November 22, 2013. Do you happen to remember what you were doing on that day? It was the last Friday before Thanksgiving that year and it was the last time the Philadelphia 76ers have won a basketball game in the month of October or November.
They defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 115-107 in overtime at home, lead by Evan Turner’s 27 points and six rebounds. Since then, they have lost 41 straight games in the month of November including last night’s 109-93 loss to the Hornets in Charlotte. That is 21 games longer than any other team in NBA history.
41 games is half of an NBA season! Here is the 76ers record since the 2013-14 season for the month of October and November:
2014-15: 0-16
2015-16: 0-18
2016-17: 0-4
That sort of futility is mind-boggling and highly depressing for any fan of the 76ers. Any hope that the team would even be competitive or watchable the past three seasons was long gone by December. “The Process” has landed them Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor and Ben Simmons among others, but that level of performance is unacceptable.
The 76ers will have 15 more chances to break their early season curse in the month of November and that includes 10 home games. Let’s hope for their fans sanity that they are able to pull out a victory in one of them.
