The arctic chill that has descended on Philadelphia wasn’t relegated to just the frigid temperature outside. In fact, the Sixers’ shooting percentage was so low it rivaled Wednesday’s daytime high.
How cold were the Sixers in the 97-77 defeat to the Milwaukee Bucks at the Wells Fargo Center?
“Where do I begin,” coach Brett Brown asked rhetorically. “It’s deflating. We had a rough time doing anything.”
The team shot 2 for 25 from three-point range for a whopping 8.0 percent. Though K.J. McDaniels (14 points) and Nerlens Noel (13) led the team in scoring, shooting a respectable 11 for 18, backcourt duo Michael Carter-Williams and Tony Wroten shot a combined 5 for 32 (15.6 percent).
Carter-Williams went 1 for 13 and Wroten was 4 for 19, and the struggles did not end there. Robert Covington was 1 for 11, including 1 for 9 from three-point range, and starter Henry Sims went 1 for 8.
It’s tough to win games when a team’s top four scorers go a combined 7 for 51 (13.7 percent).
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“I don’t really have an explanation other than I was terrible tonight,” Carter-Williams said. “I was tying to make plays, but my shot wasn’t falling. I tried to get my teammates involved and do other things out there, but the game wasn’t going our way.”
Deflating certainly is a good word for it. Brown called the loss the Sixers’ “poorest performance of the year,” which is saying something (see Instant Replay). The Sixers’ 30.1 shooting percentage wasn’t as bad as the 29.9 percent shot in the 53-point loss in Dallas on Nov. 13.
At least the Sixers didn’t lose to the Bucks by 53.
It’s also deflating because the Sixers lost to the Bucks, the only club that had a worse record last season. However, as the Sixers continue with Tank 2.0 in a season filled with long losing streaks, the Bucks are much further along in the rebuilding process.
Actually, if the season were to end today, the Bucks (19-18) would hold the No. 6 seed in the East.
Still, the Sixers shot the ball as if they were wearing mittens. Making matters worse, the poor shooting carried over to the defensive end, where making stops was all the more important. But the Bucks shot nearly 54 percent from the floor and over 60 percent during the first three quarters to build a 31-point lead.
“You see it magnified in a game where your offense is so bad it puts that much more pressure on the defense,” Brown said.
“There were a few stages where I thought we needed a few buckets and we’d be right back in it. We’ve been down big all year and found a way to claw back in it. I thought at home we had it in us to do that again.”
But Brown pointed to a languid start to the third quarter when the Sixers’ chances disappeared. Though they cut the deficit to 10 points just before the half, the Sixers were down by 25 barely five minutes into the second half.
“The thing I love about this group is they play hard and they play with spirit. But at times tonight we didn’t do that at all,” Brown said. “If you don’t play with spirit and shoot 8.0 percent from the three-point line and you have 24 turnovers, it produces a long night. It’s not one I’m proud of. That’s not who we are.
“We can take hits and we can lose games, but not like this.”
The Bucks (19-18) piled on in the fourth quarter with an 18-2 run. It also took the Sixers nine minutes to crack double digits in the final frame, but by that point there was no saving it. Especially with the way the Sixers shot it.
“I need to shoot the ball better,” said Carter-Williams, who is shooting 37.3 percent from the field and 22.6 percent from three-point range this season. “We all do if we’re going to win.”
The Sixers (5-29) look to bounce back on Friday night when they travel to Brooklyn. They return home on Saturday to face Indiana.