PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers have been a team that has trusted each other all season. They have been focused on the pass and getting each other involved in order to have success out on the floor.
However, they went away from that as they missed a golden opportunity in a 95-86 Game 6 loss to the Boston Celtics. Philadelphia had a chance to close out the Cs at home and they will now have to go back to TD Garden for Game 7.
The Sixers shot just 36.1% from the floor, they were 8-for-34 from deep, and they had 18 assists. Nine of them came from James Harden.
Philadelphia shot just 5-for-20 in the fourth quarter and they scored 13 points as a team. Celtics star Jayson Tatum had 16 points by himself in the final frame.
“I think the whole game, I don’t think we trusted very well,” coach Doc Rivers said. “It’s a make-miss league and they were 15-for-35 from the 3. We were 8-for-34. I would say we had a lot of wide-open 3s. We didn’t make them. I didn’t like how we played overall offensively, though. Down the stretch, gotta play through your big fella more. Didn’t think the ball went there.”
When asked if there wasn’t any trust, Harden disagreed with his coach’s assessment.
“There was some confidence,” Harden said. “We just didn’t make shots. Like if we make a couple shots, we celebrate, and it’s a different ballgame. Look at the film. It’s simple.”
He isn’t necessarily wrong about that. Harden and Joel Embiid combined to shoot 0-for-8 from deep. PJ Tucker went 2-for-7, Tyrese Maxey was 3-for-9, and Tobias Harris missed his lone triple on the night. Harris didn’t even get a shot up in the second half.
“I thought we got some good looks there in the fourth quarter,” Harris said. “Just didn’t fall, but obviously, we definitely could do a better job of moving it around, get poppin, getting it moving a little bit more, but overall, those are looks that we’ve gotten all year and we’ve made so in times like that–fourth quarter, they don’t fall for us, obviously, it’s heightened, but in some of those possessions, we could find a little bit more balance out there so we’ll adjust to that and be ready .”
The Sixers will have another chance to advance on Sunday in Game 7 up in Boston.
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Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire