NBA Power Rankings Week 21: Milwaukee Bucks won’t match Warriors

Last week: Lost at Clippers 136-130, lost at Lakers 120-107, won at Sacramento 125-108, lost at Golden State 118-114

The Philadelphia 76ers may have a short stay in the NBA Playoffs if they can’t figure out this road game thing. The Sixers finished off a 1-3 West Coast swing with a loss at woeful Golden State on Saturday night and are now just 10-24 away from home this season. A small consolation is that Thursday’s win at Sacramento snapped a nine-game road losing streak for Philadelphia.

But the loss at San Francisco on Saturday night dropped the 76ers behind Indiana into sixth place in the Eastern Conference and they are 2½ games behind the fourth-place Heat for at least getting home-court advantage for the first round of the playoffs. At five games behind third-place Boston and seven in back of the second-place Raptors, fourth might be the best Philly can hope for.

For the first three months of the season, second-year guard Shake Milton was a forgotten man, having played in just 12 games for 102 minutes between opening night and Jan. 20. Since then, Milton has played in all 19 games for Philadelphia and averaged 25.4 minutes per game, starting 15 of them.

Milton went off for a career-high 39 points to go with five assists and three rebounds in last Sunday’s loss to the Clippers and for the week put up 21.3 points, 4.3 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 31.2 minutes a night, shooting 58.5 percent overall and a sizzling 56.5 percent on 5.8 3-point attempts a game.

Last week: Lost at New York 125-123, lost to Clippers 120-105, lost at Charlotte 108-99

This week: Sunday vs. Orlando, Tuesday vs. Minnesota, Thursday at Lakers

Six consecutive wins had many talking heads extolling the micro-ball virtues of the Houston Rockets. Three consecutive losses — including ugly road defeats at lowly New York at Charlotte — may have some of those same talking heads speaking out of the other side of their a … ahem … faces.

With the three straight Ls, Houston is now 1½ games behind the Jazz for fourth place in the Western Conference and still within four games of the second-place Clippers, who hammered the Rockets at Toyota Center on Thursday.

In the loss at Madison Square Garden, James Harden went for 35 points, eight assists and four steals, but was just 8-for-22 overall and 3-for-13 from deep, doing most of his damage with a 16-for-16 night at the stripe.

In three games, Harden averaged 27.0 points, 8.7 assists, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals in 37.5 minutes per game, but shot 32.8 percent overall and a miserable 15.6 percent on 10.7 attempts a night from 3-point range (yes, he really was 5-for-32 … oof).