The Philadelphia 76ers are off to a great start this season, but it could and should be even better. The team is 11-4, and leading its division by 5 games, but 3 of the 4 losses were very tight games, and if the team had a player who could hit a big shot at the end of the game the Sixers could have won each of those games.
In the season opener, the Sixers were trailing the Portland Trail Blazers by 3 points with 14 seconds remaining in the game. Philly could have gone for a quick 2, or they could have tried to get a quality 3 point look. They did neither. Andre Iguodala took a 3-pointer while fading away. It was not a good shot attempt, and the Sixers lost the game because they were unable get a good shot at the end of the game.
Only two games later, the Utah Jazz were leading the Sixers by three points with 4 seconds left. This time it was Lou Williams who took the shot to try to tie the game, but once again it missed and the Sixers lost. It wasn’t the best look, but playmakers need to make plays, and Williams missed the shot. Those were two big shots that the Sixers needed, and they had two different players miss.
This past week was a slightly different situation. The Sixers went to overtime against the Denver Nuggets, and Andre Miller was the best player on the court. He took over the game, and showed the Sixers exactly what they are supposed to do at the end of games. In overtime the Sixers were trailing by two points when Lou Williams was wide open for a three-pointer, but he missed again. Then to make it worse he did not follow his shot for his rebound and if he had he would have definitely gotten the rebound. The Sixers would go on to lose this game also.
This isn’t that big of a problem right now for the Sixers since they have a lead in the division, but New York will definitely contend for the division title, and in the playoffs the Sixers will have to learn to win these tight games. Every game matters in the playoffs, and if they want to be contenders, they will have to find a player that can hit that clutch shot at the end of the game. I still think that Lou Williams is this player, but he has already had two chances in which he failed, so I’m not as confident as I was after the playoffs last year about his clutch gene.
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