Heading into their final game before the NBA All-Star Break on Wednesday Night, the Sixers are Seventh Place in the Eastern Conference standings at 29-25 as the team is on pace to finish the season 44-38, which would be the most wins for the team since the 2002-03 season.  But one of the issues the team has been working to improve on is closing out games as the team's Offensive Efficiency Rating dips each quarter (112.6 in 1st Quarter versus 99.3 in 4th Quarter) and higher Turnovers Percentage in the Second Half (18.8%) versus the First Half (15.5%) of games.

ESPN NBA Analyst Tim Legler joined The Sports Bash on Wednesday explaining why the team has struggled to close out games this season:

“I think they still got issues with how they close out games offensively; When you have Ben Simmons on the court (with) Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons is your primary ball handler and he is really not a threat to shoot the basketball outside the lane, it’s tough to get to the rim in late game situations any time you want to in the NBA.  So as a result, the ball comes out of his hands a lot and you can throw it into Embiid – I don’t think Embiid is on that level yet that he can be this go-to guy on any area of the floor to go win games for you on critical possessions….So they’ve had a problem trying to figure out how to be able to generate their offense with the ball in the hands of their best play maker, who is Ben Simmons, because he is not really a scoring threat on the perimeter.  That’s a problem…it really does affect the way they close out games.  So I still think they’re going to lose some close games that they shouldn’t lose the rest of the way and as a result I think they make the playoffs but I don’t think they are going to separate that much from the .500 line”

Checkout what Legler had to say about Markelle Fultz issues with his shot, the Sixers outlook in the Eastern Conference, along with his perspective on the Cavs and Warriors

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