The Philadelphia 76ers remain in the running to get homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs, which is an impressive feat given that the injury bug remains tethered to them this season. Having said that, this team has been up-and-down for a good chunk of the current campaign, and one major reason for their inconsistencies is their putrid play during third quarters.
Put simply, Philly has been a horrible team out of the halftime break. But to interject on that ugly fact, here is a stat that will sum it up pretty nicely — since the NBA began tracking this data, this season’s 76ers squad has the second-worst net rating in third quarters of all time. Yes, you read that right. This team is a historically bad team during the third frame.
Positivity spin: the Sixers are one of the best ever at this stat pic.twitter.com/KQ9Kfi2EgJ
— Matt del Rio (@mdelNBA) February 10, 2026
If you have watched the 76ers a lot this season, you would probably not be too surprised about this statistical pull. This team has fostered a terrible habit of coming out flat after the break, and it has costed them a lot of winnable games. They often mount double-digit leads and play well in the first half, only for opposing squads to obliterate them after intermission.
The 76ers are making history in the worst way possible
If the 76ers are dead serious about making a deep playoff run, they cannot rely on an imbalanced approach to every game. For some reason, they have developed a hankering to relying on fourth quarter comebacks to rescue them out of their miserable runs during third quarters. That just cannot happen in a playoff setting.
This issue has persisted for so long that this is honestly on the players at this point. Sure, Nick Nurse may have his flaws, but if a team is this historically bad during such a critical part of the game, it all boils down to their energy level and competitive juice not being consistent for 48 minutes.
To make matters worse, the 76ers (at least when healthy) undoubtedly have one of the most talented starting units in the league. The fact that their struggles coming out of the halftime break come with their best players taking the floor is a huge problem which they better hope will not percolate in the postseason.
The All-Star break is coming, so the 76ers have a lot of time to regroup and revisit what is not working for them in third quarters. But until they solve this quagmire of theirs, their chase for a higher playoff seeding will be much more difficult.