The Philadelphia 76ers are continuing to work out their kinks as they get set to prepare for the 2020-21 season and that means there will be nights of sloppy play. The team was able to come away with a 113-107 preseason win over the Indiana Pacers on Friday, but there were a lot of mistakes.
The Sixers committed 26 turnovers on the night which turns out to be an eyesore for the team due to the fact that they did so many things well. They shot 53.3% from the floor and they made 11 shots from deep, but the turnovers are what’s most on coach Doc Rivers’ mind following the game.
“I was concerned with that,” Rivers said. “We were getting pressured and we didn’t handle it well, to be honest. I’m not just at the 26 turnovers, I have to tell you that. I thought their pressure bothered us in the first half and I thought they played in our airspace. It was good to see the second half where we handled it better, and we slowed down.”
The Sixers had a big third quarter outscoring Indiana 33-24 and they rallied from a 17-point deficit to take the lead heading into the fourth. That was due to the fact that they slowed the game down and they took their time and played with poise.
“You don’t speed up with pressure, you actually slow down versus pressured I thought the first half, we were trying to beat the pressure by going faster, but in the second half we allowed them to pressure us, and we took our time, and then we got every shot we wanted,” Rivers added. “I was good that we can make the adjustment, because that’s a mental adjustment as well and I was really happy that we were able to do that.”
The big piece that everybody can take out of this game is that the Sixers had the mental toughness to push through their turnover issues and win the game.
“We won a game today where they had 30 extra shots. We had 26 turnovers,” the coach finished. “So you can look at that two ways one Holy God, and then wow, we still won. There’s some good about that as well that we fought through the struggle. One of the things I told this team from looking at them from afar, is when things didn’t go well, they lost their spirit, and things didn’t go well for us in the first half. I thought their pressure took us out of the game, and to come back in that third quarter and play like that is a great sign for our team.”
Philadelphia will now turn their attention to the Washington Wizards on Wednesday to open the season. [lawrence-related id=40359,40356,40340]