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In order to win an NBA Championship, a team has to keep fighting through a lot of wars and a lot of adversity to reach the top of the mountain. The Philadelphia 76ers quickly learn this as they struggle to dig deep to win a few games this season.
The latest example came on Sunday as they were down 20 points on the road to the Indiana Pacers and rallied to win when they lacked star big man Joel Embiid. They got big games from Tobias Harris as well as big nights with Furkan Korkmaz, Matisse Thybulle and Tyrese Maxey.
It’s a moment the team can use to move forward.
“It’s just the resilience of the whole group,” Harris said. “Obviously with Joel away we had to find a lot of energy from different guys and I thought we had that energy from guys like Matisse, Furk, Tyrese, Dwight (Howard) came along and he was a beast on them. planks and being able to control the paint. We know there will be games where we don’t have Joel and we have to understand that, find a way.
Games like this will serve them well in the playoffs. The Sixers will need to be able to show that resilience when the time comes, and a game like Sunday can help them in the future.
“We’re starting to understand that,” coach Doc Rivers said. “You’ve seen it a couple of times now, fourth quarter comebacks, fourth quarter execution in the streak of games, we’ve got a long way to go, but just to grow for this team as the games go, c This is where you are going to win playoff games and our guys are starting to believe that they can turn things around in games. They can get the shot they want, they can get saves, and when you start to feel like that, you start to win close games, and we start to do that.
When the playoffs roll in, the Sixers will likely have Embiid, but a game like Sunday shows they can be more than grown-ups if they can think about it.
“Usually when he’s not playing, the intensity, the energy goes down,” Dwight Howard said. “I think we’ve shown that we are all capable of doing with Joel in or out of the roster and I think we have to continue to build confidence throughout the season knowing anything can happen. Any of us could be knocked out, but if we play the way we played tonight, then there aren’t many teams that can beat us.
A victory like Sunday also defines culture. It lets them know that they need to be able to come together and win at all costs. They have to go out there and hold each other accountable in these situations.
“I thought it was a great game for us to really do that and really look each other in the eye and know that we can hold each other accountable on the pitch,” Harris concluded. “It’s just a winning culture that we want to have and night after night we have to bring it.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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