Was the Sixers-Lakers matchup a championship preview? | Off the Dribble

Good morning, Sixers fans. The Sixers are coming off their most exciting and best win of the season, Wednesday’s 107-106 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Lakers.

Los Angeles had been 10-0 on the road, and despite the loss, showed it will be difficult to beat as NBA champion.

It’s only one game, but the speculation has begun that Wednesday’s game could be an NBA Finals preview.

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— Marc Narducci (offthedribble@inquirer.com)

Leave it to Magic Johnson to begin the hype machine. After the Sixers’ win over the Lakers, witnessed by a national TV audience on ESPN, the NBA legend tweeted to his 5 million followers: “That was the most exciting NBA game this season! Tobias Harris hit the game-winning shot for the Sixers and finished with 24 points. MVP candidate Embiid had 28. I wouldn’t be surprised if these two teams were in the NBA Finals!”

An NBA Finals preview?

Nobody could discount that, but before the game, it was talked about only as the Sixers’ first real test of the season after both wins over Boston came against a Celtics team playing without All-Star Jayson Tatum because of health and safety protocols.

In fact, take away the two wins against Boston, and the Sixers didn’t own another victory over a team with a winning record.

Now, the Sixers have beaten a 14-5 Lakers team. During his postgame Zoom interview, LeBron James was measured in his praise of the Sixers, compared to Johnson.

“I think it’s a really good team that they put together,” he said. “I give a lot of credit to [GM] Elton Brand in the things they are doing here. And obviously Doc [Rivers] has always won pretty much wherever he’s been and he’s got them playing really good basketball.”

James also put things in perspective, referring to the depth in the Eastern Conference.

“We’ll see as the season goes on,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of teams in the Eastern Conference that are going to play championship basketball down the stretch. I know they believe they are one of them.”

James wasn’t about to provide fodder to fellow Eastern Conference teams by declaring the Sixers the team to beat, and he was right. There appears to be more depth this season, meaning more teams that have a legitimate chance to win it.

Right now, the Sixers, Nets, Bucks and Celtics could make a case for being Eastern Conference champion, but every team could certainly use an addition or two before the March 25 trade deadline. Indiana can’t be discounted, and it remains to be seen if Miami can bounce back from its rough start, marred by injury and health and safety protocols.

One has to wonder if Toronto, which got off to a 1-6 start and still hasn’t totally gotten its footing, will return to last year’s form.

The Sixers have to be comforted by the win despite not playing their best game. They shot 16-for-26 from the foul line (61.5%), but the Lakers were almost as bad (16-for-25, 64%).

The Sixers’ best shooter, Seth Curry, was 1-for-6, including 0-for-3 from three-point range. The Sixers were outscored, 62-50, in points in the paint. Plus, the Sixers led by 14 points when Tobias Harris hit a shot with 5 minutes and 10 seconds left, and squandered the entire lead, only to win it on Harris’ game-winning jumper with three seconds left.

Game-winner aside, Wednesday’s contest felt like a true playoff game. Four Sixers starters — Danny Green, Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and Harris — played at least 36 minutes, with Simmons playing a season-high 39 minutes and 3 seconds. On the Lakers side, James, who is averaging a career-low 33 minutes, played a season-high 38:32.

“They turn into that,” Rivers said of playoff-like games in the regular season. “The Boston games felt more than normal, the Miami games; you’ll have those games during the year. And you can always tell, LeBron plays 38 minutes, our guys played big minutes.”

When the Sixers visit Minnesota on Friday, they will get their first look at Anthony Edwards, the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft from the University of Georgia. The 6-foot-4 shooting guard, who will turn 20 in August, averaged 19.1 points in his lone season at Georgia.

Edwards has had an up-and-down beginning for a Timberwolves team off to a 4-13 start. In 17 games, all off the bench, Edwards is averaging 13.0 points, 2.8 rebounds 1.6 assists and 1.9 turnovers. Edwards, considered among the top athletes in the draft, is shooting 30.4% from three-point range and 81.6% from the foul line.

He is coming off a solid three-game stretch in which he has averaged 19.3 points and shot 44.4% from three-point range in 26.6 minutes.

In his most recent game, Wednesday’s 123-111 loss at Golden State, Edwards scored 25 points, just one shy of his season high. He hit 9 of 19 shots from the field, including 5 of 8 from three-point range.

Friday: Sixers at Minnesota Timberwolves, 8 p.m., Target Center, NBC Sports Philadelphia

Sunday: Sixers at Indiana Pacers, 7 p.m., Bankers Life Fieldhouse, NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus

Wednesday: Sixers at Charlotte Hornets, 7 p.m., Spectrum Center, NBC Sports Philadelphia

Thursday: Portland Trail Blazers at Sixers, 8 p.m., Wells Fargo Center, NBC Sports Philadelphia

Feb. 6: Brooklyn Nets at Sixers, 8 p.m., Wells Fargo Center, NBC Sports Philadelphia

Question: As in the Lakers game, when the Sixers had at least three double-digit leads and then gave them up, the last time to being behind and needing Harris’ shot to win, why are there so many yo-yo performances like that? Why can’t they just keep a lead all the way through? — Robert Strauss on Facebook

Answer: Thanks for the question, Robert. The answer is rather simplistic: This happens all the time in the NBA.

The increased dependency on the three-point shot has made it normal for teams to squander double-digit leads. Just look at that last sequence in the Sixers game you mentioned. The Lakers trailed by 100-86 before going on a 20-5 run to take a 106-105 lead. During that sequence, the Lakers hit three three-pointers in a row. The Sixers, meanwhile, went 0-for-2 from three-point range in that stretch.

When teams get big leads, especially late in the game, there is a tendency to relax. The Sixers have to get better at this, but they are far from the only culprit.