The 76ers led by as many as 14 points early in the third quarter against the Raptors, but allowed their opponents to close the gap and make it a close game.
The two teams entered the fourth quarter tied at 78. In the final period the roles flipped and it was Philadelphia that was trailing. Toronto led by 7 points on a couple of occasions.
However, the Sixers managed to tied the game and force an overtime. Both teams struggled to score in the extra five minutes, but it was Philadelphia that won it 5-2 to record its fifth straight win.
Sixers’ head coach Doc Rivers did not think that his team blowing the lead was a big deal and instead wanted to focus on the 76ers erasing the deficit in the fourth quarter.
“Everybody blows leads in this league,” he said after the game. “That lead was blown by fourth quarter beginning. So, we won the game. I celebrate that. I’m not going to get into that. We won the game and we should focus on the positive stuff.
“Our guys fought. We didn’t have it. We missed wide-open shots tonight, wide-open shots. When you do that, the other team’s probably, at some point, gonna make a run.
“A lot of teams when they make a run, go the other way. We just hung in there. They got a lead on us. How about talking about us coming back? We actually were down by eight down the stretch. And to me, that should be celebrated.”
