The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Standings put strain on No. 1 achievement for the 76ers
PHILADELPHIA » The 76ers were about to play the New Orleans Pelicans Friday, which meant sometime between 4:59 and 5:01 the inevitable would become official.
So … wait for it …
Zion Williamson would miss the game with a finger injury. And there it was.
This time, unlike too many other times, the injury was the kind that should keep a professional from reporting to work. The finger was broken, the healing could take a while, and the Pels tried to cite every multisyllabic test known to the medical industry to support the finding.
The fracture to the finger was real.
The NBA standings are in a sling, too.
Soon enough, the Sixers are going to officially win the No. 1 seed throughout the Eastern Conference tournament. Since they don’t waste Wells Fargo Center ceiling space on flags commemorating such intermediate achievements, they will not overstate the achievement. That’s for the best, anyway, in a season when the standings lack their usual integrity.
What can they really mean when it was so clear so often that too many teams barely cared if they won basketball games?
“I don’t know,” Rivers said. “Honestly, every year there’s injuries with teams.
And you get through it. The team I coached last year (the Clippers), I think P.G. (Paul George) and Kawhi (Leonard) had one practice together the whole year and missed 30 games, yet I think we ended up as the second seed. So I don’t know the answer.”
If ever there were a season when sports scientists were justified recommending down time for players, it was this one, with 72 games rushed to completion, beginning in late December. The off-day practice was close to extinct. Backto-back situations were plentiful. Teams often played twice in a city on one trip. Exhaustion was understandable.
Nor were the Sixers above it all, often willing to rest Joel Embiid, working through