What's below rock bottom? The Philadelphia 76ers

3-13, a half-game out of the last place. Sheesh.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

The Drinker; Francisco Goya; 1777

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NBA Cupdate

Results from Friday …

EAST A

Nets 98, Sixers 113 — Jared McCain is seriously good. Rare win for Philadelphia (don’t worry, it gets worse).

Brutal highlight here.

The Magic and Knicks are both 2-0. They play the Nets and Hornets respectively before facing off a week from Tuesday, potentially with a knockout berth on the line. The loser has a decent chance at advancing as the wild card, depending how the margins shake out.

EAST B

Pacers 117, Bucks 129 — Giannis Antetokounmpo is playing out of his mind.

The Bucks are Pistons are both 2-0 in East B, but don’t face off until next Tuesday. Before then, Milwaukee visits Miami and Detroit visits Indiana, so a lot can happen. I’m just glad for the Bucks that they slayed their Pacers demon.

EAST C

Celtics 108, Wizards 96 — Are you really showcasing your veterans like Kyle Kuzma and Malcolm Brogdon if you’re losing every night?

Hawks 122, Bulls 136

With the Hawks’ loss, the Cavaliers now need some help to get to the knockouts. They either need the Bulls to beat the Celtics on Friday or they need to run up the margin against the Hawks and Wizards and hope the Magic triumph over the Knicks in Group A (Orlando has a big margin advantage right now). This is the point when we’re going to start seeing teams go out of their way to run up the margin. Cleveland actually already did it in the first Cup game against the Bulls. Now it’s imperative.

WEST A

Blazers 88, Rockets 116 — Now that’s how you run up a margin in a Cup game. The fun thing is that Houston did this with their deep bench — they didn’t keep the starters in extra time. In fact, no Rockets played 30 minutes.

This Reed Sheppard play is mind-boggling. Consider my mind boggled.

Kings 88, Clippers 104 — I don’t plan on writing about the Kings for the rest of the NBA Cup and possibly the rest of my life.

The Rockets are in control here at 2-0, if they can beat the Timberwolves in Minnesota on Tuesday. Huge game. Houston would be worthy Cup contenders.

WEST B

No action on Friday. The Lakers are still in control at 2-0 but have games against the Suns and Thunder, both 1-1, remaining. The Spurs are still in it at 1-1 as well.

WEST C

Warriors 112, Pelicans 108 — Stephen Curry remains an underrated passer. The Sky Hook touchdown pass? Beautiful.

I’ll say this for New Orleans: they are still playing hard. Even though Zion Williamson has no timeline to return.

Mavericks 123, Nuggets 120 — Nikola Jokic is back on the court, and Luka Doncic is not, and that’s just a brutal result for Denver. The Nuggets did fight back from a 24-point deficit to take a late lead, but moral victories don’t exist and this does not qualify in any way as a good loss.

With these results, the 3-0 Warriors clinch West C and a spot in the knockouts. Congratulations to Golden State. I’m [grimacing] so [seething] happy for you. Also, the Pelicans have been eliminated.

New Orleans is actually the only team that has been eliminated from Cup contention. All you other 0-2 and 1-2 teams keep a glimmer of hope alive!