The Philadelphia 76ers are playing some excellent basketball as of late in their surge up the standings in the Eastern Conference. After a win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday, the Sixers have now won 17 of their last 21 games, good for a 29-16 record on the season, and they are now tied for the No. 2 seed in the East.
Not bad for a team that started 1-4 and later 12-12. That 0-3 road trip to begin December seems like eons ago.
“I think we’re good and I think we can be really, really good, but there’s work to do, and I think I’m more focused on that, honestly,” coach Doc Rivers told reporters. “You got to keep winning because you want one of those positions. You want to have home court, but I’m more focused on us and just how we’re playing.”
Rivers has made some excellent coaching decisions as of late. The biggest move he made was moving Tyrese Maxey to a bench role and it looks like they now have a good balance between the bench unit and the starters.
A lineup of Maxey, Shake Milton, Matisse Thybulle, Georges Niang and Montrezl Harrell has a net rating of plus-16.6 and they have an offensive rating of 124.2 per PBP Stats. Granted, that lineup has only played together for 48 minutes so a very small sample size, but the Sixers are beginning to come together as a team and handle business.
“I think we’re starting to really play well,” Rivers added. “We’re playing like a professional basketball team, I guess, is the best way to say that if you know what I mean by that.”
Rivers is right in that respect. The Sixers have been blowing out teams they should, like the two easy wins over the Detroit Pistons in early January, and they are even winning the tough ones on the road.
If they can knock off the Sacramento Kings on Saturday, they will complete a 5-0 road trip. An impressive feat for a team on a West Coast swing.
“We just can’t just show up,” Rivers finished. “We got to play. This is the NBA, and Sacramento is terrific, so we have to come out and play. That game there — they play as fast as anybody in the league. So we’re going to have to deal with that.”
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f1jxkahtwnvzepyp image=]
[listicle id=74190]
[lawrence-related id=74192,74183,74157]