MIAMI (AP) — Postgame interviews in the NBA typically start about 10 minutes after the final buzzer. Coaches usually speak first, followed by a few players. When a team wins, most people are in a great mood.
When a team loses, not so much. That's the normal routine. Things are not normal for Philadelphia right now.
Philadelphia lost in Miami on Monday night, the 76ers wasting an early 19-point lead and falling 106-89. The game ended at 9:51 p.m.
It took more than an hour for coach Nick Nurse to emerge for his postgame media session. The reason — a team meeting, because the 76ers had a lot to talk about after falling to 2-11 on the season. “Sorry for the delay,” Nurse said to the half-dozen or so reporters who waited out his arrival.
He took questions like normal, then the locker room opened and a few players talked as well. There's a lot of the season left. The first quarter of the 82-game marathon isn't even over.
It's not time to start panicking. But some teams, quite frankly, know it's time for things to get better — Philly atop that list. Since the NBA went to the current 16-team playoff format in 1984, there have been only four teams with losing records after 15 games that made it to the NBA Finals: San Antonio in 1998-99, Detroit in 2004-05, Boston in 2021-22 and Miami in 2022-23.
They were all 7-8. That's bad news for Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Miami — three teams that just haven't hit anything close to their best stride yet. Injuries are a huge part of th.
