On Monday night in New Jersey, the Sixers will try and duplicate their efforts from Saturday, when for the first time this season they won a game decided by three points or less.
The benefits could be huge with the playoffs on the horizon.
"It was a game with a lot of twist and turns at the end. We kept getting stops and we had guys make big baskets," Sixers coach Doug Collins said Sunday at the team's practice at PCOM . "Lou Williams out of a timeout hit a huge three off a set play that we ran. Jrue Holiday hit a great drive -- a steal and a lay up. We had a defensive five violation.
"If you are going to be in the playoffs, we are going to play Miami or Chicago and that is what you are going to have to be able to do against those teams."
The Sixers know the deal. They need one win or one Milwaukee loss to clinch a postseason berth. They are not interested in help from others, however, preferring to do the work themselves. They also know the sooner they get that win, the better.
"Last night we had a great win. We walked in and I said and even Andre Iguodala spoke and said, 'Guys let's not have a high like tonight and then not take care of our business,'" Collins said of the post-Pacers-win locker room.
"We have every chance tomorrow where we don't have to count on anybody else. Go to New Jersey. It is their last game there before they move to Brooklyn. Close that building down with a win and when we get on our bus to come home and we can start thinking who we have to prepare for to play. That is all in our hands."
NBA
Controlling one's destiny can be one of two things: powerful or pressure filled.
"We don't want to feel pressure, we want to apply pressure," Collins stressed to his team Sunday, quoting from one of his many motivational books he reads. "Let's apply the pressure. And I thought we did that last night -- we applied the pressure. To me, it would have been a shame if we lost that game because I felt we were the better team most of the night."
If the Sixers apply the same pressure Monday, a postseason berth will likely follow. Couple that with the fact that Collins wants to fly to Milwaukee for a game Wednesday with a meaningless mindset.
"We are in a must-win mode," Collins said. "We have to win one more game. I don't want to go to Milwaukee and that game mean anything because they have been pointing to that game being their season. Wouldn't it be nice if we could walk in there and that be a meaningless game."
Meaningless in Milwaukee would mean the Sixers will have played meaningful basketball four games in a row, which is the right way to enter the playoffs.
E-mail Dei Lynam at dlynam@comcastsportsnet.com