The final score read the Philadelphia 76ers knocking off the Toronto Raptors 110-104 on Sunday night, but it felt weird. It didn’t feel like a win. It felt as if the Sixers let one slip away.
In a way, it almost felt like a loss.
Philadelphia led by as many as 21 and they led 102-84 with 4:57 left after James Ennis III knocked down two free throws. From that point on, the Sixers committed seven turnovers, three of them from Joel Embiid, and the Raptors whittled the lead down to 109-104 with 14 seconds left. The Sixers almost gave this one away and it had coach Brett Brown searching for answers.
“Where do we begin?” asked Brown. “Some of the passing decisions are stuff that you just got to get better with. Some of it, you just scratch your head and try to coach them better and help them more. It is disappointing the way that ended because for the most part, I thought we played good basketball. It’s just the way it ended, you have a little bit of a sour taste in your mouth.”
The Sixers did play terrific basketball for three quarters. They built the large lead on the strength of taking care of the basketball and they did a terrific job of sharing it and playing great defense. Then, it all fell apart in that final stretch and Brown even benched Embiid late in favor of Raul Neto. Embiid finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, and six assists, but he also committed seven more turnovers.
“I think that his energy was good,” said Brown on Embiid. “At the end, they pressed with a bunch of athletes, he had some rough decisions and it’s unfortunate because I think for the large part of the game, he’s one of the main reasons we won although it may not jump at you on a stat sheet, it’s still Joel Embiid and his length and them trying to finish over him, you could feel his presence affected some of their rim stuff.
At the end, I came in trying to get in some ball handlers and it’s something that we will learn and grow from.”
At the end of the day, the Sixers did win both of the games at home after a terrible loss to the Washington Wizards on Thursday.
“Then I’m reminded that it was a good weekend, we just beat the NBA champs and there’s lots of good things that came out of it,” he finished with. “Just the last part wasn’t one of them.”
The Sixers will now turn their attention to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday where they will continue to try and improve as a team. [lawrence-related id=20924,20917,20901]