David Adelman was furious with his team after their pathetic loss to the Nets on Sunday, calling their performance embarrassing and calling them out for their effort and energy. It may have seemed harsh considering his team was in the midst of a brutal road trip, playing with a skeleton crew due to numerous injuries.
But Adelman’s anger was promptly justified on Monday, on the second night of a back-to-back with seven rotation players resting, the backups and two-way players showed up in Philadelphia looking like a team possessed.
The message clearly got across, because the players who were available came out playing inspired basketball, and earned an improbable overtime 125-124 win over the 76ers. It goes to show that the right effort and energy can go a long way, regardless of which players are in and out of the lineup.
Adelman wasn’t upset at his team for losing; he was upset at them for the way they played, and one night later, he was proven correct as his team approached the game the right way and got a big win despite some extremely challenging circumstances.
Any NBA team can win on any given night
This just goes to show that every NBA team is full of extremely proud and talented players. When one group of players is operating at a higher level of intensity, it makes a big difference, regardless of personnel.
We’ve seen both sides of this coin as there have been plenty of games where the Nuggets had superior talent, but didn’t take the game seriously enough and lost. And on Monday, we saw the opposite, as the bottom of the roster showed up in Philly and left it all on the court while the Sixers clearly weren’t taking the game seriously enough, at least to start.
Denver came out like it was Game 7 of the Finals and Philadelphia came out like it was a preseason game. By the time they settled into the game and realized they were in for a fight, the Nuggets had gained confidence and settled into the game, turning it into a back and forth affair.
It went down to the wire, and obviously overtime, but the Nuggets and their seemingly inferior talent were able to overcome the 76ers for a win that many of these players will likely never forget for the rest of their lives.