This time off for the Philadelphia 76ers has been both beneficial for them and also detrimental. It hurts the team because it ruined any chances for the team to get any chemistry going and they will have to really start over in terms of being more vocal and gaining chemistry, but it also helps with the resting of players.
Heading into the league suspension on March 11, the Sixers were dealing with injuries to Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Josh Richardson while Al Horford is an older veteran who also needed some time to rest. Even though the time off can definitely be unfortunate, there is a little silver lining to everything and this is it for Philadelphia.
“That’s definitely a good way to look at it,” Richardson said. “Not just for me, but for some of my teammates. Ben had his back where he was having issues. Being able to give him a couple of months to rest and get that back has been great. For myself, I’m just trying to strengthen my legs and make sure I’m not having those same issues, but going forward, it’s just optimism right now. I think we’ll give ourselves a good chance once we start rolling.”
Horford, who has had an up and down first season in Philadelphia, did agree with Richardson and he had a little admission about possibly playing hurt for a time during the year.
“I probably wasn’t where I wanted to be,” Horford admitted on his health. “I’m not going to make any excuses, but right now, I’m in a much better place, the time off for me was beneficial, and getting to work now, the biggest challenge for us is doing everything at a game intensity level.”
Horford’s going to be a huge piece of this run. Regardless of his disappointing regular-season up until this point, he is a guy who has had plenty of success in the playoffs. Those intangibles are going to be so important to what the team wants to do in this postseason.
“For me, it’s really to be sure that I make strides and that I’m at my best, more specifically when the playoffs are ready to go,” he finished with.
When healthy and ready to roll, the Sixers are a much different team. They will be hard to beat when the playoffs do eventually roll around in August and this time away from the game and the grind of the season will do the team some good.
“Just from letting guys who were banged up get back to full health and strengthen themselves past that,” Richardson added. “Getting Ben back, getting myself healthy, getting Joel all the way healthy and he’s been running and he’s in good shape. I think that the guys that took good advantage of this break will feel the impact of it. It will help them a lot. I think our team did what we were supposed to do during the break and hopefully, we see those results.” [lawrence-related id=34291,34283,34275]