Maxey's missed free throws, rampant injuries, and coaching concerns after a devastating loss dominate this podcast reaction.
Welcome to this week's 76ers Roundtable Podcast episode!! This one was a tough one, as it followed the Sixers' crushing loss to the Atlanta Hawks, but we made sure to focus on the positives as well as there were quite a bit of negatives throughout the last couple of weeks.
While they showed some good fight at the end, it ultimately wasn't enough and their sloppy mistakes led to a loss in a game that they needed to win. It was particularly frustrating that they had multiple opportunities to win the game, but they let them slip.
One of these situations was Tyrese Maxey missing back-to-back free-throws that would've likely won the game for Philadelphia. One missed free-throw is uncharacteristic, but two is simply unheard of from Maxey. He's a career 86% shooter from the charity stripe, but it didn't show when it mattered most.
Even so, the team wouldn't have been in this position in the first place if not for Maxey's clutch triple, so it's hard to put all of the blame on him. This crushing loss was just another addition to the unfortunate series of events for the Sixers.
Just 19 games into the season, and Philly has already been plagued by injuries, with key players like Joel Embiid, Paul George, VJ Edgecombe, Kelly Oubre Jr., and Jared McCain all missing at least a few games already. Other bench players like Trendon Watford and Dominick Barlow have also missed time, adding to the struggle to maintain depth.
This has certainly added to the difficulty of winning games, but at the end of the day, you have to find ways to win even when it's tough. The 41-point loss to the Orlando Magic was just unacceptable and embarrassing. For a team that still had an MVP candidate playing, it's hard to believe that they lost by that much. This is clearly a coaching issue, so that needs to continue to be addressed as the team's lack of success persists.
That said, focusing on the positives, McCain has continued to look solid over his last stretch of games, scoring 15+ in three straight games before the Hawks game. We also made sure to note how thankful we are for Maxey and Edgecombe as they provided some much needed sparks throughout the season.
Hopefully, they can get back on track against the Wizards and maybe even see some consistent success for once following a victory.