MILWAUKEE, WIS. –The Philadelphia 76ers entered the home of the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks and they were looking to bounce back from one of the worst losses of the season on Tuesday against the Boston Celtics. They trailed by as many as 51 and ended up losing by 48.
It was a pretty bad effort from the jump as the Sixers just did not have it as they came out flat. The Celtics knocked down 25 triples on 45 attempts as they were moving the ball and they were getting easy open looks for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
In Thursday’s win over the Bucks, Khris Middleton shot only 2-for-12 from deep and he and the team had themselves a tough night overall.
“It was good that they didn’t knock down 50 3s so that helped a lot,” joked Joel Embiid. “It was all about the start. From the start, everybody was aggressive. We moved the ball, we got stops, and even when we went down by 11 in the second quarter, we just knew what we had to do and we went on a run, but it was about the start.”
It seemed like it would be stemming from the team introducing James Harden earlier in the day. Philadelphia could have been riding an emotional high and then when they were hit in the mouth by the Celtics, they weren’t able to overcome it.
“There was a lot of stuff going on, but I hate to put any blame on that,” added Georges Niang. “We’re professional athletes. It’s not like this is our first rodeo. I don’t wanna say it happens. We got popped. It is what it is.”
To make matters look worse than what they were, the Celtics returned home on Wednesday and they dropped a matchup to the East worst Detroit Pistons by a point.
“You look at it, we get here last night (Wednesday), and we watch Boston lose to Detroit so it’s like up in arms like how does this happen?” Niang added. “It’s the NBA, you gotta have amnesia and you gotta put your big boy pants on and go out there and ready to attack the next opportunity. We did that and we were really prepared and ready to go tonight.”
Sometimes, a team needs to be popped in the mouth. Just to kind of remind them that they still have a long way to go.
“Sometimes, you need games like that to really lock in and I thought energy at shootaround, our focus, and really just our ability to say ‘Look, this is our last game before the break. Let’s go out here, let’s figure it out.’” added Tobias Harris. “We implemented a lot of different things offensively that we seen in the Boston game that we can get better from and I thought that showed all throughout today’s (Thursday) game.”
The Sixers could have lied down on Thursday. They were taking on the defending champs, Harden is not due to return until after the break, it was the final game before the break, and it was on the road. Instead, they battled through and came up with a big win.
“Just the ability to compete on the road was big for us and I think that came from us getting blown out by 48 points and be able to say ‘hey, we gotta be better. We will be better.’ ” Harris finished. “And we came out and we just handled our business.”
Now, the Sixers will go into the break with a 35-23 record and Harden joining the team on the other side.
“I think as a team, before the All-Star break, we wanted to show more reaction,” said Furkan Korkmaz. “We were all thinking about that, that hurts. That’s why I think we showed up to fight and just beat Milwaukee. Whenever we play against Milwaukee, it feels like a playoff game for me. That was a competitive game. We just wanted to show up and just get the win and go into All-Star break with clear minds.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=60290]
[lawrence-related id=60286,60284,60273]