Sixers to treat Play-In matchup against Magic as ‘win or go home’ game: ‘We shouldn’t be looking at a Plan B’
The 82-game regular-season slog is over. And though the Sixers have two chances to advance to the playoffs’ first round, veteran forward Paul George said there should be an immediate sense of urgency.
From the opposite side of Xfinity Mobile Arena’s home locker room door, one could hear the 76ers boisterously reacting to the stretch run of Sunday’s matchup between the Orlando Magic and purposefully shorthanded Boston Celtics.
The Magic had rallied from a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to tie the game in the final minute, before Boston’s Luka Garza hit what turned out to be the game-winning three-pointer to pull off a stunning upset.
That result was a huge favor to the Sixers, who now will host Orlando Wednesday night in the Play-In Tournament game between seeds No. 7 and 8. The winner of that matchup will move on to face the second-seeded Celtics in the playoffs’ first round, while the loser will host the winner of the No. 9 and 10 game between the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat for the right to advance to a series against the top-seeded Detroit Pistons.
Yet for Sixers center Andre Drummond, his team’s visceral reactions were evidence of the excitement about their postseason path, and that they are “starting to build a good rapport of what we need to do and what’s up and coming.”
» READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the Sixers in the NBA playoffs: Schedule, bracket, how to watch, tickets, more
They are still in the aftermath of abruptly losing star Joel Embiid to an appendectomy earlier this week. The 82-game regular-season slog is over. And though the Sixers have two chances to advance to the playoffs’ first round, veteran forward Paul George said there should be an immediate sense of urgency to secure their spot.
“We’ve got a great opportunity to lock in a playoff seed here on our floor,” said George, who totaled 11 points and five rebounds in Sunday’s 126-106 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks to cap their regular season. “It don’t get no better than that in this situation. So we should look at it as ‘win or go home.’ We shouldn’t be looking at a Plan B or an Option B. …
“It’s the mentality we need to have now. Wednesday is too late. We need to have that mentality now.”
Though the Sixers and Magic recorded identical records (45-37), the Sixers finished ahead in the standings because they won the head-to-head tiebreaker, 2-1. That one Sixers defeat was a 144-103 blowout in November, a game All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey said the Sixers would like to “avenge.”
Both teams also enter the postseason in similarly odd — and, by some measurements, disappointing — place.
They boast talented rosters that shouldered a multitude of injuries, including Orlando star Franz Wagner spending part of Sunday’s loss with his knee wrapped on the bench. From an outsider’s view, coaches and front office executives on both sides could be on the hot seat. They rank in the middle of the pack in offensive efficiency (Sixers 16th, Magic 18th) and defensive efficiency (Magic 13th, Sixers 17th).
And either team would be a first-round underdog, though Sixers coach Nick Nurse said Sunday that he is “proud” of how much better his team handled “choppy” personnel continuity compared to last season’s disaster.
“This is what we’ve been doing all year,” added Maxey, who finished the regular season ranked fifth in the NBA in scoring (28.3 points per game) and first in minutes per game (38).
Maxey — who is still navigating a finger injury sustained about five weeks ago — said his leadership must be at an “all-time high” as the Sixers enter the postseason. His team must be ready to handle Orlando’s physicality, with Drummond joking the Sixers should go back to the no-fouls pickup games they played leading up to training camp. It also will be the first postseason experience for rookie standout VJ Edgecombe, along with rotation players Adem Bona and Justin Edwards.
And though that center spot without Embiid remains in flux — Bona started Sunday’s finale, before Drummond began the second half — knowing the former MVP is out for the foreseeable future might provide some game-planning clarity.
“That’s the one thing that we can kind of check off,” Drummond said, “that we know that he won’t be available for a little bit. So now we have to focus on what we can do and who we do have in this locker room, and focus around that.”
And because of the Flyers’ home game Tuesday, the Sixers will get a much-needed extra day to rest and prepare.
George said Sunday that he wants his team to play “chaotic and desperate” defensively, and avoid the miscues that “irk” him. Offensively, Maxey would like to sharpen where his teammates such as George and Quentin Grimes — who will take on more of the scoring load in Embiid’s absence — like to receive the ball. Veterans will share more with the newbies about how the postseason ramps up, including the importance of every possession, the attention to detail required, and the drop-off in fouls called.
“Just be prepared for everything,” Maxey said.
» READ MORE: Inside Sixers: Tyrese Maxey’s vow, another abbreviated Embiid-Wemby clash, and more as the postseason approaches
After a bad first half against the Bucks, Nurse said he was pleased that almost every Sixer left their regular season finale “on a fairly good note.” Then, they gathered to watch the end of the game that moved Wednesday’s play-in matchup to their home floor.
Next up is the Magic, and the opportunity to advance to a first-round series.
“We’ve got a lot of ceiling to go yet,” Nurse said. “ … So hopefully, we get to play a bunch of games and keep improving.”
