Sixers lose to a 16-win Pelicans team and we’re officially in a bad place

The Sixers lost to the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night 126-111, dropping their fourth straight game and falling to 30-26 on the season.

The Pelicans came in at 16-42. Let that one sit for a second.

Joel Embiid missed his fourth consecutive game with right shin soreness and knee injury management. That’s the reason and also the excuse and also the reality all at the same time.

Tyrese Maxey had 27 points. Kelly Oubre dropped 25. It wasn’t enough because the Sixers got cooked in the third quarter for what feels like the four hundredth time this season and then Jordan Poole went on a scoring run in the fourth to put the thing out of reach.

KELLY‼️ pic.twitter.com/cyJdFxyTrv

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) February 22, 2026

Let’s talk about those third quarters.

Entering Saturday the Sixers had a minus-17.5 net rating in the third quarter, which was dead last in the entire NBA. The second to last team, the Utah Jazz, were at minus-10.1. That’s not just bad, that’s historically, bafflingly, inexcusably bad for a team that is otherwise above average.

Something is broken between halftime and the fourth quarter and it has been broken all season and nobody has fixed it. That’s on the coaching staff as much as anything else.

The silver lining, if you can call it that, is that the Sixers had leads to blow in this one. They held an eight point halftime advantage. Maxey and Oubre were producing. Quentin Grimes has been a nice story recently. Jabari Walker and Adem Bona had solid moments defensively against Zion Williamson. The pieces are not completely falling apart.

Losing to a 16-win team, when your third quarter net rating is last in the league and your best player has missed four straight games is the kind of stretch that tests everyone’s patience.

The Timberwolves are next and they will enter Sunday at 35-22. If the Sixers don’t bring something significantly better than what they showed Saturday, a five game losing streak is on the table.

Hang in there. Paul George is coming back. Embiid will be healthy eventually. The playoffs are the whole point. But right now, this is rough.

Join The Chase