The Sixers have officially kicked off the NBA season, with three games being played already against the Pelicans, Nets, and Thunder.
There have been many bright spots to the start of the season, like Andre Drummond off the bench impact, Tyrese Maxey‘s growth, and the emergence of Seth curry early on. There is still a major void of an end of the game closer, and it showed itself early in the season in game two against the Brooklyn Nets.
Friday, Oct 22nd, the Sixers played Host to Kevin Durant, James Harden, and the Brooklyn Nets. The Sixers lead the entire game behind Seth Curry‘s hot shooting as he went 4/4 from three and 9/12 from the floor, scoring 23 points.
Until about the five-minute mark, the Nets proceeded to go on a sixteen-to-one run in the fourth quarter. Seth Curry’s hot shooting started to cool off. The Sixers struggled to execute down the stretch. No player was able to create and get it going for a score, either. This led to the Sixers losing the lead and the game 114 – 109.
Failing to execute down the stretch of a game or having a player who can create from the perimeter in the closing moments has plagued this Sixers team for a few years now. As well as the team played for three and a half quarters, defenses lock in on Embiid late in games sending double-teams to get the ball out of his hands and make another Sixers players make a play.
The 76ers have great role players but none that has the ability to create for themselves consistently enough to close out games. Tobias Harris is a great leader and can score but lacks the offensive firepower to keep up and closeout the game against the upper echelon teams.
Until the Sixers address this issue, this will continue to be a problem for the team late in games. Sadly, with the team’s current state, the only possible solution can be from a trade or the emergence of a player already on the roster. This is not necessarily the position the team wants to be in, but this is the reality this Sixers team finds themselves in this season.
