The Cleveland Cavaliers are hoping to recover from a tough loss, but they certainly won’t be getting much sympathy from the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Sixers will aim to snap a seven-game losing streak when they host Donovan Mitchell and the Cavaliers on Friday.
Cleveland had won 12 straight games prior to dropping three of its last six contests. That 3-3 stretch qualifies as a skid for the best team in the Eastern Conference, as the Cavaliers enter this matchup with a stellar 36-7 record.
That said, Wednesday’s 109-108 road loss to the Houston Rockets left a sour taste in their mouths.
Cleveland used a 19-0 run to take a six-point lead with about four minutes left, only to fall behind in the waning seconds. Darius Garland had three free throws with 2.1 seconds left and a chance to win the game, but he missed two of the foul shots before Mitchell’s 3-pointer misfired at the buzzer.
“I love how we fought. I love our resiliency. I love our team. We were short-handed,” said Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, whose team played without Evan Mobley (calf) for a third straight game. “Guys fought like crazy. I (liked) our toughness, willingness to battle, all that stuff — and sometimes it doesn’t go your way. … It’s a tough loss, obviously.”
Mitchell, who scored 19 points on 7-of-21 shooting, was not about to blame Garland, who led the team with 26 points and is an 87.3 percent free-throw shooter.
“You always want to learn through wins, but sometimes you’ve just got to learn through losses. Our best free-throw shooter on the team missed two (Wednesday). It happens. It’s life. It’s gonna happen,” Mitchell said. “There’s a lot of things that we could’ve done better to get to that point before those free throws.”
Learning from losses has been a common talking point for the Sixers, as well. The team has endured a nightmare season amid injuries to Joel Embiid (foot, knee), among others. Embiid will miss Friday’s contest, as well, leaving Philadelphia to solve its defensive issues without the former Most Valuable Player.
The Sixers have given up at least 115 points six times during their current seven-game skid. Their defense hit rock bottom in a 144-109 loss in Denver on Tuesday, as the Nuggets shot a sizzling 61.2 percent from the floor (including 16-of-31 from 3-point range) and dominated the boards, 51-25.
“Not communicating well enough, not being physical enough to stand them up,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said, adding that he was “not very happy with our mental preparation of being ready to go at the start of the game.”
Tyrese Maxey scored a team-high 28 points, while Guerschon Yabusele chipped in 22 off the bench. The light at the end of the tunnel for the Sixers is that Embiid could return soon, and seven of their next eight games are at home.
Still, frustration is growing.
“I describe it as a group of people who want to win,” Maxey said. “It’s hard to win this league, for sure. It’s hard to not be healthy. It’s hard to not have all your guys. It’s hard to not have your best player. … It’s difficult. It’s already difficult to win with all those guys. It makes it extremely difficult when guys are out, guys are missing, and then guys come back, it makes it extremely difficult.”
