The Sixers are in trouble.
The days of the Sixers having a commanding 3-0 series lead feel like forever ago, and after an embarrassing 103-88 loss on Monday night, they now lead their series with the Raptors just 3-2 heading back to Toronto for a Game 6.
No team has ever blown a 3-0 series lead before, and right now, that might be the only reason for Sixers fans to have hope.
This team looks like a shell of the one that built the 3-0 lead. Joel Embiid is hurt. James Harden has been awful. The defense is falling apart. Their confidence seems to be slipping away as well.
About the only good news for the Sixers right now is that they have two more chances to close out this series.
The bad news is it is hard to imagine any Sixers fan has a ton of confidence they will.
Here are some takeaways from the loss:
James Harden: If this is the James Harden the Sixers will be getting in the postseason they can forget any hope they had of winning the title.
Harden was terrible on Monday night, looking completely unable to carry the offense when the Sixers needed him, and not stepping up at all when Embiid was trying to fight through with an injured thumb.
As he has been in most games this season Harden was aggressive from the start of the game, driving to the basket on the first possession and scoring the Sixers first four points.
He then started to get passive and pretty much decided to stop trying to score.
A perfect example of what the passive, frustrating play Sixers are getting from Harden right now came in the first quarter. Harden twice driving to the basket and instead of shooting it he kicked it out. The passes did get Tobias Harris and Matisse Thybulle open looks, but the Sixers didn’t trade for Harden so he could create open threes. Their last point guard did that. The Sixers traded for Harden to score.
For whatever reason, Harden has been unwilling to even try. At one point on Monday night Harden had seven field goal attempts compared to six for Green. Needless to say, that isn’t how it is supposed to be going. At the end of one possession in the third quarter Embiid had to encourage Harden to come get the ball. Harden got the ball and immediately passed it back to Embiid.
In the fourth quarter, with the Sixers down 11 and trying to climb back into the game, Harden drove to the lane and got the ball stripped away leading to a Raptors fast break bucket.
The Sixers might escape the Raptors series but any hope that a new Harden would show up for the playoffs is gone.
Joel Embiid: Let’s start with this — Embiid playing with the thumb injury he played with is extremely impressive.
You could tell in warmups that Embiid was bothered by the injured thumb, and understandably so. It was heavily wrapped. He barely used his thumb while dribbling. The thumb barely moved when he shot the ball.
He then went and dominated the start of the game.
Embiid finished the first quarter with a team-high 10 points, playing physical on offense to get position deep by the basket and helping him score some easy baskets. It looked like both the Sixers and Embiid made an effort to get him easy shots after he took too many jumpers in Game 4.
As the game went on, however, Embiid struggled. He had only three points in the second quarter. He had four points in the third quarter. He didn’t look injured as much as he looked tired, which was a major problem for the Sixers with the rest of their starters struggling.
Embiid deserves credit for playing. Other players might have had the surgery he needs to fix his injured thumb. But the Sixers are not good enough without a dominant Embiid to win consistently — and they might not make it out of this series if they don’t get another MVP-caliber game from Embiid.
Doc Rivers: Sixers came out sloppy and with perhaps the worst start they could have drawn up. They turned the ball over twice for easy Raptors breakaway buckets. They looked terrible on defense. They missed shots on offense. They fell behind 18-9 and it looked worse than that, sucking all of the energy out of the building.
The Sixers fought back and trailed by just two, 29-27, at the end of the first quarter. But facing a team that very easily could have rolled over if they fell behind early it was disappointing to see the Sixers come out so flat and give Toronto life.
The players certainly deserve blame for that but so does Doc Rivers. It is Rivers job to make sure his team comes out ready to play. That didn’t happen.
Add in some questionable decisions, like sticking with Thybulle in the second half, and Rivers was out coached on Monday night by Nick Nurse.
Defense: The Sixers defense was awful on Monday night as the Raptors scored pretty much whenever they wanted. The Sixers are lucky the Raptors were without Fred VanVleet otherwise it would have been even worse. The Raptors don’t really have a ton of talent on offense but the Sixers were so disastrous on defense that Toronto got plenty of easy buckets.
Thybulle: Thybulle didn’t start and came into the game to a mixture of cheers and boos. Those quickly turned to only boos, however, as Thybulle looked awful every time he touched the ball. Thybulle looked unwilling to shoot to ball after starting 1-4, passing up two open looks, with the second pass turning into an ugly turnover. Losing Thybulle as a starter for this series didn’t seem like it was going to be a huge deal, but as the series has gone on, Thybulle as become not only a non-factor but a negative whenever he is on the court.
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com