Getty Sixers center Joel Embiid and head coach Brett Brown.
The Philadelphia 76ers are 6-3 and have been able to stay afloat despite both of the team’s stars — Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid — missing time.
But head coach Brett Brown understands the expectations in Philly this year, and they’re not to just be good — they’re to be great. And great teams don’t struggle with turnovers the way the Sixers have this season. Philadelpjhia is dead last in turnovers per game, with a whopping 18.8.
After the Sixers 114-106 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, Brown ripped into his team for their 21 turnovers.
“This is what I tell the team: until we can fix this, this is a house built on sand. It is fool’s gold and we have to find a discipline and a better way to control that. The turnovers in the first half, some of them were live ball, a lot of them were just getting things batted out of our hands. We can’t fool ourselves, this is a problem. This is a problem and we need to own it.
“I’m the head coach. I’ve got to find a way to fix it. There needs to be a level of accountability with the players and that’s that. It’s not anything we take lightly, we don’t dismiss it, the times are over where you’re looking at some of the young guys and you can justify it. You can’t do that anymore and it’s time that we get better at that. The players know it, they understand it, but we’ve got to fix it. That’s how I see the turnover thing in general.”
Sixers Players Understand Turnover Issue
Getty76ers forward Tobias Harris
With so much talent in the lineup it’d be easy to disguise some of the Sixers deficiencies. But as the team looks to mesh with new starters Al Horford and Josh Richardson, they have to have a focus on getting rid of the turnover bug.
“I mean that’s been our biggest thing this year,” forward Tobias Harris told reporters. “A lot of them have just come from myself, like today with two travels in the beginning. We were continuing to find each other and our spots. We were looking at how we want to play and things we can do to execute better, so if we can just limit the turnovers to half of those and protect the ball a little bit better, I think that’ll help us out a whole lot.”
Sixers Able to Stop Losing Streak Against Hornets
The Sixers started the season 5-0, but stopped a three-game losing streak with the win against the Hornets, which came without Simmons, who’s dealing with a sprained right shoulder.
“I just think it was key, for our morale as a team. Obviously we expect a lot out of ourselves and I’ve been on teams where three losses in a row is like, ‘ok let’s try to get the next one.’ After the one loss for us it was, ‘we need the next one ASAP.’ Obviously, we were in some close and tough-fought games, but for us it’s just about turning the next page and getting on to what’s next and today was a good start to that. We just need to continue to progress after that.”
Next up for Philly is a matchup with the Cavaliers on Monday. The Sixers are a massive 12.5-point favorite against the 4-5 Cleveland squad.
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