The regular season is over for the Philadelphia 76ers. After a win over the Orlando Magic, the Sixers finished 49-23, and they are the No. 1 seed entering the playoffs.
Their next game will be Saturday at the earliest, and they will not know their first-round opponent until the conclusion of the play-in tournament Thursday night.
During their week off from games, the team will practice, working on cleaning up some areas. To get the main players ready for what they hope will be a deep postseason run, they will battle the rookies in scrimmages.
“I’m looking forward to that a lot because it’s all about preparation,” said rookie Isaiah Joe. “If we don’t prepare correctly, then we’ll end up falling short and that’s something that we really take pride in is preparation. We’re really going to get good practices in. We’re gonna work hard. We’re gonna focus on all the little details, so when it comes time to play, we’ll all be ready to execute.”
While Joe and Paul Reed are not likely to receive many minutes in the playoffs since they are way down the depth chart, they still expect to help the team with preparation. They will need to bring the energy and push the starters to be sure they are ready for the postseason.
“Just bring the right energy to the facility every day,” said Reed. “I think going in and competing, making sure that I give them all make sure I’m busting my butt and just bringing that energy every day to practice so the guys feed off of it.”
On the flip side, while they will likely not receive too many minutes, just experiencing the playoffs will help the two of them going forward. Joe has made an impact as a 3-and-D player in limited time while Reed has a high motor and he will make his mark one way or another.
“I’m really excited,” said Joe. “They always talk about how the intensity rises a lot, the competitiveness, it gets crazy at that time so definitely looking forward to getting to see our team perform during these playoff games. I really believe that we can go really far and our goal is to get a championship so I expect nothing less. It’s going to be a hell of a ride.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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