|
|
It was only last weekend that the 76ers staggered off the court at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami after a brutal 32-point pasting by the Heat. They looked like a team that had no right to be labeled "playoff contender."
Yesterday, seven days later, the Sixers finished practice at the Philadelphia
College of Osteopathic Medicine knowing that they had rebounded from that hammering
and given themselves a shot at a postseason berth.
ADVERTISEMENT
Interim coach Chris Ford chuckled yesterday when asked if he had given his players a fiery, inspirational speech.
"It was urgency," he said. "That's what we keep telling these
guys - about the urgency of playing. Every possession is vital out there. There
is no margin for error. We must win. That's the bottom line.
"It was nothing inspirational. It's just getting out there knowing you
can't make mistakes. You can't relax. You've got to play at the top of your
game each and every minute."
The Sixers will enter tonight's game at the FleetCenter in Boston with three
consecutive wins. On the heels of Friday's victory over Cleveland, they will
be trying for the second straight game to knock off the team holding the eighth
and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics are 11/2 games
ahead of them.
What a difference a week makes. After Miami finished off that 101-69 rout last
Sunday, it looked as if the Sixers would need to win nine of their last 12 games
to stay alive. Not that a final total of 37 victories would guarantee a playoff
berth, but it looked like a reasonable number.
Now, after having beating Dallas, Phoenix and Cleveland at home, the Sixers
need to go just 6-3 to get to 37 victories - a task that appears considerably
less daunting.
Starting with tonight's game, the Sixers will play four games this week. On
Saturday, in the last of them, they will host the New York Knicks, the team
holding down the No. 7 spot in the Eastern playoff scramble going into last
night.
"Playing the teams ahead of us gives us a little more cushion for catch-up
if we beat those teams," Sixers guard Aaron McKie said. "A win for
us brings them down a little bit and brings us up. So those are the games we
have to get."
In between the Celtics and the Knicks, the Sixers will have two home games against
Western Conference teams - one Tuesday versus Golden State and another Thursday
against Portland.
The Warriors have been all but eliminated from the Western Conference playoff
chase, but, at 31-40, they have a better record than the Sixers. The Blazers
are involved in a three-way battle for the No. 8 spot in the West and are playing
with urgency.
Six of the Sixers' remaining nine games are against teams with sub-.500 records
- three at home and three on the road. The games against Boston and New York
are their final ones against other teams in the battle to make the Eastern playoffs.
The Sixers need victories over the Celtics and the Knicks to split their season
series with those teams, evening them at two games apiece. Head-to-head results
are the No. 1 tiebreaker for playoff spots. The Sixers already have lost their
season series to Cleveland and Toronto, two other teams contending for the final
Eastern playoff berths, both by three games to one.
The Sixers aren't faring well in the second tiebreaker - record against Eastern
Conference teams. Of the six teams teams fighting for the last three playoff
berths, they are fourth in that department, although they are ahead of the Celtics
by a half-game.
Should the Sixers win tonight, they would be only a half-game out of the eighth
spot with eight games remaining. Ford just wants them to continue to play the
way they have been.
"They're doing a great job of going out there and playing defense and showing
unselfishness at the offensive end," Ford said. "It's fun to watch
and be a part of. I think they're enjoying it.
"But we have to keep it going [tonight]. It's going to be a playoff-type
atmosphere for us and the Celtics."