The 2015-16 Sixers are bad and we all knew they were going to be. At 0-12 though, the team might be worse than they were at this point last year. The Sixers have lost their last two by turning the ball over an unexcuseable amount of times. They gave it away 27 times on Monday against the Mavericks before turning it over 31 times against the Pacers on Wednesday. Those 31 turnovers were the most by an NBA team in 15 years, when Golden State turned it over 31 times against the Kings on November 8th, 2000. Quite frankly, the Sixers already have a small margin for error. Add in their recent turnover issues and they are playing even further behind than they normally would.
“Where do you begin? It starts with our abundance of turnovers,” head coach Brett Brown said. “I felt like tonight was one of those games that was an outlier for this group. I didn’t feel like we competed and we got out-worked, and it’s one of those games I quickly want to forget.
“When you break down the turnovers they come from all areas,” Brown said. “From stepping out of bounds to travels to post feeds to kick-aheads in early offense to driving into traffic and giving it away in a crowd — it’s not like it’s coming from a single area. And they are done en masse, it’s not like they’re coming from a single area. It’s a team thing. We can talk about a lot of things, but unless we fix that we’re just chasing the game. We’re not going to win any NBA games with that quantity of turnovers.” [CSNPhilly.com]
Philadelphia has now lost 22 games dating back to last season and lead the NBA in turnovers per game with over 19. Pair the Sixers turnovers with a poor night for Nerlens Noel and you got yourself an old-fashioned blowout. The second year power forward scored just two points and grabbed three rebounds in 24 minutes on the floor, a mark he's reached twice in the last three games, a season low. In the third quarter, Brett Brown decided to have Noel sit and rest, blaming some of his play on the big man's recent ailments.
“He has had some knee problems with some tendinitis,” Brown said. “You can see him still holding his wrist. He was down in performance. I opted to just sit him because we weren’t going to win that game and let him get going on some recovery with his knee and his wrist.” [CSNPhilly.com]
One of the lone bright spots in the Sixers 112-85 defeat came from point guard T.J. McConnell. Although he had a team-high five turnovers, the undrafted rookie scored 16 points on 7-for-9 shooting while also grabbing six rebounds and dealing three assists. McConnell commented on the turnover predicament after the game, vying to fix the issue with his young teammates.
“That’s going to happen once in a while. The amount of turnovers we had is flat-out unacceptable and it will be fixed.” McConnell said.
Meanwhile, Jahlil Okafor scored 14 points and tallied six rebounds after recording two straight double-double performances. The Sixers first round pick is averaging 18.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game and isn't used to losing like this. He's lost more in his short NBA career than he has in college and high school combined.
“Being 0-12 is tough,” Okafor understated. “We have to stay together and we can’t have guys venturing off and doing their own thing. We’re a better team than we showed tonight.” [CSNPhilly.com]
If the Sixers plan on proving that they are indeed a better team, they won't have too much time to fix it as they embark on a six-game road trip, beginning on Friday night against the Hornets (5-6). They'll also make stops in Miami, Minnesota, Boston, Houston and Memphis before returning home on December 1st against the Lakers.
Brandon Apter is a contributor for Sixerdelphia.com
