PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers had another unimpressive performance, and, surprisingly, another loss.
Saturday's game against the tanking San Antonio Spurs was supposed to be a breather after opening the season with losses to the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks.
Instead, the Sixers had their hands full and lost, 114-105, Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
"We're not ready yet, honestly," Doc Rivers said. "We're just not. We're not ready to win yet. You can feel that. We got a lot of work to do."
Joel Embiid had his best performance of the season, finishing with 40 points and 13 rebounds. Tyrese Maxey added 25 points, while James Harden had 12 points, 12 assists, and nine rebounds. But that didn't stop the Sixers from starting a season with three consecutive losses for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign.
The Sixers looked like a team playing in slow motion while being outhustled. It was like they felt they could turn it on at any time. They turned it on early in the fourth quarter thanks to an 11-0 run to take an 86-84 lead with 8 minutes, 45 seconds remaining.
However, the Spurs only were slightly fazed by the Sixers’ haymakers before responding with a 17-4 run to take a 104-92 cushion at the 3:41 mark.
Devin Vassell led the Spurs with 22 points, scoring 17 in the second quarter. Keldon Johnson added 21 points. Jakob Poeltl had 13 points and 11 rebounds.
With all things considered, this arguably was one of the team’s worst losses in 10 seasons. One paper, this is one of the deepest Sixers teams in over 10 seasons. They’re expected to contend with the Celtics and Bucks for the Eastern Conference title. Meanwhile, the Spurs’ goal is to lose enough games to get a high lottery pick. San Antonio also has five 19-year-olds on its roster.
Thybulle sighting
Matisse Thybulle entered the game in the second quarter and missed his lone shot attempts in 3 minutes, 14 seconds in the second quarter. This came after playing a combined 30 seconds during the Sixers’ first two games.
Brown honored by Sixers
The Sixers honored former coach and Spurs assistant Brett Brown in his first game back at the Wells Fargo Center after being fired on Aug. 24, 2020. He left the Sixers with a 221-344 regular-season record and a 12-14 postseason mark.
There were mixed reactions from the home crowd to his video tribute in the first quarter.
Decorated coaching battle
This matchup featured two of the winningest coaches in league history.
Gregg Popovich has the most wins in NBA history with 1,346. Rivers is ninth on the list with 1,043 victories.
“I have just such a respect for him for what he stands for,” Rivers said of Popovich, “and just everything, really.”
So Rivers never looks at it as “me vs. him” when facing the Spurs.
“I would like that one-on-one basketball,” Rivers said. “I think I would fare well. May not right know. I’m not sure. But all that other stuff, you look at him as one of the greatest coaches to ever do it.”
Popovich led the Spurs to five NBA titles and garnered three coach of the year honors. He also coached the USA men’s basketball team to the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Winning the gold medal is his proudest accomplishment.
“Because it was a [expletive],” Popovich said competing in the Olympic during the pandemic. “It was difficult circumstances. We didn’t have a team put together really. Practice, G League guys filled us out. We didn’t have much practice before we had to play.”
