I don’t watch sports games emotionally anymore. My wife hates me for this.

She would stand in front of Greg Ward and yell because he lost the first and 10th deflected passes in the opening minutes of the game. In the fourth quarter, I would still sit there calmly while the Eagles tried to pass the ball to the court to get the lead. She will move to another room and will not be able to watch the game live, because no matter the result-good or bad-is unbearable.

Interestingly, that used to be me (at least to some extent, although I was never the most excited person). But working in this industry that covers Philadelphia sports for more than a decade has changed me. I no longer look at the local team from the perspective of a fan, but as a person looking at increasing job prospects. When I actually work? forget it. When the Eagles won their first Super Bowl, I sat quietly on the sofa. Thirteen years ago, when they lost to Tom Brady and the Patriots in Jacksonville, I was sitting on the street, holding my head in my hands and holding back tears.

Now… nothing. Every game, every moment may require me to log in to my computer again and devote myself to work, no matter what happens. Even if it’s not, I can’t help but see something and think: That would be a good story, we should probably find someone. If we don’t do this, others will do it, and then I feel I’m not doing my job well.

This is a difficult way to watch sports games-it will certainly make it almost impossible for you to enjoy the game-as a result, your fans disappear and all you are left with is a feeling of nostalgia, and your whole emotions at the time Has affected the outcome of the game. (Think about it now, that is also a terrible existence, but I digress). So I sat down and watched. When the game was over, I continued for the rest of my day, unaffected by the final result, and without any emotional scars, because being in a city that feels like sports is just to test one’s breakthrough point The limit.

This is part of the reason why I look for other sports that have almost no intersection with my work and life, where I can watch through the eyes of fans-yes, my wife also hates that she wakes up every Saturday and Sunday morning to watch Premier League TV game (playing golf in the afternoon).

This is part of the reason why I found myself so surprising when I stood up again on Sunday and screamed at the TV. To be honest, this is the first time I have done this with the local team.

But I am not doing this as a 76ers fan. As a basketball fan and a person who loves the game, I yell at them. Because no matter which team played for about 36 minutes on Sunday, it is hard to be considered basketball. Every frustrating thing that could happen during the game happened to the 76ers-and in most cases, it was damn their own fault.

I yelled at Doc Rivers, hoping that he would kindly remove his full bench from the field. I yelled at him to get Danny Green away from Trey Young-for kindness, don’t let him pick him up 75 feet from the basket. I screamed on the defensive end to stop being over-committed to help. This is a side effect of the green creature getting stuck on Trey and being defeated on the dribble, allowing the Eagles shooter to make a three-pointer for the corner (or their big man open High ball)). I yelled to the referee to be more consistent. And mistakes? Don’t even let me start making mistakes.

In the end, all these mistakes — after one of their worst basketball games of the entire season, the 76ers trailed by as much as 26 and 20 points at halftime — it basically boiled down to one or two possession games. Thank you very much. To a large extent it is because the Hawks lack playoff experience. All these things went wrong, but still so close.

As a fan, there are two views. You can think of it as a positive advance-this team can’t play so badly again-even then they will eventually be able to come to an end, so imagine when they played well. Or you can think of it as a huge missed opportunity. Cut these mistakes in half? You won the game. How many more free throws? You won the game. Put Ben Simmons or Matisse Thybulle on Young earlier? You are likely to win the game. Prevent all the bench lineups to expand the early lead? You will never be 20 points behind, and in the end, you may win the game.

You can see this unfolding even in smaller personal moments. The 76ers will drop 24 points. They will continue to run and reduce the score to 16-18 points. Instead of keeping it there until they can run again, they will turn the ball over and the Hawks will get a corner three and then stop again. The ball and once the Eagles, this time may be a drive and lob from Young to Clint Capela, suddenly leading by more than 20.

It’s as if they let themselves fall into a false sense of security, thinking they will only continue to run, and forget that there is an incredibly high-level scorer on the other side of the ball. Almost the whole game feels like this, as if after the fifth win over the Wizards, the rest of the team felt they could step on the pedal in this game because Embiid is returning to the lineup. Although his meniscus was a bit torn, he persisted in his trade, scoring 39 points while playing a team-high 38 minutes. But have you ever thought that because he is back, they don’t have to work so hard? Sometimes I do feel this way, so much so that I actually find myself wondering if Embiid is delayed and everyone else is forced to step up the game in his absence, whether this game will be closer, like a match The finals of the series in Washington are the same.

Looking at me, thinking like a fan again.

It wasn’t until the last moments of the game that the team seemed to really wake up-but even so, in the process of comeback, you will have things like Danny Green suddenly decide not to take the Treyang basket from the opponent, and Not to let him waste nearly 20 seconds of time. As a veteran, not to mention this is contrary to what he did throughout the game, Green must show better awareness here.

At least Embiid seems to be aware of this situation. But this is still infuriating and makes you question how moments of influence like this-several of them, from stupid mistakes to stupid fouls-collectively have an impact on the final result. Because fFrom there, the team was finally able to overcome that hump, reduce the Eagles’ lead to single digits, and finally make a single control at the last minute.

But it’s too late, and I Screaming at TV for the first time in years didn’t seem to change things. Sloppy basketball is sloppy basketball. In the playoffs, even if you are the No. 1 seed, playing at home, in a game you hope to win easily, it will cost you. All of this is before you consider that your MVP finalists are very good pre-match news.

Seeing all the mistakes made along the way, and realizing that despite this, the 76ers still have some rebounds and they can steal a game they didn’t win. This is maddening.

The second game was on Tuesday night. Let us hope they let me sit down and really enjoy this game, because honestly, I don’t know how you do it in every game.

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