When it comes to securing ideal position in the NBA Draft lottery, the tried and true strategy is to tank, which is what everyone assumed the woefully undermanned Philadelphia 76ers would do this season. However, we may have to come up with a new term for whatever it is the 76ers are actually doing right now. Monday night, Evan Turner & Co. dropped their second consecutive game by 40 or more points, a 123-80 loss to the Golden State Warriors. Want some good news? It’s a slight improvement over the 123-78 loss they suffered the night before at the hands of the Los Angeles Clippers.
There’s no use discussing either game beyond the final score (as someone who watched both games — out of morbid curiosity — it could have been much worse), so let’s move on to some historical trivia: Do you know how many teams in NBA history have lost back-to-back games by 40 or more points? Two. This year’s Sixers and…wait for it…the 1993-94 Sixers! Thanks to a surprising start to the season, the current Sixers, who are 15-38 on the season, managed to steer clear of the all-time record for futility (over an 82-game schedule) — the 9-73 mark achieved by the 1972-72 Sixers, of course.
Somewhere, Doug Collins is rollin’ in his grave.
[Twitter, photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP]
