NBA teams don’t usually release hype videos 65 games into the regular season.
The Sixers did on Thursday, however. That seems an appropriate way to label the video the team put out on social media ahead of its departure for Orlando for the NBA’s planned resumption. It contains footage of players working out at the team’s practice facility in Camden, New Jersey, during the NBA’s Phase 2 protocol, as well as some of the more confident remarks from players during video conference calls with reporters over the last week. Tobias Harris chucking a medicine ball against a wall is an especially striking image.
“The way that I look at it is we have another opportunity,” Al Horford says over footage of him sinking a jumper. “I believe that our group is built for the playoffs.”
Horford is among the players who noted the NBA’s hiatus was beneficial in terms of health. He’s also far from the first Sixer to insist this season that the team is constructed to succeed in the postseason.
The 39-26 Sixers are sixth in the Eastern Conference. They’re scheduled to resume play on Aug. 1 against the Pacers (see game-by-game predictions).
Though the video is a bit less energetic and more reserved than the typical hype video — which makes sense as the NBA attempts to play through a pandemic — it does convey a belief that the team’s inability to meet expectations before the hiatus is no longer relevant.
If the league’s health and safety measures are effective, we’ll get to see if that’s actually the case.
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