Without Fans, Philadelphia 76ers are Relying on Internal Energy for Game 3

The Philadelphia 76ers will host the Boston Celtics as the home team for Game 3 on Friday. Unfortunately, being the home team means nothing during this year's playoff scenario. While the NBA bubble offered teams an opportunity to finish the season off without canceling it entirely, a sacrifice had to be made.

And that specific sacrifice might've affected the Sixers the most. The NBA had no choice but to resume the season without fans in the stands. Being that the 76ers had the best record in the league when playing in front of their own fans, along with a losing record on the road, it was clear that it could be difficult for Philly to perform in Orlando as they would have to rely on their own energy.

So far, that concern has proven to be a real negative factor for Philly. During the Sixers' eight seeding games before playoffs, they went just 4-4. For the first two playoff games in the series against the Boston Celtics, they are 0-2. Typically, Philly would get back in front of their home crowd after losing two straight as the away team against Boston, but that's not going to happen on Friday. How can the Sixers survive moving forward without a genuine home-court advantage?

"You're not going to walk into the Wells Fargo Center and feed from that," said Sixers head coach Brett Brown on Thursday. "It's got to be internally driven. It's got to be not falsely manufactured. There needs to be a genuine belief. I feel like the thing I'm leaning on the most is that there is enough talent. There is enough character. There are enough positive things to find a way to win."

Joel Embiid, who typically feeds off of the crowd energy, mentioned before that he's learned to play his game this year without seeking motivation from the crowd. But that still doesn't change the fact that he knows not having a large fan base on his side for playoff basketball is still unfortunate for this series.

"It would be a different story if we were actually going back to Philly because we never seem to lose in front of our fans," Embiid mentioned after the Game 2 loss on Wednesday. "You can't count on that or look at it that way. You have to take it one game at a time -- one play at a time. We have to be more physical than them offensively and defensively. We have to keep moving the ball. We just have to keep on going and keep playing the way we want to. I guess I have to do more. I have to keep pushing myself. Everybody has to be on the same page."

Embiid's fellow big man Al Horford echoed the same sentiment on Thursday. "We're a team that really feeds off the home crowd," Horford said. "Obviously, we don't have that here, and that has been very different playing here with no fans. You can look at it both ways, but for both teams, it's neutral. For us, it's about really finding that drive and energy within our group. That's what we have to do, and this is a very important game for us tomorrow." 

While the Sixers are still alive if they fail to overcome the Celtics for the third-straight game on Friday, the team knows their backs are against the wall for Game 3. Three losses won't eliminate them yet, but history doesn't bode well for teams that are down 0-3 in the NBA Playoffs. On Friday, Philly's in a must-win scenario, and they will have nobody to rely on but themselves.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_