The second half of the NBA schedule in this condensed season is going to be wild. The Philadelphia 76ers will be one of those teams that will have to fight through it all in order to get the job done.
On Wednesday, they had the grueling season catch up to them a bit as they were caught up in the middle of a 5 games in 7 days stretch and it cost them their legs in a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at home. On top of that, the Sixers had to play on Tuesday against a tough New York Knicks team that played physical defense.
The Sixers got off to a hot start on Wednesday leading by 19, but they were not able to get the job done as they did not have their legs down the stretch.
“My eyes told me we missed a lot of wide-open shots,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Tobias (Harris) had great shots, Furk (Furkan Korkmaz) had great shots. I thought the effect of last night’s game absolutely played a play. It was another back-to-back game of 1989 basketball which is physical, tough.”
To Korkmaz’s credit, he made a tough corner triple to force overtime, but one could tell even his legs were gone. Especially in the overtime session. Harris as well as he shot just 3-for-12 in the second half.
“I think we were definitely fatigued out here come the fourth quarter,” said Harris. “High emotion game yesterday and today. I thought today’s game, we had the looks we wanted, they just didn’t fall. I know myself, I would’ve took all those shots back that I got. I still thought we put ourselves in position to win a game. It didn’t go our way, we’ll rest up and get ready for the next one.”
Luckily for the Sixers, they have two days before their next game on Saturday against the Sacramento Kings at home. That should give them some time to rest their legs and get ready for another back-to-back coming up over the weekend.
“I just think that the execution down the stretch and making big shots today was a little short on a lot of shots,” said veteran Dwight Howard. “Overall, I thought it was a great game considering it was back-to-back. Is missing Jo, I thought we did a pretty good job.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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