Cooney: Sixers still showing their usual flaws

YOU SEE IT for the umpteenth time, and it's still not easy to find a solution. On Tuesday, the 76ers lost yet another winnable game down the stretch, this time to the lowly Orlando Magic. There were defensive letdowns, sloppy offensive possessions and head-scratching decisions.

It was kind of a microcosm of what this team has been about during its rebuild, but it also told a lot about where the Sixers might be headed, what they'll need moving forward and how these types of games might play out once the roster is healthy.

When Sergio Rodriguez hit a three from beyond the hash mark with eight minutes, 31 seconds left in the game, the Sixers took what seemed to be a commanding lead at 94-84.

Almost expectedly, though, during the next 3:35, the Sixers missed five straight shots in sets that were painfully scrambled, and allowed Orlando to score nine straight points. The Sixers' defensive lapses included Rodriguez getting lost on a pick-and-roll and losing Elfrid Payton for a 15-footer; Robert Covington getting lost in the lane in a help position, leaving Serge Ibaka wide open for a three; and a goaltending call on Joel Embiid on a fastbreak after Hollis Thompson had missed a layup at the other end.

To try to right an awkwardly listing offensive ship, the team continued to pound the ball inside to Embiid, who was playing in only his third NBA contest. That is certainly a sign of things to come.

When the team needed a basket, Embiid wanted the ball, whether bodying up in the low post, popping out after a pick or rolling to the basket. Success was limited, as he mostly struggled after a strong layup over Nik Vucevic for a three-point lead with just under five minutes to go. Embiid had a couple of turnovers, none bigger than the one with 5.7 seconds to go when he and Rodriguez totally flubbed a high pick-and-roll in a tied game.

Embiid tried to come out to the side of the top of the key with about 10 seconds left. But the two didn't come close to each other, and when Embiid came back to get the ball, he fumbled, and Payton got the steal in what ultimately led to Orlando getting its first win of the season.

It was one of many, many miscues down the stretch. One possession ended in a Richaun Holmes missed 17-footer. Why this organization is trying to get him to shoot from the outside is beyond me. There was more than one possession that were what I like to call "dribble, dribble, chuck," which never seems to produce anything. Covington, earmarked as the team's best shooter, didn't take an open three-pointer with just under two minutes remaining and his team up two, then missed a wide-open one moments later. There was bad pick-and-roll defense and bad rotations that led to open shots.

Many look at Brown for the team's late-game deficiencies. Fair enough, as many times the fluidity of the game seems to stop when the game is close and the time is late. And while good teams can turn the defensive pressure up to a level the Sixers talent cannot handle, Orlando isn't one of those teams. This one should have been closed out, whether the blame goes to the coach or to the fact that his players still barely know one another on the court because of injuries and time restrictions.

"We really didn't set a great screen and Elfrid Payton got through it," Brown said of the last offensive play. "Then Joe tried to come back to Sergio and they got in a clustered mess. It's part of this group, trying to figure out how to execute better in that situation and Joel trying to do the right thing. I would do it again, try to put (Embiid) in a position where he can help us go get a win."

It deserves restating that Embiid hadn't played in a game since March 1, 2014, at the University of Kansas before this season. Going out and running a high pick-and-roll at the end of a close game probably will be more comfortable to him when he's actually done it more than a couple of times. And maybe the future will have a three-point shooter wanting to take that shot late in the game.

What the team will have is Ben Simmons, a true playmaker who undoubtedly will be the best player to walk down a close game, perhaps teaming with Embiid to make outcomes different than the agonizingly frustrating ones fans have become used to.

"Every time you lose a close game, you wonder what you would do differently," Brown said. "Sometimes there are things. This one, I wanted to play through Joe. We got him touches, we got him the ball. I think you can get him the ball in different ways. I wouldn't do much differently. That's how we got our lead. I understand that we're all looking at how do you close that game out, and I think that, even with a healthy group, the difference probably is that you have Ben Simmons with the ball, and I'm sure that Joel Embiid is right in that mix."

And maybe by then, the other troubled areas will be better, also.

@BobCooney76

Blog: philly.com/Sixersblog