The Philadelphia 76ers have played a wild schedule coming out of the All-Star break. They recently just finished up a 13-day and 6-game road trip which included four games out West and they then returned home just for a back-to-back against two tough teams.
That is a lot of games to be played in a short amount of time. On top of that, they are doing this all while Joel Embiid is dealing with a bone bruise in his left knee.
They were able to knock off the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday, but the number of games caught up to them on Sunday as they looked tired in a 116-100 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. They got off to a solid start on Sunday, but they just weren’t able to sustain it.
“We’re human, and we played a lot of games in this stretch on the road as long as we were and you come back on the back-to-back,” said coach Doc Rivers. “With the 8:00 game on one night and earlier on the next, 7:00 game, we didn’t stand much of a chance. We played a team that had the night off the night before, with great energy, they played hard so give them credit, and you could tell that they knew that. Not a lot we can do about it.”
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Considering how it was a lot of factors being thrown into it, this was a loss that was not too surprising.
“I wasn’t too surprised,” said veteran Dwight Howard. “You could tell tonight, as the game kind of moved on, a lot of us was just a little winded. We were a step slow to a lot of plays rebounds, loose balls, steals, even getting blown by something that we haven’t had this season.”
Howard had nine points and 12 rebounds and Mike Scott had nine points as the two of them did their best to fill in for Embiid, but they are not the MVP candidate. On top of that, the rest of the team had tired legs. It was a recipe for a tough loss.
“That’s how it’s been going this year,” said Scott. “A lot of games in less days. Everyone has to go through it. We’ll be alright.”
The Sixers now have to move on to the next one as they prepare for the Boston Celtics on Tuesday to begin the road trip.
“I don’t want to make any excuses, but I could tell that we were all tired,” Howard added. “Even me being a young 35, I was a little winded tonight. I just got to make sure we get our bodies right and get ready for the next one.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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