PHILADELPHIA -- It was only a matter of time, but on Saturday, the Philadelphia 76ers were officially eliminated from playoff contention with a 118-95 loss to the Miami Heat at home. The Sixers are now 10 games back of the Heat for the final play-in spot with eight left.
This was a season filled with high expectations of competing for a championship after a busy summer led by the acquisition of Paul George in free agency. The idea was that George, Joel Embiid, and Tyrese Maxey would lead the Sixers over the hump and win their first title since 1983.
Even at the deadline when the Sixers acquired Quentin Grimes from the Dallas Mavericks, the expectation was that he would help Philadelphia get to the play-in and hope they're healthy enough to pull off a run to the postseason. Unfortunately, health was never there for the Sixers.
"It's tough, but coming in, they had a lot of injuries," Grimes said after the loss. "Looking back on everything with Joel, Tyrese, and PG, it's a tough season kinda coming into everything so looking back on it, try to just get everybody healthy for next season and stuff like that. We got eight games. Really just try to sharpen things up."
Grimes and the Sixers will look to build some momentum heading into the offseason at this point. Coach Nick Nurse expressed his disappointment after Philadelphia fell way short of what was expected of them.
"Well, I mean, obviously, it's not anywhere near where we had hoped it would be when we set out this summer and this fall," Nurse said. "That's for sure and that's the only thing you can you can say is it’s a super struggle, right? Just most of the way. I think there was only a couple times of some momentum December, and then there was another four or five game winning streak in there too, where, you know, you were kind of always holding out hope that that team was playing better, getting some wins, and hopefully get some players back and and I’ve said this numerous times, it just didn't seem like the the injury bug would ever, ever leave us."
Nurse is right in the respect that the Sixers had things rolling in December and January for a bit. Unfortunately, the injuries just never left this team alone. Philadelphia was never able to get anything rolling due to players being in and out of the lineup and it cost them in the end.
"It just seemed like every time we have a good game and get a win or something, it cost us a player or two for the next one," Nurse added. "We could never just really build any momentum. So obviously, super, super disappointing. Not where we want to be at all. That’s about it."
The Sixers will take on the Toronto Raptors on Sunday on the second night of a back-to-back.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Quentin Grimes, Sixers react to being eliminated after loss to Heat
