The Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks were locked in a tight battle on Wednesday night in South Philadelphia that took overtime to find a winner. Both teams were going back and forth and it was a competitive game in what could be a potential playoff preview.
The Sixers were able to build a 19-point lead, but they saw it slip away in the loss to the Bucks. Part of that was due to tired legs as they are in the midst of a tough stretch of their schedule, but they were still doing their best at getting to the rim.
However, they only received eight free throws. They were continuing to get to the basket, but for some reason, they did not get the benefit of any whistles.
“I definitely thought we were being aggressive,” said Tobias Harris who only took two free throws on the night. “We knew from the start of the game that we wanted to get into the paint and getting to the line. I definitely thought we did a good job of that and just so happened we didn’t get the free throws or we didn’t get to the line as we may have wanted to. Sometimes, that’s just how it goes.”
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Three of Philadelphia’s free throws came when Furkan Korkmaz was fouled on a 3-point attempted and then Seth Curry shot a free-throw off of a technical foul. So half of their attempts came from plays other than them being aggressive going to the basket.
“I was surprised we only went to the foul line eight times for the game,” said coach Doc Rivers. “I thought we were driving, especially the first half every bit as much as them and I think one was three free throws from Furk and the other one was a tech from Seth. So other than that, we had four free throws, which tells us we weren’t driving enough. I didn’t think we did get to the paint enough, but I thought we should have went to the line a little bit more.”
The Bucks, on the other hand, took 24 free throws and that was a big reason why they were able to rally and win the game. They slowed the game down, they got to the line, and they also were able to have more legs due to not being on the other end of a back-to-back.
“We didn’t get to the free-throw line as much as we should have,” said Dwight Howard. “I think tonight, we had eight free throws. So we have to attack a little bit better, but give credit to Milwaukee they came in and they played good tonight late in the game.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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