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.