Sixers fall to 0-3, losing to Spurs despite 40-point effort from Joel Embiid

The 76ers had another unimpressive performance, and, surprisingly, another loss.

Saturday’s game against the tanking San Antonio Spurs was supposed to be a breather after opening the season with losses to the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks.

Instead, the Sixers had their hands full and lost, 114-105, Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center. They were booed off the court following the game.

“We’re not ready yet, honestly,” coach Doc Rivers said. “We’re just not. We’re not ready to win yet. You can feel that. We got a lot of work to do.”

Joel Embiid had his best performance of the season, finishing with 40 points and 13 rebounds. Tyrese Maxey added 25 points, while James Harden had 12 points, 12 assists, and nine rebounds. But that didn’t stop the Sixers from starting the season with three consecutive losses for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign.

The Sixers looked like a team playing in slow motion while being outhustled. It was like they felt they could turn it on at any time. They finally did turn it on early in the fourth quarter thanks to an 11-0 run to take an 86-84 lead with 8 minutes, 45 seconds remaining.

However, the Spurs (2-1) were only slightly fazed by the Sixers’ haymaker before responding with a 17-4 run to take a 104-92 cushion at the 3:41 mark.

Devin Vassell led the Spurs with 22 points, scoring 17 in the second quarter. Keldon Johnson added 21 points. Jakob Poeltl had 13 points and 11 rebounds. Doug McDermott added 14 points off the bench while making 4 of 5 three-pointers. All of McDermott’s points and made threes came after intermission. His only miss came in the first quarter.

With all things considered, this arguably was one of the team’s worst losses in 10 seasons. One paper, this is one of the deepest Sixers teams over that span. They’re expected to contend with the Celtics and Bucks for the Eastern Conference title. Meanwhile, the Spurs’ goal is to lose enough games to get a high lottery pick. San Antonio also has five 19-year-olds on its roster.

The Spurs, whose players average 23.8 years old, also were playing their second game in as many nights while the Sixers were well rested.

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Embiid scored 27 of his points after intermission with 14 coming in the fourth quarter.

This performance came two days after the two-time MVP runner-up finished with 15 points total on 6-for-21 shooting against the Bucks. Embiid was held scoreless in the second half of that game while going 0-for-7 from the field.

He combined to shoot just 38.5% from the field, including 22.2% on three-pointers in the first two games.

Embiid said he hadn’t done anything basketball related for two months before training camp because of the plantar fasciitis he experienced. He added the time off affected his touch, ball handling, and rhythm to start the season.

“Obviously, I’m not playing at my best,” he said. “We are not winning. Tonight was a start. But we got to find ways to win. So I need to play better.”

Embiid said his plantar fasciitis started when the team was out in Los Angeles working out this summer. Initially, he just thought it was soreness, but it got worse over time.

“Then it got to the point where I couldn’t walk, and it was really painful,” Embiid said. “But I’m fine. There’s no need for excuses. We just got to play better. We just got to be better.”

He added the 0-3 record is nothing to be concerned about and that the fairly new team will find a way.

As good as Embiid played offensively, he had a tough time containing Poeltl in the fourth quarter. That’s when the Spurs center scored eight points on 4-for-5 shooting while grabbing seven rebounds (five offensive) and blocking a shot.

“It’s just a matter of working hard, I think,” Poeltl said of his fourth quarter. “Not giving up on the play, I knew the shot was going up, they were a little relaxed on defense, take advantage of that, getting good position, getting a good bounce, and putting it back in.”

Matisse Thybulle played a season-high 3 minutes, 14 seconds, all in the second guarter. This came after playing a combined 30 seconds during the Sixers’ first two games.

The guard is a two-time All-Defensive second-team selection, but has only has cameo appearances despite being a solid perimeter defense on a team struggling in the perimter. Thybulle missed his lone shot attempt during his brief stint.

This matchup featured two of the winningest coaches in league history.

Gregg Popovich has the most wins in NBA history with 1,346. Rivers is ninth on the list with 1,043 victories.

“I have just such a respect for him for what he stands for,” Rivers said of Popovich, “and just everything, really.”

So Rivers never looks at it as “me vs. him” when facing the Spurs.

“I would like that one-on-one basketball,” Rivers said. “I think I would fare well. May not right know. I’m not sure. But all that other stuff, you look at him as one of the greatest coaches to ever do it.”

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Popovich led the Spurs to five NBA titles and garnered three coach of the year honors. He also coached the USA men’s basketball team to the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Winning the gold medal is his proudest accomplishment.

“Because it was a [expletive],” Popovich said competing in the Olympic during the pandemic. “It was difficult circumstances. We didn’t have a team put together really. Practice, G League guys filled us out. We didn’t have much practice before we had to play.”

The Sixers honored former coach and Spurs assistant Brett Brown in his first game back at the Wells Fargo Center after being fired on Aug. 24, 2020. He left the Sixers with a 221-344 regular-season record and a 12-14 postseason mark.

There were mixed reactions from the home crowd to his video tribute in the first quarter.

The Sixers will entertain the Indiana Pacers on Monday at the Center. The Pacers improved to 1-2 after defeating the Detroit Pistons, 124-115, Saturday night.