The booing was earned. Philadelphia's four-star roster got run off its own floor for a full half Thursday night, trailing Cleveland 69-45 at the break and down by as many as 29 in the second quarter. If you pay for a seat, you get to tell a supposed superteam that this is garbage. That part isn't up for debate.
But the people who treated that half as a verdict on the whole season, who declared it over at intermission, misread the night. This is the home opener, game two of a season that's two games old. The same group had walked into Madison Square Garden two nights earlier, on the Knicks' ring night, and beaten the defending champions 106-100. Then they answered a 29-point humiliation by outscoring the Cavs 69-37 in the second half and winning 114-106. The Sixers are the first NBA team to erase a 20-plus-point halftime deficit in a home opener. The all-time record for teams trailing by 20 at the break of a season opener went from 65-0 to 65-1 in one night. Philadelphia is the 1.
The crowd did two different things, even if it looked the same from the stands. The halftime boo answered real basketball. The turnovers were real, Philly hit double digits in giveaways by the first minute of the second quarter. The size problem was real too. Charles Barkley saw it coming and said so live at the break, telling Philly to "put a hold on that championship parade down Broad Street," pointing at how little length this roster has outside Joel Embiid. Evan Mobley had 15 and Jarrett Allen had 14 in the first half alone. That's a clear-eyed read of a team that looked lost.
Rating
RatingThe mistake is treating one bad 24 minutes as proof. Philadelphia fans have watched stars get stapled together and underdeliver for a decade, so the instinct to assume the worst makes sense. It's still wrong this time. A team that can score 69 points in a half and swing a game 38 points in the other direction has that talent in it. Tyrese Maxey finished with 32. LeBron James, playing for Philadelphia now, posted a double-double with 17 and 10. Every starter hit double figures. The turnovers are fixable. You can't teach the ability to erase a 29-point hole in two quarters, and you shouldn't boo it either.
Two games is two games. The defensive problems Barkley flagged are real, and that first half will happen again at some point this year. Boo the half if you want. Just don't boo the season. The players were still out there fixing it while the building emptied. Next time, stay to the buzzer.
