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The Philadelphia 76ers looked well on their way to another blowout victory Friday night. Early in the second half, their lead ballooned to as high as 24 and had complete control over the shorthanded Clippers. Even with the game appearing out of reach, LA never stopped clawing back. Between a three-point barrage from the Clippers and the Sixers' offense hitting a standstill, what was once a large lead quickly dwindled. In the final minutes, things were neck-and-neck.
Despite the blown lead, Joel Embiid and company still found themselves with a chance to steal the win on their home floor. Thanks to a missed free throw by Marcus Morris, they gained possession and an opportunity for a game-winner.
With five seconds left and no timeouts, the Sixers had to go the length of the court. Doc Rivers put the ball in Tyrese Maxey's hands, who was quickly off to the races. The speedy guard ran the length of the floor and got a floater off but could not get it to fall. In the end, LA completed a comeback and sealed a one-point victory.
After the game, players and coaches opened up on where they felt things went wrong for them. First up was head coach Doc Rivers, who cited turnovers and three-point shooting as the major catalyst for the Clippers clawing their way back.
“The second group came in tonight, and just, the turnovers. Over and over, the casualness. You get a 20-point lead against a team that can shoot the ball like that. A 20-point lead in a three-point [shooting] league means nothing. It's five shots, and it's a game, and that's exactly what happened,” said Rivers.
Joel Embiid later spoke and echoed some of the same points made by his head coach. He also felt the team lost their focus after halftime.
“Just loss of focus. In that third quarter, we. started off so well. But before the starters went off the floor, we didn't have the same focus when we came in starting that third quarter. The guys that came in kind of lost it too. And from there, they saw the opening of kind of coming back, and that's what they did,” Embiid said postgame.
Despite things not working out in their favor, Tobias Harris tried to keep some form of optimism. He admitted the Sixers let this game slip away but need to use this as a learning experience to prevent it from happening in the future.
“You never want to lose. Especially in a game where you were playing so well. It's part of the season. It's just part of the flow of the NBA. You win, and you lose. But, there's growth that has to be made from this game. We know that, honestly, we just blew this one. We all know that in the locker room. We have to be better for the next and learn from it,” said Harris.
For a team playing so well in their recent stretch, it's shocking they dropped a game in this type of fashion. That being said, they cannot dwell on how things played out Friday night. As Harris said, all they can do is learn from their mistakes to prevent a downfall like this from happening again down the road.
