You saw the Sixers execute down the stretch on Thursday night, erasing a 17-point deficit to beat the Grizzlies at home.

One of the things they’ve done really well this season is shoot the three in late stages of close games, so much so that they now lead the NBA in the category:

“Clutch” is defined by the NBA as a scenario where there are five or fewer minutes in the fourth quarter, and the lead or deficit is less than five, so obviously with Philly and Memphis trading buckets last night, that final portion of the game gets logged statistically as “clutch.” There isn’t a huge sample size to work with here, but the Sixers have made 29 of 68 clutch three attempts, resulting in that #1 percentage ranking.

Individually, De’Anthony Melton, James Harden, and Tobias Harris all land in the top 50 for most clutch three pointers made, with nine, six, and six respectively. Harris is 6 for 11 and Melton 9 for 14, so they’ve really stepped up and hit some big late shots for this team. Harden’s clutch 3P is only 33%, so he’s not hitting at the highest rate, but he’s willing to fire from deep in close games.

It doesn’t mean too much right now, but we’ve seen the Sixers struggle to close in the playoffs during the Joel Embiid era. When your best player is a big, how do you initiate late-game offense in the modern NBA? It’s still a perimeter-based game in round two and beyond, so dumping the ball into the post isn’t always feasible. Embiid still has a 40%+ clutch time usage percentage, but they’ll need the guards and wings to shoot, and the fact that the Sixers have shown positive flashes in the clutch 3P% category is a good thing as we approach March.