76ers Lose Sixth Straight Away Game vs. Bucks on Saturday

The Philadelphia 76ers continue with their struggles on the road after losing their first away game to the Bucks after returning from the break.

Heading into the NBA All-Star break, the Philadelphia 76ers were on a mini win-streak. They entered the break with confidence as they picked up their third-straight win against a tough Los Angeles Clippers team at home.

At that point, the Sixers felt confident. They felt as if they might have it all figured out once they return from the All-Star break. While the Sixers know they're a good team, and amongst the best when playing at home, they still had one giant question they needed to be able to answer when they got back.

Can they win on the road? Saturday was the first real test. For the first time in two weeks, the Sixers were scheduled to travel outside of Philly to play a road game against the Eastern Conference's top team, the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Sixers had a chance to prove they could truly change and start winning big games on the road. It seemed as if everything was falling into place. Joel Embiid was more motivated than ever, and Ben Simmons was healthy enough to play after missing the previous game with a lower-back injury.

But everything didn't go as planned. Once again, Milwaukee got the best of the Sixers. Philly showed some promise early on but quickly lost their starting point guard once again as Simmons reaggravated his back injury. While the Sixers hung around in the first half, it was becoming clear that a long game was brewing for the struggling Sixers.

Despite tying for the team-high of 17 points, the shooting struggles for Joel Embiid once again came about as he drained only three of his ten shots during the first half. While he looked better in the second half, Embiid ended up finishing the game by knocking down only five of his 18 attempted shots from the field.

Aside from two solid performances off the bench from Furkan Korkmaz and Shake Milton, the Sixers don't have too much positive to take away from this game. Not only did they allow Khris Middleton and Giannis Atentokoumpo total for 56 points between just those two players, but the Sixers' shooting offensively was flat-out poor as they drained only 35-percent of their shots from the field overall.

A 119-98 loss to Milwaukee will send the Sixers home still trying to figure out why they simply can't win on the road. With that defeat, the Sixers downgrade to 9-20 while away, and 35-22 on the year. That loss puts them another game and a half back from the fourth-seeded Miami Heat. The Sixers are set to return to the court at home on Monday for a matchup with the Atlanta Hawks.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_