Does the Sixers' long-overdue losing season begin tonight against the Rockets?

Share

UPDATE: No James Harden or MCW in this one tonight, as Harden is resting with a lingering foot issue and Carter-Williams is sitting with what's called a "left foot arch bruise." Both are listed as day-to-day.

Probably. The Sixers have given us several seasons' worth of unexpected entertainment the first few weeks of the season, with upset wins over...well, everybody they beat, considering there were zero teams to start the season the Sixers would be favored against. But now 3-0 has become 4-2 has become 4-4, and the Sixers are right back where they started the season at .500.

Tonight, the Sixers will likely be the proud owners of a losing record for the first time this season, as they host GM Sam Hinkie's old Houston Rockets squad at the Wells Fargo Center, their last home game for a week. The Rockets are a good team who wants to be better, 5-3 in their first eight games, but still struggling a little bit to figure out their big man rotation (with both prized free-agent signing Dwight Howard and incumbent starting center Omir Asik both demanding redundant big minutes) and to secure their perimeter defense, which has been leaky to a rather dangerous degree thusfar.

Nonetheless, they have Howard, James Harden, and a whole bunch of other good players. They will certainly be favored coming into the WFC tonight, especially after the bad loss the Sixers suffered two nights earlier to the San Antonio Spurs, a dispiriting 24-point defeat that saw the Sixers get disturbingly sloppy towards the end, and which definitely had a distinct Party's Over feel to it.

Still, how many times have we been willing to write the Sixers off already in this still-early season, only to see them give us reason to reconsider? The last time came after the Ballers' 20-point loss to the Warriors on their home floor, when they bounced back to beat the Cavaliers handily two nights later, so perhaps there's a little magic left in these young Sixer bones.

We'll see soon enough. 7:00 tip from the WFC. Tonight we will also meet Rod Baker, who's been a coach at various levels of pro and amateur basketball for about 35 years, and will now be introduced as the new coach of the 87ers, the 76ers' D-League affiliate. If he can lead the Rochester Razorsharks to the Premier Basketball League championship, imagine what he can do with Jerome Randle and Darington Hobson!

Contact Us