BOSTON–The Philadelphia 76ers are in the process of picking up the pieces following the Game 7 loss to the Boston Celtics. The Sixers held a 3-2 lead in the series with Game 6 being in Philadelphia, but the Sixers weren’t able to finish the job and they now move forward after the loss.
The first domino to fall was the firing of Doc Rivers. After three seasons on the job, Rivers did a lot of good for this organization, but the playoff shortcomings, unfortunately, did him in as the Sixers now move on.
Now, the attention turns to James Harden who can opt out of his current deal and enter free agency. After a tough afternoon where he had nine points on 3-for-11 shooting in the loss, he still believes the Sixers are a good team.
“Definitely,” he said after the game. “I feel like we had a pretty solid team. Obviously, you always look to get better whether that’s the personnel that you have now or adding pieces so we’ll see how that goes.”
The Sixers had their chances in this series. They shot 6-for-25 on wide-open looks in the Game 6 loss and who knows? If those shots go in, it would be the Sixers in the Eastern Conference finals and still playing basketball. Unfortunately, the shots just didn’t drop.
“We’re a really good team,” Harden added. “We were a couple shots away from being in the Eastern Conference finals.”
Harden isn’t wrong. Obviously, he needed to play much better than he did in Game 7, but the Sixers are not a lost cause. It will be interesting to see how he moves forward as Philadelphia prepares for what promises to be an interesting summer.
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