76ers vs Nets – Most anticipated matchup becomes most disappointing

The 76ers get blown out at home by a Brooklyn team that did not even have Ben Simmons playing on the court.

Embarrassing! And that is being nice to the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers got blown out at home in a matchup that was one of the most anticipated games this season. In fact, tickets were the most sought-after in a decade at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The worst seats were priced at 200$+ and the front row seats came up to 4000$+! Unfortunately for Philadelphia fans, their team disappointed them and were dealt a blowout loss by the Brooklyn Nets.

The hype around the matchup was mainly centred around the James Harden – Ben Simmons trade. Both players wanted to get out of their situations at the time and were asking for a trade. Ben Simmons wanted out of Philadelphia after Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid criticized him after his poor performance in the Playoffs last season. He also stated mental health issues and refused to play for the 76ers.

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James Harden on the other hand wanted out primarily due to issues with his teammate Kyrie Irving and him being unavailable due to his stance on the vaccine mandate. Kyrie has refused to take the vaccine and as a result, cannot play in the city of New York and Toronto. When Kevin Durant got injured, Harden was left to carry the team on his own. Frustrated he requested a trade to the 76ers but did not do it publicly because he had already forced his way out of Houston and feared the public backlash he would receive if he forced his way out again.

Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love. But with that love is accountability that fans place on their sports teams. They do not need you to win all the time, but if they see a lack of effort they will boo their team. The 76ers fans had supported Simmons throughout his career despite him not shooting the ball, but once he said he did not want to play for them, despite their support, they turned on him instantly. The security for this game was extremely high and security faced the crowd instead of the court during the game.

The fans began with boos for Simmons but soon the boos were directed to the home team as they were getting blown out by the Nets. A major factor was James Hardens’ poor play for the 76ers. Harden was 3/17 from the field and had only 11 points and 5 assists in the game. Harden has been known to collapse in big games throughout his career and this was just one more case of him breaking down in a big game.

Joel Embiid had a good game despite only making 5 shots. He made it to the free-throw line 19 times and made 15 of them. Despite putting up 27 points and 12 rebounds, the big man had no help at all and could not overcome the Brooklyn duo by himself and lead the 76ers to victory. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving had really good games with 25 and 22 points respectively. The Nets also had Seth Curry who was a part of the Simmons trade score 24 points against his former team and help the team win.

The 76ers better pray that the Harden collapse is a one-time issue and that he will show up in the playoffs. They gave up a lot to bring Harden in and lost a lot of depth in the process. If he does not help them win a championship or at least get to the finals, this would be a really bad trade for Philadelphia as they strengthened the Nets roster in the process.