The Liberty Bell tolls for the Philadelphia 76ers in the fourth quarter.
The top-seeded Sixers would be in the Eastern Conference finals right now if not for respective blown leads of 18 and 26 points to the Atlanta Hawks in Games 4 and 5 of their second-round series. The tragic flaws of their All-NBA cornerstones created what is now a chronic closing problem. Ben Simmons still cannot shoot, and Joel Embiid still cannot put forth 48 minutes of consistent effort. It is about to be their downfall again.
Wednesday's Game 5 in Philadelphia was one of the biggest choke jobs in NBA playoff history, complete with a scoring drought of four-plus minutes at the end of the fourth quarter, and the only positive the Sixers can take from it is that this latest collapse overshadowed an equally regrettable blown chance jn Game 4.