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The 76ers' bricks were filling the FleetCenter. Team records for offensive futility were being broken at an alarming rate. And John Salmons took a brief second to consider what was happening.
"It was like, this is crazy," the Sixers swingman said.
Then again, basketball can be a crazy game. The Sixers, who had shot 49.3 percent from the field in a three-game winning streak, couldn't make anything last night and dropped a dismal 89-65 decision to the Boston Celtics.
The Sixers hit only 24 of 89 shots from the field. They posted season lows in
points and field-goal percentage (27 percent). Ticketmaster. And they needed
to make 9 of 19 shots and score 24 points in the fourth quarter just to reach
those levels.
The sickening stuff came in the first three quarters, in which the Sixers established
two franchise lows.
They scored only 23 points in the first half, beating the 24 they managed against
Miami on Feb. 21, 1996.
Their 41 points through three quarters were another record low, fewer than the
42 they scored Dec. 28, 2002, against Utah.
Their nine points in the second quarter were a season low.
The Sixers were never in the game. Probably the biggest challenge was the one
faced by ESPN broadcaster Bill Walton, who, sitting at courtside, tried to find
words to describe the Sixers' shooting other than his trademark "horrrrrrible."
"As we went through the course of the game, no one could get a rhythm out
there," said Chris Ford, the Sixers' interim coach. "I'm sure, when
I look at the film, I'm going to see a lot of wide-open shots. Every time-out,
I just kept on encouraging them that the next one is going to go in."
But not nearly enough went in, and the Sixers, playing for the fourth consecutive
game without the injured Allen Iverson, trudged out of the arena with a loss
that perhaps hurt more than any other defeat this season.
The Sixers fell 21/2 games behind the eighth-place Celtics in the battle for
the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference with eight games to play.
Worse, they lost their season series with Boston by three games to one.
The Sixers have also lost season series to Cleveland and Toronto, two other
teams in the playoff scramble with them. The first tiebreaker for playoff positions
is head-to-head record.
The turnaround for the Sixers after last week's three victories was startling.
Salmons, who went 8 for 13 from the field and scored a career-high 22 points
in Friday night's win over the Cavaliers, went 1 for 13 last night and missed
all six of his three-point tries.
"I don't know," he said. "It was one of those games. It came
at the wrong time. I think it was a surprise to everybody. We had some open
shots. I had a lot of open shots. I had open shots all night."
"It got so frustrating for us because we've been shooting the ball so well
as of late," said Aaron McKie, who went 3 for 10. "We didn't figure
it out until it got too late in the game."
The feeling that it was going to be one of those nights came in the opening
quarter. The Celtics committed nine turnovers and took 13 fewer shots than the
Sixers, but they still held a 20-14 lead at period's end.
Kenny Thomas, who led the Sixers with 18 points, shot 5 for 10 in the first
quarter, but his teammates managed to go a collective 2 for 17. And it didn't
get any better.
At halftime, Thomas was 6 for 14, the rest of the team 4 for 31. The Sixers
had endured two massive droughts, missing 14 shots in a row in a span bridging
the first and second quarters and then missing the last eight of the first half.
They trailed by 42-23.
Need more evidence of how bad it was? For the game, the Sixers grabbed 20 offensive
rebounds and forced 18 turnovers. But they scored only four second-chance points
and a like number off turnovers.
Amid all the negative numbers, a big challenge facing Ford and his team will
be to manage the aftershock. The Sixers own a six-game home winning streak and
will try to build on it this week with three straight games at the Wachovia
Center.
"There's nothing we can do about this one right now," Ford said. "We've
got to regroup. We've got to stay positive. They can't hang their heads and
worry about this one. It's over. You can be upset about it, but you've got to
move on and get ready for the next game."