The Philadelphia 76ers had a chance to wrap up the No. 1 seed in the East on Tuesday, but they did not execute enough in the second half, scoring only 32 points after the break. The result was a 103-94 loss to the Indiana Pacers.
As the Sixers head to South Florida to take on the Miami Heat on Thursday, they have a couple of things on their minds. The magic number to clinch that top spot remains one, so they control their destiny.
“Just bounce back,” said Tobias Harris after the loss on Tuesday. “Honestly, this is a terrible loss for us as a group. I thought it was a game that we had, but we lost our composure throughout the fourth quarter, which can’t happen for a team striving to be how good we want to be as a group.”
Philadelphia held a 16-point lead, but, in what has become a trend lately, they saw it slip away. During the eight-game winning streak, they recovered to get the job done. On Tuesday, they let too many things bother them, and it was too much to overcome.
“We gave too much energy to things that we couldn’t really control, and things that were over and done with that over the course of the game, just added up,” Harris added. “I think our mental focus just needed to be a whole lot better in many different ways of just moving on to the next play. That’s an area we can get better at.”
The mental focus needs to remain strong because, as mentioned, a win on Thursday clinches the all-important top seed in the East for the Sixers. They need that top spot to secure the home-court advantage in the East.
“We just got to go out and play how we know we can play and secure a victory,” Harris finished.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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