NEW YORK — On Christmas Day, the Philadelphia 76ers found themselves trailing the New York Knicks by 14 in the first quarter. On the road at Madison Square Garden and in front of a raucous New York crowd, it seemed the Knicks would ride that momentum to a victory.
Instead, for the second straight game, the Sixers rallied. They knocked off the Knicks for their eighth straight win. This rally followed Philadelphia trailing the Los Angeles Clippers by 20 on Dec. 23 before rallying to the win.
That begs the question of whether the Sixers are fazed by anything. Do they feel confident that they can come back from any deficit now to win games?
“Easily,” said Joel Embiid. “You look at the last two starts, the last first halves of both games, it goes back to not just — I don’t wanna call out anybody — but it’s a team effort. The physicality at the level of the screen, guarding our own man, that’s how we’ve been starting. That’s how we need to do a better job, but obviously, we’ve come back both times and we’ve won both games so we just gotta put it all together.”
James Harden echoed those thoughts. He believes the Sixers are continuing to make strides despite the recent slow starts they want to address.
“We’re getting there,” said The Beard. “We’ve just got to take it one game at a time and just continue to get better. I think we’re (making) strides and getting better on both ends of the ball, which, as the season goes on — which we’re definitely in the right direction — we’re going to be very, very difficult to beat.”
The Sixers look to carry that momentum and confidence to Washington on Tuesday for the second of a four-game road trip.
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