PHILADELPHIA — Allen Iverson rose from his courtside seat during the break between the third and fourth quarters to toss T-shirts into the gleeful crowd seated in Section 115.
The fans who caught them left with a physical souvenir that was likely far more memorable than the game itself that they witnessed. The Sixers finished out the regular season with an ultimately meaningless 118-106 win Sunday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
The game’s atmosphere and flow felt like a Game 82 with little-to-no stakes. The Sixers rested stars Joel Embiid and James Harden, allowing for young players such as second-year big man Paul Reed (25 points on 12-of-14 shooting) to run wild while chants of “BBall Paul!” broke out in the final minutes. The Pistons, whose season is now over, did not play Rookie of the Year contender Cade Cunningham.
And the victory had no impact on the Sixers’ playoff seeding. The Boston Celtics’ romp over a Memphis Grizzlies team resting most of its key players Sunday locked the Sixers into fourth place in the Eastern Conference and a first-round matchup with the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors won the regular-season series 3-1, and the possibility exists that Sixers defensive ace Matisse Thybulle remains ineligible to travel to Canada — and, thus, unable to play in Games 3, 4 and 6 — because he is not fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Sixers led by as many as 15 points in the first half but were in a tight game entering the final period. But they created distance with 10 consecutive points from Reed — including an alley-oop slam and steal and a bucket that got Iverson on his feet — to stretch the Sixers’ lead back out to 112-98 with about four minutes to play.
Shake Milton scored 18 of his 30 points in the first half on 7-of-8 shooting. Tyrese Maxey added 25 points, including a slew of explosive finishes in the paint in the third quarter.
Unconventional lineups
Without Embiid and Harden, the Sixers trotted out an unconventional starting group of Maxey, Thybulle, Danny Green, Tobias Harris, and DeAndre Jordan. They played all nine healthy, non-resting players at least 20 minutes. Reserve forward Georges Niang (knee), veteran big man Paul Millsap (non-COVID illness), and rookie center Charles Bassey (shoulder) were also unavailable to play.
That created moments such as Reed’s bounce pass to a cutting Thybulle for a dunk. Or Milton making a driving layup and a three-pointer from the top of the key in a span of 9 seconds. Or Jordan collecting his 3,000th career offensive rebound.
But it also led to clunky play, preventing the Sixers from holding onto their double-digit first-half lead and forcing coach Doc Rivers into an early third-quarter timeout when the Pistons began on a 7-0 run to seize a 67-62 lead.
Then, a lineup of Milton, Thybulle, Reed, Isaiah Joe, and Furkan Korkmaz finished the job in the fourth, thanks to constant feeds inside to Reed.
Up next
The Sixers have five or six days off until Game 1 against the Raptors while the NBA holds its play-in tournaments for the seventh and eighth seeds in both conferences. With limited practice time since the Harden trade, Rivers plans to approach the week like a mini training camp.
“We need it probably as much as anyone,” Rivers said. " … Obviously, you’re not going as hard as you would in training camp. But it does give us an opportunity to get some continuity, to be able to run end-of-the game sets, to get some extra shots. This is a big week for us.”
Rivers identified rebounding, transition defense, and consistent offensive ball and body movement as the Sixers’ biggest areas to improve in the playoffs. The Sixers entered Sunday ranked 28th in the NBA in rebounding (42.3 per game) and 29th in fastbreak points allowed (15 per game).
