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March is a month synonymous with basketball. For people who like college basketball, it's the fireworks factory. For people who don't like college basketball, it's a time to form blanket opinions on college players and argue with your friends who think good college players automatically evolve into great NBA players.
March, however, eventually turns to April. While April marks the start of the NBA playoffs for many fans around the league, for Sixers fans, it represents the end of the string. Since 2013, April for Sixers fans has represented bad basketball, malaise, and fatigue.
Tonight, the Sixers played the Hornets for the second time this week, and I'm honestly not sure I've ever cared about Sixers game less than this one. What am I even watching at this point? With Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel on the shelf, I'm watching a team of players that in no way resembles anything the team is going to look like in the future. I'm watching a lineup that makes teams resting guys for the playoffs look like all-star teams. I love Elton Brand, and Carl Landry is also a basketball player, but either of them playing 24 minutes a night is something I have little interest in.
The search for win #10 is a draw, I guess. But other than that, there's no consequence to these games. There's little development. They certainly aren't fun games to watch.
Tonight was a game you just have to get through. They all are, moving forward. Most would say they have been since the deadline. This isn't a knock on the process, but good god, it'd be nice to see meaningful basketball games in April for a chance.
This is such a hard game to recap because it's totally unremarkable in every way. It's almost every Sixers game for the last couple months. They're not totally out of it, but there's never a point where you feel like they're going to win, even during that late push where they always get within 3-6 points.
Tomorrow night the Sixers will return home to play the Pacers. I'm sure it will be yet another instant classic.