Since mid-January, the Sixers have resembled the Celtics of last year, a roster that is growing in strength and racking up wins at an impressive pace. After swallowing 14 successes in 17 games in the space of a month, Joel Embiid’s teammates have started again since their success in Milwaukee ten days ago.
Among the highlights of recent weeks, Georges Niang however cited a defeat at home to the Heat on February 27 (99-101) as one of the possible turning points of this end of the season.
The whole team is up to date
Authors of a poor performance that evening, the players had been called to order by their coach, on the need not to regret what was a special year for the Sixers, who never seemed so much able to go all the way in recent years.
“I think it clearly hit the guys in the head or in the heart or maybe both”, said Georges Niang. “The kind of situation where you find yourself saying, ‘All right, we’re going to get involved with each other and make the most of this situation, so that we can go for a title.’
Two days later, in Miami, they had rectified the situation with style by winning 119 – 96. The positive turn of events for Philadelphia was thus able to be seen in many respects. For George Niangthere is in particular this great determination that emerges from this group. “I think it’s the most focused group I’ve known,” added Georges Niang. “I think it stems from the disappointment we felt last year. This time, the guys took a week or two in advance to start saying to themselves: “Okay, we’re not playing for today, we’re playing for tomorrow. We play for what will happen in April, May and June.
A group that knows how to travel
Same observation for Shake Milton who sees the good behavior accompanying this mentality and this group already looking towards the start of the playoffs in a month, with second place as the potential icing on the cake. “I feel like everyone has the same goal in mind. I’ve seen a lot of guys go the extra mile and sacrifice themselves and do whatever it takes for the team to win, because at the end of the day, that’s what everybody wants and what everybody has in mind »pointed out the back.
Even if the rest of the program will get tougher with a series of seven out of eight away games, the Sixers have enough to approach it with full confidence. Philly has the best winning percentage in the league away from home with 19 wins and 12 losses.
Already for the past two seasons, Philadelphia had finished its exercise with the best record in its conference on the outside, a characteristic which can be important in the playoffs. According to Shake Milton, the Sixers are determined to legitimize that status on the last two big road trips of the regular season, starting with Cleveland tonight.
“Like I said, we’re going to continue to focus on each of those final games, regardless of how many there are. What is 15 games? Then we’ll prepare for what really matters.”concluded Shake Milton.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Joel Embiid | 54 | 35.0 | 53.9 | 35.4 | 85.4 | 1.8 | 8.2 | 10.0 | 4.1 | 3.4 | 1.1 | 1.6 | 3.2 | 33.4 |
| James Harden | 50 | 36.8 | 45.0 | 39.8 | 87.2 | 0.6 | 5.6 | 6.2 | 10.8 | 3.4 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 21.8 |
| Tyrese Maxey | 48 | 32.9 | 46.8 | 40.8 | 83.4 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 19.8 |
| Tobias Harris | 62 | 33.1 | 49.3 | 37.9 | 87.4 | 0.9 | 4.9 | 5.8 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 14.8 |
| De’anthony Melton | 64 | 28.1 | 42.9 | 40.4 | 80.0 | 0.9 | 3.3 | 4.1 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 10.3 |
| Shake Milton | 63 | 20.2 | 49.2 | 39.0 | 83.2 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 8.5 |
| George Niang | 64 | 19.3 | 44.9 | 41.2 | 85.7 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 8.4 |
| Jalen Mcdaniels | 13 | 15.9 | 50.0 | 27.3 | 80.0 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 2.7 | 6.1 |
| Montrezl Harrell | 51 | 12.3 | 60.2 | 0.0 | 69.4 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 5.5 |
| Daniel House | 43 | 14.2 | 48.1 | 34.6 | 71.4 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 4.4 |
| Dewayne Dedmon | 1 | 4.8 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 |
| Furkan Korkmaz | 27 | 9.8 | 42.2 | 35.1 | 66.7 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 3.8 |
| pj tucker | 64 | 25.7 | 42.7 | 39.8 | 86.4 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 4.0 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 2.4 | 3.5 |
| Paul Reed, Jr. | 54 | 10.1 | 57.3 | 0.0 | 75.9 | 1.4 | 2.0 | 3.4 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 1.9 | 3.4 |
| Saben Lee | 2 | 5.1 | 75.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 3.0 |
| Matisse Thybulle | 49 | 12.1 | 43.1 | 33.3 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 2.7 |
| Jaden Springer | 8 | 3.7 | 53.8 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 2.1 |
| Michael Foster, Jr. | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Julian Champagnie | 2 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
