Philadelphia 76ers: Positives from the California road trip
By Adam Gilbert
The Team had fight
Okay, except for the Warriors game. I’m willing to chalk that one up as a poor performance at the end of a long road trip against a bunch of dudes playing for their NBA lives on 10-day contracts. Was it a good loss? Absolutely not. Am I willing to chalk it up as an anomaly? For my sanity, yes.
Therefore, every other game held so much promise. The Sixers were in the game for most of the contest against each of the LA teams, who are contenders to win an NBA championship this year.
Their collective fight and shot making in the first half of the Clippers game had me believing they could pull that one out. Then they jumped out to an early lead on the Lakers before the team with the best two players gained control.
However, the game that put their level of intensity on full display was the matchup with the Kings. During that game, Alec Burks made a play in the backcourt where he stole that ball, spun off a defender, and laid it in for the and-one. It had me out of my seat and gave the Sixers life. That kind of effort should be the standard going forward. If that effort shows up team-wide in the playoffs, then I like the Sixers’ chances against any opponent.