Posted: Sunday, March 9, 2014, 4:01 AM
The 76ers hadn't won a game since Jan. 29 at Boston.
Saturday's tilt against the struggling Utah Jazz provided their best opportunity to get back into the win column. Utah headed into the Wachovia Center losers of the first five games of their six-game road trip. In all, they had lost eight of 10 contests.
But instead of getting the much-needed victory, the Sixers were handed another reminder of their futility. This one was a 104-92 setback despite Tony Wroten's career-high 30 points.
The Sixers (15-47) have set the franchise record for single-season consecutive home losses at 13. They have also lost 16 consecutive games home and away. That puts them four losses away from the franchise-record 20 straight defeats rung up by the infamous 1972-73 team.
The NBA's record for consecutive defeats is 26 by the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers. There's a legitimate chance the Sixers will break that record. They have semi-winnable games at the New York Knicks (Monday), against the Sacramento Kings (Wednesday), and again vs. the Knicks (March 21). The road to 27 straight defeats could be unavoidable if they don't win one of those three games.
There was a thought that the Sixers could steal a victory in part because of the teams' schedules.
Utah (22-41) was playing its sixth game in nine days. The Sixers, meanwhile, hadn't played since losing at Oklahoma City on Tuesday.
'The last one [on a road trip] and the first one back at home after a long stretch is always a tough one,' Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said before the game. 'But we need a win. These guys I'm sure are saying the same thing in their locker room. They need to get a win.
'It's not going to be easy for either one of us.'
It sure wasn't.
The teams played through nine lead changes and nine ties in the first three quarters.
But the Jazz opened the fourth with a 9-3 run take an 84-73 lead with 9 minutes, 29 seconds remaining. Wroten and Thad Young willed the Sixers back into the game. The duo combined to score the team's next 13 points. Wroten had seven, while Young scored six. The power forward's final two during that stretch closed the gap to two points (88-86) with 5:25 left.
Then Wroten knotted the score at 91 with 2:51 remaining.
But Alec Burks responded with a three-pointer following a timeout to give the Jazz a three-point cushion. The Sixers went on to miss their next three shot attempts, and Utah's Gordon Hayward had a three-point play to make it a 97-91 game with 56.8 seconds left.
Young finished with 18 points, while James Anderson added 16 for the Sixers. Michael Carter-Williams had four points, a game-high nine assists, seven rebounds, five steals, and four turnovers.
Hayward led the Jazz with 22 points, while Burks added 19 from the bench.
'As you are going through this, you like to just remind ourselves of those long-term goals vs. short-term pain,' Sixers coach Brett Brown said. 'I think that we've all sort of carried that message well.'
Sixers reserve point guard Lorenzo Brown missed the game with a sore right foot.
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Posted by Unknown on Saturday, March 8, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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