The Philadelphia 76ers had all of the momentum in the fourth quarter on Thursday. After trailing for most of the game, they battled back and took a lead on an Andre Drummond putback layup with 1:44 left. They seemed primed to pick up a much-needed win.
Then, Toronto’s Precious Achiuwa drove to the basket and Drummond rose up and swatted his shot on an impressive play. However, the officials initially called it a foul, and coach Doc Rivers challenged the play and it was overturned to the correct call of a block.
The problem is, that led to a jump ball and Toronto won that which led to a tough Gary Trent Jr. triple. The Raptors took a 110-109 lead and after a Drummond miss, Fred VanVleet drilled a triple with 24.8 seconds left that sealed it for Toronto.
The toughest part about that is the Sixers had the ball after the Drummond block and had a transition opportunity. Philadelphia was forced into a tough situation on the missed call.
“The solution is learn how to throw jump balls,” laughed coach Doc Rivers. “That was a big loss of possession. We could’ve come up with the ball, but what I don’t like about the rule is on the block, we came up with the ball. We knew it was a jump ball, we sealed, we had the guys in the right place, the guy just quick jumped Drum and got to the ball first.”
The Sixers had a chance down the stretch and had a chance to expand their lead so they do feel like they were forced to miss out on an opportunity there.
“We had a big play, the foul call on the block which is a big momentum shift,” said Curry. “I feel like if they wouldn’t have been called, we would’ve gotten out and scored in transition. So we would’ve had a 4-point lead, I think, but that was a tough change of momentum and they kicked out to open shooters and made open shots. We just couldn’t get good looks at the basket after they took that lead.”
With that being said, the Raptors made the shots that they made. Basketball can be a make-or-miss game at the end of the day and the Sixers couldn’t respond.
“The one 3, I think it was Trent, that was as well defended as you could have,” Rivers finished. “You live with that. We had a couple of them that didn’t go in, they made theirs.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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