The Philadelphia 76ers were finally able to clinch the No. 1 seed on Friday with a win over the Orlando Magic at home. They were able to get it done after not being able to do so in their previous two games against the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat, both road losses.
As they returned home to face the Magic, they were able to correct a lot of different things out on the floor to be able to get the job done.
One was the ball movement as they were able to play with pace and be themselves a bit. The team had 35 assists on 44 field goals and they shot 16-for-34 from deep led by Seth Curry who shot 4-for-5 from deep and had 20 points on the night and Ben Simmons had nine assists as he was able to push the pace.
“It’s what makes us good,” said coach Doc Rivers. “When we’re playing that way, when Ben’s aggressive, Seth’s aggressive, the ball’s moving, we’re a good basketball team. When we don’t move the ball, we become stagnant, and we’re not great offensively. We have to be that for us to be good in the playoffs.”
On top of the 35 assists, Philadelphia only had nine turnovers. In Thursday’s loss to the Heat, they only had 20 assists to go along with 13 turnovers so it was clear where the big changes were made in between games.
“That’s where, the last two games, we haven’t,” said Rivers. “Of all the things offensively tonight, obviously Seth making shots, Ben playing at a pace, I thought the ball moved again. I thought there was a stretch early in the year where we felt like we were almost unguardable because the ball was moving I thought that kind of gone away a little bit. Tonight, to see it happen again, was great.”
The big question then becomes, why couldn’t they do this against Indiana and Miami? They only needed the one win to clinch that top seed so what was the difference on Friday?
“I thought the Indiana game, we were all trying to do too much, Joel (Embiid) was out,” Rivers finished. “I thought Miami just kicked our butt. I didn’t think we were ready to play, honestly. I didn’t think we put a lot into that game, they did and so they get the credit. I thought tonight they had a focus better that they wanted to take care of business and I thought they did that.”
The Sixers will now finish up the regular season on Sunday with a rematch with the Magic.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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