Well even the return of Thaddeus Young, and the absence of Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and the limited playing time of Paul Pierce could not stop the Sixers from losing, again.

Yea, Young looked good, scoring 18 pointsin nearly 29 minutes. But I don’t care. This team sucks, lately. I know, I’m being harsh, but this is ridiculous.

The Sixers led through most of the game last night, but did what they have been doing all season, let the lead slip away at the end.

Last night was the home finale, Fan Appreciation Night. They were playing a depleted Celtics team with literally zero to play for (they have the second seed locked up and can’t make it to the first seed), and how did they repay a well packed house? With another uninspiring, blown-lead loss.

The loss means the Sixers have to win tonight in Cleveland and the Bulls have to lose tonight at home against Toronto in order to lock up the sixth seed and play the Magic in the first round. Not gonna happen.

Even though the Cavs have the first seed locked up, they are playing for history, trying to tie the Celtics’ all-time wins record at home. Their record is currently 39-1. And Lebron James has already said he is playing every game till the end.

So no, the Sixers won’t win tonight. And so it doesn’t matter what happens in Chicago, the Sixers will face these same Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.

While many pundits expected coming into the season that the Celtics and Sixers might see each other in the playoffs, it was supposed to be much later than this. The Sixers don’t even belong in the playoffs except that the NBA, along with the NHL, lets everybody into the postseason.

Maybe I’m being too harsh, but this team is supposed to be a lot better than it is. And I understand you can’t always live up to expectations, and that’s fine. But this team’s play over the past couple weeks has been disgusting.

Go Flyers.