The Philadelphia 76ers headed into this postseason with a lot of expectations as they entered the playoff as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. In order to get done what they expect to do in the playoffs, they needed the right floor spacing in order to run their offense.
The Sixers have received big performances out of Seth Curry in this playoff run who has come in and provided a big impact out on the floor. He is shooting 50% from deep in this postseason and in Round 2 against the Atlanta Hawks, he is shooting 59.6% from deep.
He was a big reason why Philadelphia was able to force a Game 7 in the series on Friday when he scored and assisted on every point of a 14-0 run to open up the third quarter on the road.
Curry had a tendency of being very hesitant on his open looks during the regular season, but after a talk with coach Doc Rivers, he has been locked and loaded from deep in order to help make the offense run.
“Well, his emphasis is after the season, we talked about this going into the playoffs, I’ve never told a guy, his weakness is that he needs to shoot open shots,” said Rivers. “It’s like the damnded weakness to ever have and he heard us.”
Curry is averaging 6.9 3-point attempts in the playoffs which is a big number that the Sixers will continue to lean on.
“He’s doing it,” Rivers added. “He has been very aggressive and in this series, particularly, we’ve obviously found things we like with him, and he knows it that our team knows it, and we tried to get to it. I think it’s probably a little bit of both.”
As the Sixers return home on Sunday for Game 7, they will be looking to get over the hump and make the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 20 years. At this point, Curry and the rest of the Sixers have an opportunity in front of them to win a title. They now have to take advantage of their chances.
“We talk about that as a group a lot that you don’t have a lot of opportunities you think you do,” Rivers explained. “I go back to the Oklahoma City Thunder. I use that as an example all the time. I think when they lost to the Heat. I remember, Mike Breen saying well the Thunder will be back every year with this team. They never made it back.”
Rivers is referring to the Thunder in 2012 when they had three young superstars in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden and they fell in the NBA Finals. It was expected that they would continue to go on plenty of more runs, but they were never able to get back there.
The Sixers have an opportunity staring at them in the face. They just have to take advantage of it.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!