The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers 112-101 on Thursday night at Fiserv Forum. The game was shown on TNT, and before the game, Charles Barkley shredded the Sixers on Inside the NBA.
Barkley called the Sixers “the Cleveland Browns of the NBA,” and said that they’re the “softest, mentally weakest team that had a bunch of talent.”
Chuck has some thoughts about the Sixers. 👀 pic.twitter.com/VeVu4cxvw7
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 7, 2020
“Let me just go ahead and vent now. You know, I picked the Sixers to get to the Finals. I think they are the softest, mentally weakest team that had a bunch of talent. They are the Cleveland Browns of the NBA. They got a lot of talent, and they talk the talk, and that’s it.”
Entering the season, the Sixers were a hot pick to at least reach the NBA Finals. With Thursday’s loss, the Sixers are 31-21 with four straight losses, and they’re currently the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference.
And that 31-21 record has been reached in a very lopsided way. The Sixers have cleaned up at home with a record of 22-2, but they’ve been terrible on the road with a record of 9-19. Even the Minnesota Timberwolves (15-35) have a better road record (9-16) than the Sixers. When the environment has been uncomfortable (the road), the Sixers have been an awful team, and that’s certainly a bad sign when looking ahead to playoff basketball (especially if the 76ers’ seeding doesn’t improve and they lack home-court advantage in any series).
So, it’s hard to argue with Barkley’s assessment of the Sixers, and the 2019 Browns are indeed a pretty fair comparison to what the Sixers are doing right now: a team that looked loaded on paper and got plenty of title hype entering the season, only to disappoint (the Browns went 6-10).
