On Sunday, after dinner, I called my mother in Indiana. She had watched Philadelphia beat Charlotte, a hundred and nine to a hundred and four. There was one sentence she wanted to understand.
The Sixers had trailed by at least ten points. It is the fourth time this season they have won a game like that, in seven games. Tyrese Maxey scored thirty-eight points, at least fifteen of them in the last quarter. He is averaging twenty-nine point six, third in the league. And after the game, a reporter brings up another comeback. He answers with a smile, according to BasketNews: “I don’t wanna do that. I’m tired of that,”
My mother asked me: he won, so why is he complaining?
I told her about 2000. My first season in Charleroi, a hall with badminton lines on the floor and a heating system with moods. We went down by twelve in every half. And we came back, nearly every time. The people at the club bar thought it was wonderful. Me, I walked home and ached everywhere. Let me tell you: winning from behind is a pleasure for the people watching and sore legs for the people playing.
He also said his group was made of fighters, that they don’t like losing, and that if they keep the game close they will be hard to beat. Here, we call that “we’ve got character.” My wife says it’s what you say when you started badly.
My mother listened to all of that. She thought about it. Then she said the solution was simple: if he doesn’t want to come back any more, somebody has to defend in the first quarter.
I said it might be more complicated. She said: see?
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.
