To avoid 3-0 hole, 76ers need to summon ‘tough’ mentality

After 82 regular-season games, eight more in the playoffs and one day to consider their straits, the 76ers Friday will try to keep themselves out of what has been an historically impossible basketball situation.

For that, Tyrese Maxey knows, there is only one solution.

“We’ve got to be tough, man,” he said. “We just have to be tough.”

With that approach, handed down from Doc Rivers, the Sixers will entertain the Miami Heat at 7 Friday in the Wells Fargo Center. Should they win, the Sixers will have the second-round NBA playoff series technically where it should be after three games.

If they lose, they will be down, 3-0, in a best-of-7 series, a hole from which no NBA team has been able to escape. Thus, the desperation, the kind they hope to be able to soothe with a passion that went missing in twin losses in Miami, including a 119-103 Game 2 setback.

“I said the same thing before Game 6 against Toronto,” said Maxey, after scoring 34 points Wednesday. “In Games 4 and 5 — and maybe in Game 3, too — they tried to bring the fight to us. Now, going home, with the crowd on our side, we’ve got to hit first.”

The Sixers were up, 3-0, in the Toronto series, then dropped a pair and were hit with the reality that they were in position to be the only team in league history to waste such a lead. But they jumped on the host Raptors in Game 6, breezed to a 132-97 victory, and earned the second-round opportunity against Miami.

Their problem: Late in that Toronto game, Joel Embiid took an elbow from Pascal Siakam, cratering his right orbital bone and causing a concussion. That left the MVP candidate unavailable in Miami, minimizing the Sixers’ chances to steal the home-court advantage.

Even with the losses in Miami, the series technically remains on serve. Should the Sixers take advantage of the home-court edge with triumphs Friday

and Sunday night, they would be able to see a path to the Eastern Conference finals.

Embiid’s availability would help, but a string of signals has thrown that into doubt, including the fact that he remained listed as “out” on the late Thursday injury report. Earlier Thursday, Rivers told reporters in Camden that Embiid, “still has hurdles to get over,” then chose not to provide an update. Since Embiid was injured last Thursday, he would have had time to clear the standard five-day wait on head injuries.

While Rivers continues to insist that has not happened, it’s possible Embiid could be declared available Friday.

“The concussion protocols, he has to get through,” the coach said, “and also all the other stuff with the injury.” That was an echo of his comment Wednesday, when he said, “We talked yesterday and we talked today. He looked good as far as talking, but he has so many steps to go through and he hasn’t cleared any of them right now. So we just have to wait and see.”

Should Embiid remain unavailable, the Sixers hope to benefit from the home crowd and some laws of average, convinced they will shoot better than they did in Miami, where they were 14-for-64 from behind the arc.

“When it comes down to it, you’ve got to make shots, especially when you’re on the road against a really good team,” James Harden said. “It’s pretty simple.”

That obligation will begin with Harden, the presumptive Hall of Famer acquired at the trade deadline from Brooklyn to boost the scoring. Harden, though, has either been reluctant or unable to duplicate his earlier-career shooting skill with the Sixers.

“We had numerous chances,” Harden said after Game 2. “You make a couple shots, it give us more confidence and it puts more pressure on them. I felt like we never put that pressure on them throughout the course of the game.”

That is one way to apply pressure. Rivers, though, will demand more in Game 3.