They share that record with the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets, who also dropped their first 18 games.
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Head coach Brett Brown was also happy about the win for his team and for the Philadelphia fans. “When I came out and made three in a row, I could sense, ‘We don’t want to touch him”. Needless to say, this wasn’t the storybook ending to Bryant’s time in Philadelphia that the game’s beginning foretold.
The crowd chanted, “Kobe!”
The long nightmare of a losing streak that stretched more than eight months, 28 games and parts of two seasons, is over for the 76ers.
“To be mentioned in the same breath as those players, honestly, to me is…everything”, Bryant said. “I wasn’t expecting that”. It was emotional. You can’t script that stuff.
“You can’t script this stuff – I can’t”, he said.
Bryant, who played in Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia and was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, scored 20 points but struggled again from the field making just 7-of-26 field goals.
“I couldn’t ask for anything better”, Bryant said, before quickly adding, “Other than winning the game”. The Lakers blew a 12-point first-half lead against the 0-18 76ers, losing 103-91. Not only is it the place where Kobe rose to prominence as a high school player, but it’s also a city that he’s had history in as a player, facing the Sixers in the 2001 NBA Finals. Such is life when your first win of the season comes on the initial leg of Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour. At the conclusion, Moses Malone Jr. announced that Sixers will retire his father’s No. 2 jersey next year.
“Probably the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life was give his eulogy”, Barkley said.
The Sixers led in each of their five previous defeats, only to lose every one.
The Lakers led 58-50 at halftime, but the Sixers scored eight straight points out of the gate and seized control, outscoring the visitors 53-33 in the second half.
They first tied it and then took it for good on a pair of Nerlens Noel threes with 57 seconds left in the third. “We were fortunate to come out with a victory”. Noel had 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting to go with nine rebounds in 26:19 off the bench.
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The Sixers shot 43.8 percent from 3-point range (14-for-32), limited their turnovers to 16 and held a 44-34 edge in points in the paint and a 12-0 advantage in fast-break points.
