not much better for the Sixers offensively. The team shot a meager 32.3 percent from the field, and that was boosted by some solid garbage time minutes in the entirety of the fourth quarter.
Harden, who has been excellent since debuting with the Sixers, shot just 3-of-17 from the field and at times looked lost out on the floor. He was tentative, something the Sixers have not seen yet considering the job he did running their offense in his first five games with the team. He is usually good at drawing fouls and finishing around the rim, but the Nets did a good job swarming him and preventing him from getting to his spots.
Defense ➡️ offense to end the quarter ? pic.twitter.com/ycIbi3KJvk
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) March 11, 2022
Harden shot 3-of-7 from three-point range and missed all 10 of his shots from inside the arc. He also committed an uncharacteristic four turnovers and dished out only five assists. He spoke after the game about his struggles in the loss to the Nets and how the team can respond.
"Just missed shots," Harden said. "Just missed shots. There’s no excuses. I’ve got to be better individually. Some turnovers where it was just careless. Individually, I’ve got to be better. And as a team, I’ll watch film to see where can we be better. And we’ll just try to continue to improve. This is only our sixth game together as a unit. I’m still trying to figure things out. But tonight was good for us, man. We got our ass kicked. Since I’ve been here, everything has been sweet and we’ve been winning games. So tonight was good for us, and we get an opportunity to come down to reality, watch film and just continue to get better and make sure we’re hitting the right strides."
Nothing went right for the Sixers in their loss to the Nets. Everything was off, from the game plan to the defense to the poor shooting. Maxey scored only four points and Harden had one of his worst shooting games in recent memory. To the team's credit, some of their best wins this season have come off brutal losses. They followed a 118-96 loss to the Utah Jazz on Dec. 9 with a 102-93 win over the Golden State Warriors. They got blown out by the Boston Celtics 135-87 on Feb. 15 and followed it up with a 123-120 win over the Milwaukee Bucks heading into the All-Star break.
Things had gone nearly perfectly in the first five games since Harden made his debut with the team. The loss to the Nets served as a reality check, a sign that it has only been six games and there is still a ton of progress and growing pains before this version of the team reaches peak form.
"For us, we’ve been rolling and playing well, so that does affect us," Harris said. "It was also a wake-up call for us that we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got to get better in a quick period of time and we’ve got to figure out ways to better ourselves as a group so we don’t have nights like this. It’s a tough loss, but we’ve got to bounce back from it."
The loss to the Nets exposed some legitimate weaknesses for the Sixers, but it is not time to panic and the sky is certainly not falling. The Sixers' next game is a road matchup with the Orlando Magic, one of the worst teams in the NBA. After that, things get much more difficult and there are many more tests remaining this season. They have games against the Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat and Phoenix Suns remaining on the schedule. There is still plenty of time for this team to continue to gel, grow together and improve on the weaknesses exposed against the Nets before the playoffs arrive next month.
