Getty Sixers guard Josh Richardson came over from Miami in a sign-and-trade in June.
Josh Richardson has played in Philadelphia for less than a year. He already knows the major issue facing the team.
After the Sixers were embarrassed in Cleveland on Wednesday in a 108-94 loss, Richardson was asked a simple question about what the team needs to correct. He boiled it down to one word: “Heart.” That’s it.
Richardson joined Philadelphia last June as part of a sign-and-trade for Jimmy Butler and he’s stepped up as a leader in the locker room, including calling a players-only meeting in early February where he openly challenged his new teammates. When he said this Sixers team is lacking heart, that means they probably are.
“We just got to figure it out, it’s next man up,” Richardson told reporters. “We got to be ready to pop and they [Cavaliers] were just more aggressive than us.”
Cleveland absolutely dominated the Sixers in this one. They shot 52.6-percent from the field and scored 52 points in the paint, compared to 40.4-percent and 36 for the Sixers.
Even without Joel Embiid, it was an unacceptable performance. The Sixers have lost seven straight road games and now head back home to the Wells Fargo Center tonight to take on the Knicks in the second game of a back-to-back.
Brett Brown Gives Sixers C- Grade in Recent Loss
Brett Brown wasn’t making excuses, not after the Sixers’ 14-point loss to Cleveland. Yes, the team was down both Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. It doesn’t matter. The head coach saw it as an opportunity for other guys to step up and establish themselves but no one did.
Brown pinned it on a lack of physicality and handed the Sixers a C- grade.
“I think just our defense and just physicality was a C-minus,” Brown told reporters, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I think it was a C-minus.”
Embiid left at the end of the first quarter following a collision with Cavaliers big man Ante Zizic. He suffered a left shoulder sprain and will undergo an MRI on Thursday. Meanwhile, Simmons missed his second straight game as he deals with nerve impingement in his back. He is likely to miss at least two weeks, and maybe a lot longer.
“I feel like when you don’t have Joel and you don’t have Ben, it’s an opportunity for others to put their hand[s] up and declare, ’This is who we are.’ And it is who we are, it’s who we have been,” Brown continued. “Tonight was not one of them. I really felt from that sort of physical standpoint, we were a C-minus.”
Tobias Harris Struggles, Shake Milton Steps Up
Tobias Harris, who inked a five-year, $180 million max deal to stay in Philadelphia in the offseason, was nowhere to be found. He finished with 11 points and four rebounds.
Another prized offseason signing, Al Horford, was equally unimpressive en route to 10 points and five boards. Instead, second-year guard Shake Milton stole the show and scored a team-high 20 points.
“That’s why you have a team,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “That’s why you try to accumulate depth and talent. With the group that we had, we just defensively didn’t get it done.”
Whoa.
Brett Brown just skewered #Sixers veterans Josh Richardson, Al Horford & Tobias Harris.
Twice said absence of Embiid & Simmons set the stage for “others” to step into the “void.”
Twice called the team’s effort without Simmons & Embiid “C-minus”.
😯
Kyle O’Quinn was forced into meaningful minutes for the Sixers once Joel Embiid left Wednesday’s game. He was the only true center on the roster since Norvel Pelle was out with a respiratory issue. O’Quinn outplayed both Horford and Harris with his hustle up and down the court. He finished with six points and four blocks in 12 minutes for a +4 rating.