The Sixers are taking the half-full approach to Friday nights 84-78 loss to the Miami Heat at the Wells Fargo Center. Then again, the 76ers kind of have to take that tact because the first half was just that bad.
How bad was it?
Not only did the Sixers allow a season-high 57 points during the opening half, but they also made just four shots in the second quarter. Thats four4 for 22. To go 4 for 22 in a quarter in an official NBA game, the Sixers missed the final 13 shots of the half, starting at the 7:45 mark of the frame. In missing those 13 in a row, the Sixers turned a 10-point deficit into a 27-point mountain.
There was no way the Sixers were going to come back.
Think again.
A fourth-quarter surge helped the Sixers cut the 27-point halftime lead to just five points with 6:27 to go. They got it to four points with 1:27 left and again with 28.8 seconds remaining, but that was as close as it got.
I was incredibly pleased with the way we played during the second half, coach Doug Collins said. Obviously, as disappointing as the first half was, the second half was encouraging.
So what was the difference? How could a team look so bad in one half of basketball suddenly turn it around so quickly? Was it the halftime speech from the coach? A change in strategy?
How about none of the above
We didnt do anything differentno Xs, no Oswe just competed, Collins said.
The first half they were just running a clinic and doing anything they wanted to do, and we were like a deer in the headlights and I havent seen our guys that way in a long, long time. And I said at halftime, I said, Guys, this is not the team were going to be, and they responded.
Evan Turner, who started for the sixth game in a row and led the Sixers with 13 points, explained that part of the difference in the halves was that Miami did not miss too many shots in the early going. LeBron James scored 18 of his game-high 29 points during the first half and made his first six shots in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, the Heat shot 57 percent from the floor during the first quarter before cooling to 53 percent during the second stanza. Coming off a loss in Indiana where the Sixers shot 53 percent but were out-gunned by the Pacers, who buried them at a 57 percent clip, the team was a bit shell-shocked. Turner says the Sixers were reeling from the barrage.
It was all of those shots going in that gave the Sixers that deer-in-the-headlights look Collins was talking about.
We had to get some guys out there with some intensity and some fire in the belly and go out there and play some defense, Elton Brand said. We know we can play that style of defense, we just have to ratcheted up, get in the passing lanes and get some steals. In the first half we let them take it to us.
Fortunately for the Sixers, they snapped out of it. The fire was there, but the team just needed to wake up.
Tony Battie spoke up, he started yelling, Turner said. He said, What are we going to do? Were a playoff team and were not playing like it. Are we going to compete is anybody going to fight? He was talking about accountability.
Of course there is another side of that too. Andre Iguodala, who scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, said the Sixers were able to play with more intensity during the second half. However, he explained, there wasnt much riding on it.
There are two sides to everything, Iguodala said. One side is that we have to play tougher and I think we do play tough at times. We just have to adjust and we need to start hitting first. The other side is we had nothing to lose.
I think we played well in second half, but at the same time, we kind of had nothing to lose and it made it easier to play. We need to be ready to come out from the start with that same intensity when something is on the line.
Its difficult to argue with Iguodalas sentiment there. In dropping their second straight as well as 10th straight regular season game to the Heat, the Sixers (25-19), lead the Atlantic Division by just one game over the Celtics. That lead can shrink to a half-game depending upon the outcome of the Sacramento-Boston game on Friday night.
With the Celtics creeping up on the Sixers in the all-important race to win the Atlantic, moral victories dont mean too much.
Were beyond moral victories. We need to get actual Ws, said Brand, who scored six points and had eight rebounds.
When we were down 27 we said we were going to fight and get back in it because we knew we could.
Or, they had nothing to lose except for maybe ground in the standings.
The Sixers have another tough one on Saturday night looming, too. After the game the team jetted to Chicago for a game against the Eastern Conference-leading Bulls. However, unlike in the game against the Heat, the Sixers will have center Spencer Hawes for five minutes per quarter on Saturday night.
Its not much, but its something.
E-mail John R. Finger at jfinger@comcastsportsnet.com.