The Philadelphia 76ers were able to return home on Wednesday and knock off the Houston Rockets 118-113, but things got really ugly in the fourth quarter when the Sixers allowed Houston to creep back into it.
Philadelphia committed seven turnovers in the fourth quarter and they allowed Houston to score 34 points in the quarter. The Sixers saw a 29-point lead cut down to four with 1:28 to go and that is something that cannot happen.
“They started making some shots,” said Joel Embiid. “We had a couple of turnovers, especially me. We had a stretch where at least six possessions in a row, we had nothing going on and they just came back down on the other end and they just started making shots. We just got to learn to close games when needed. We relaxed, but there’s a lot to learn, but got the win.”
On the flip side, the Sixers are coming back from a long West Coast road trip and they were probably still feeling the effects of that. It’s not easy to go on the road, then come home, get only a day of rest, and then get back at it.
“We just got sloppy,” said coach Doc Rivers. “It happens, we had a big lead, probably didn’t have a lot left in the tank. I thought our zone threw them off. In the second half, they kinda started figuring it out, making shots, but I thought our offense like the turnovers and things is the only way this game became a game.”
It would be easy to say the team just ran out of gas, but Tobias Harris isn’t taking that route. There has to be better execution for a team that has title contention hopes.
“It’d be easy to say that,” said Harris. “I thought there was a combination of that and shots they made. At the same time, we got to do a better job of taking care of the basketball. We had too many possessions where we didn’t get a good enough shot that we wanted. So just a little bit more execution.”
Seth Curry got himself back into a bit of a groove and he had 25 points while shooting 8-for-13 from the floor and he acknowledged that the game was a bit weird from their perspective.
“It was a weird game, to be honest,” he said. “They’ve got a talented offensive team with a lot of guys who can score the ball and shoot the ball and we just weren’t very good on either side of the ball in the second half. We just gotta be better. It’s as simple as that.”
At the end of the day, the Sixers picked up a win that the team really needed and that’s all that really matters right now and they did so without Ben Simmons.
“All in all, coming back from a long road trip, playing this game without Ben, and still going out there and getting a win is always good for this group,” Harris added. “We wanted to do everything in our ability to get a win after dropping three straight and to go on a winning streak here, and continue to progress this thing and strive for where we want to get to.”
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