The Philadelphia 76ers are locked in to the third seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs as the NBA regular season comes to a conclusion this weekend.
The only remaining question here is who Philadelphia will take on in the first round. A win over the Miami Heat in the 76ers’ regular season home finale Thursday evening would have eliminated a first-round matchup against Erik Spoelstra’s squad, setting up a meeting against the Brooklyn Nets.
Despite not really having anything to play for, 76ers head coach Doc Rivers opted to suit up stars James Harden and Joel Embiid against Miami. The results inside Wells Fargo Center were absolutely disastrous.
Philadelphia found itself down 67-46 at the half. Even with Harden and Embiid starting the third quarter, things didn’t get much better. The end result was an ugly 129-101 loss to a hungry Heat team as fans inside the arena exited midway through the final stanza.
Embiid finished minus-11 in 30 minutes of action despite scoring 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Harden connected on 5-of-12 shots and finished minus-14 in 28 minutes. Meanwhile, high-scoring young guard Tyrese Maxey sat out for rest.
As for the Heat, a lack of Philadelphia defense led to a blistering shooting effort. They shot 56% from the field, including hitting on 18-of-39 from three-point range. For a team that has lacked any type of real consistency on offense, this should lead to some confidence.
On the other hand, expectations the Philadelphia 76ers have heading into the playoffs are clear:
“There’s a buzz around the city. The Eagles did what they did, the Phillies did what they did, the Union – Now it’s our turn to go out here and put the pressure on ourselves,” Maxey on the Philadelphia sports scene right now.
It did not look anything like this during Thursday’s blowout 28-point loss to Miami:
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Should Philadelphia 76ers low-energy effort be reason for concern?
There is a certain mentality that comes with professional sports. Miami had everything to play for Thursday night.
It entered the matchup 1.5 games behind the Brooklyn Nets for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference in an attempt to avoid the Play-In Tournament. The 76ers had nothing to play for outside of helping lock in its first-round opponent in the NBA Playoffs.
This showed as Miami opened up a 41-28 late first quarter lead before a Jalen McDaniels three-pointer late in the opening stanza. One team had fight and energy. The other team was playing out the string.
Even then, we have to wonder whether Philadelphia can simply turn it on again once the NBA Playoffs get going. For an embattled head coach in Doc Rivers, it’s all about finding the happy medium between late regular-season rest and being clicking on all cylinders.
“Just kinda one game at a time. We have a plan. So, we just have to execute the plan,” Rivers ahead ahead of Thursday night’s game.
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We’re pretty sure this plan did not include losing by 28 points at a home against a team that was 16-23 on the road heading in.
The Philadelphia 76ers now have to execute this plan over the final two games of the regular season starting Friday night against the Atlanta Hawks.
They then close out the regular season against a potential first-round opponents in that of the Nets on the road Easter Sunday. In reality, these two games should tell us a lot despite Philadelphia not having much to play for. For now, heightened expectations have given in to some real concern.