Sixers Waste Great Games By Their Star Players In Game 2 Loss

It would be hard to find a worse way for a game 2 to end than that. The Sixers had a 4 game lead. The refs missed a timeout, and a foul on Maxey, leading to a Knicks steal, and a go-ahead 3. The Sixers lost 104-101, falling to 0-2 in the series.

You would think if they lost their first two games, it must mean the Sixers star players are struggling, right? Not so much.

At 35 and 34, Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid were the two highest scorers in the game. You can't even say they came up small at the end of the game. Maxey scored 15 points in the final quarter, and Embiid kept them afloat in the 3rd. Those two did everything they could to win this game. The problem was the rest of the team.

The rest of the Sixers team scored 32 total points. Embiid and Maxey each outscored the rest of the team on their own. Tobias Harris struggled on the offensive side, but he at least gave you 9 rebounds and some decent defense. Kyle Lowry was not as hot from 3 as he was in game 1, but he gave you tough minutes. There is not much good to say about the rest of the role players.

Kelly Oubre now has just 14 points in 2 games. The bench as a unit has only 17 points in 108 combined minutes. Buddy Hield has 2 points.

I don't care how good your stars are. You can't win games like that. This was supposed to be their best group in the Joel Embiid era, so far Kyle Lowry has been the only consistent role player.

Sadly, anytime you talk about bad refs, you have to preface it with the obvious statement that it is not why the team lost. That should be a given, but if you leave it out, you get attacked by people acting like you are just making excuses. The Sixers' poor bench play, and rebounding, cost them the game. But the refs were still terrible.

Too often there was a disparity in how the game was called. They would mug Tyrese Maxey on one end, then give the Knicks the call on minimal contact on the other end.

The end-game sequence was the worst part. Nick Nurse clearly called a timeout. Tyrese Maxey was clearly fouled. The refs ignored both, and it let the Knicks take the lead.

That sequence is not the only reason why they lost. If the bench is just mediocre, the Sixers win by a lot. But the refs were still terrible and deserve to be called out.

For 3 quarters the Sixers did a good job of rebounding. Then they forgot how to rebound. The issues with the end-game sequence aside, if the Sixers just rebound it doesn't happen.

The Knicks controlled the boards late in the game. Embiid doesn't have the legs to be the dominant rebounder he usually is. Maybe one of those role players could at least contribute on the boards if they arent going to score. But apparently not.

Coming back to Philly might help fix the Refs problem. But who knows if it gives life to the role players or reminds them how to rebound. They are now on life support. They need to win 4 of the next 5 games to move on. Not an easy task. Especially not against a scrappy Knicks team.

What is frustrating is the things they have done right. They have defended Jalen Brunson really well. Their stars have lived up to the moment. If I told you before the series that Maxey would outscore Brunson, you'd think the Sixers would win easily. But it has been the role players that made the difference in this series. And in this case, the Sixers role guys have been completely outclassed.

Who are the greatest homegrown Sixers players ever? I am not talking about guys born in Philly. We already made that list. I am talking about guys who were drafted by the Sixers, or at the very least made their pro debut in a Sixers jersey.We already did the experiment with the Phillies, now let's put together the All-Time Roster of homegrown Sixers players.

It gets complicated for them because some of their best players didn't get their starts here. Wilt Chamberlain, Dr. J, and Moses Malone, all got their pro basketball starts in other cities. So before you comment under the article and yell at me for leaving guys out, they weren't even eligible.

You had to be drafted here, or at least made your Pro debut in a 76ers jersey. Julius Erving may have played his first NBA minutes here, but he played in the ABA before that, so he can't make the list.

People who started with the Syracuse Nationals count. It is a different name and city, but the same organization. On the other hand, the Philadelphia Warriors do not count. Wilt played his first pro minutes in the city of Philadelphia but for a different organization. So the guy many would call the greatest Sixers player ever was not eligible for the list.

So who made the list? Who is the best center they ever drafted? The best point guard? Small Forward? Who would fill out their bench? We put together a roster of the best homegrown players in Sixers history. Find out who made it below.

Who else was it going to be? Ben Simmons? Hell no. Jrue Holiday? Love him, but Mo accomplished more here. Mo was an elite defender, was part of the last Sixers team to win a championship, and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Also unrelated to what he did as a player, he will always be a legend for stepping in and helping this girl who was struggling with the National Anthem.

I mean, duh. There are other great SG options, one of which we will get to. But AI defined a generation of basketball in Philly. Check that, he kind of defined a generation of Basketball period. He may not have won any rings, but he was as influential as anyone in his era.

AI carried the Sixers on his back to their one NBA Finals appearance since the 1980s. That team around him was not a Finals worthy roster. There were nice pieces, but without AI they wouldn't be competitive.

AI has a special place in this city. I saw the ovation he got when he came to Fan Fest and saw the emotional reaction it sparked in him. His time here was not without controversy, but AI will always be a legend in Philly.

A member of the 1967 championship team. Cunningham was drafted by the Sixers in 1965 and became a scoring machine for them. He was the first player in franchise history to score 50 in a playoff game.

He took a two-season break to play for Carolina in the ABA but then returned to Philly for the final two years of his career. Cunningham is in the Hall of Fame, made 4 All-NBA teams, and averaged a double-double across his career. He needed to appear on this list somewhere.

Most wasted Sixers career has a lot of competition. Allen Iverson is up there. Embiid is in danger of being there. But Charles Barkley also has a very strong case.

Barkley is a Hall of Famer but never won anything here. Then they traded him for peanuts. But when he was here, he was must watch TV. Between shattering backboards, filling up the scoreboard, and being an elite rebounder, Barkley deserved better than he got here.

Thankfully he doesn't hold it against the city. Barkley still loves the city, and will still be in and around it during his downtime.

Thankfully Wilt did not start his career here, so we don't need to start this debate. Joel is the most talented Sixers player ever, let alone being the most talented center. He is currently first in NBA history in points per minute. Add on elite defense, you get one hell of a player.

Obviously, he needs to do more come playoff time. But if you can’t appreciate how amazing Joel Embiid is, you just don't appreciate great basketball. Embiid will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer one day and will undoubtedly go down as a top 5 Sixer, if not the greatest Sixer of all time.

When he was drafted, they were still the Syracuse Nationals. But that counts. You could argue he belongs in the starter spot over AI. Greer spent his whole career here, won a Championship, and made the All-NBA team 7 times.

Even though he played his last game here 50 years ago, he still leads the franchise is games, minutes, and points. But I went with AI still, call it recency bias, or my personal bias because AI was the guy who got me into Basketball. But I had to put AI in the starting lineup.

He had one of the best nicknames ever. Chocolate Thunder, given to him by Stevie Wonder. He got the nickname because of his knack for booming dunks. The NBA literally changed the way they make their rims and backboards because he kept shattering backboards.

Iggy gets a bad rap. He was expected to be the guy here and never was. But we saw him go on and be an important piece of winning teams. That is what he is. Had the Sixers put star power around him, and he was the 3rd or 4th guy, Philly would have loved him. But from the start here he had expectations thrust onto him that he was never going to live up to.