Sixers desperately seeking 10th victory by lobbing barrage of threes

The 76ers are undermanned and overmatched each night. That’s hardly a secret.

With an extra barrage of injuries to the likes of Jerami Grant, Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor and Richaun Holmes, the Sixers need to play a near perfect game to come up with a victory. Just one more win will be No. 10 and avoid tying them with the 1972-73 Sixers who won only nine games.

In order to win, coach Brett Brown has to be even more creative than usual.

In their loss to the Charlotte Hornets Tuesday night, Brown decided to let the Sixers launch a plethora of shots from beyond the arc.

The Sixers put up 44 shots from 3-point land, setting a new record. Their 16 converted 3-pointers tied a franchise record.

It’s not an ideal way to play. But it’s their way right now. Who can argue?

“By and large, if we’re open I want our guys shooting, especially with the roster that we have right now,” Brown said. “I think it’s our best chance to win, to catch fire from three and find ways to score with the group that we have.”

The Sixers still limped to their 10th straight loss and fell to 9-66.

“That is a high volume of threes,” Brown said. “But I think, by and large, the team you’re looking at is not the team that we started with, and I hope we play to our strengths.”

Keep in mind that Carl Landry was forced to start at center and play in the low post against Cody Zeller and Al Jefferson.

Undermanned and overmatched for sure.

But the Sixers continued to compete by taking all of those 3-pointers. Why not?

“We shot some really good shots and just missed some,” point guard Ish Smith said. “A lot of them went in and out. That’s how the game goes. We just missed some. They were good shots in my mind.”

Noel and Grant have already been declared out for Friday’s rematch at Charlotte. Get ready for another full dose of 3-pointers.

“I think it’s the way to go and the coaches have been so supportive,” said guard Nik Stauskas. “We have guys capable of knocking down plenty of shots. We need good looks and hope we get hot. As long as we’re taking good shots, it’s OK. Nothing seems to come easy for us right now. We need to keep working hard and see what happens if we take that work into the game. The threes are all good if we execute within our offense.”