PHILADELPHIA — The final score indicates the Philadelphia 76ers knocked off the Toronto Raptors in overtime, 104-101, for their fifth straight victory. At the end of the day, that’s really all that matters.
However, this is the second time on this homestand Philadelphia has blown a double-digit lead and needed overtime to win. It happened with the Los Angeles Lakers to begin the homestand and again on Monday when they led the Raptors by 14.
Philadelphia led by 11 at the half before Toronto outscored Philadelphia 32-21 in the third quarter to tie the game going into the fourth quarter. The Raptors built a seven-point lead in the final frame before Philadelphia rallied.
“Everybody blows leads in this league,” said coach Doc Rivers. “That lead was blown by the fourth quarter beginning. We won the game. I’ll celebrate that. We won the game and we should focus on the positive stuff. Our guys fought. We didn’t have it. We missed wide-open shots tonight. Wide-open shots! When you do that, the other team is probably at some point gonna make a run.”
To Rivers’ point, yes, the Sixers did not have it. There were many easy looks from deep that just would not drop, De’Anthony Melton particularly had a tough night. They also had to dig deep to rally and win. For that, they deserve credit.
“A lot of teams, when they make a run, go the other way,” Rivers added. “We just hung in there. They got a lead on us. How about talking about us coming back? We actually were down by eight down the stretch. To me, that should be celebrated.”
Yet, the Sixers can be better. They were unable to hold on to leads in the win over the Lakers and this one over the Raptors. There was also the slow start in the win over the Golden State Warriors. They need to address the issues that led to those three events.
“We got the win, but we know it’s not just about the last two performances,” said Joel Embiid. “Even during this win streak, we can still be much better as a team. I think we were playing great tonight. Offensively, we had a couple of great stretches. Defensively I thought we were pretty good, but we know where we want to end up so we can never be satisfied with those type of results.”
It is helpful to discuss these issues after a win rather than a blown lead and a loss.
“I think we are getting better every single day,” Embiid added. “We’re not perfect and every single night it’s not going to be perfect, but as long as we have the mentality of wanting to learn and wanting to get better, I think that’s what matters.”
The Sixers next play host to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=]
[listicle id=72412]
[lawrence-related id=72487,72484,72477]