TORONTO – Before Game 2 of the Philadelphia 76ers’ second-round series with the Toronto Raptors Monday night, Sixers head coach Brett Brown had an odd message for his team.
“I haven’t done at this point but what I have shared with them is there’s always a point where you can feel somebody’s spirit is being crushed, is being broke, and the will to fight dies a little bit,” Brown said. “We get it, coming into Toronto the overwhelming majority feels we have no chance in the series. As I said before, all six of the Philadelphia media said we’re not gonna win. 18 out of 20 ESPN people said we’re not gonna win. We have to maintain our spirit.”
Perhaps Brown was referring to the way Kawhi Leonard seemed to suck the life out of his team with his 45-point Game 1 gem, but no matter how you try to look at it, talks about your team’s “spirit” before a game can’t be interpreted as a positive sign.
That is unless you not only maintain your spirit but raise it like the Sixers did Monday night, earning a 94-89 win over the Toronto Raptors to even their series 1-1 and steal home-court advantage with the next two games shifting to Philadelphia.
But moreso than raising their spirits, Brown raised the 76ers’ game plan in Game 2, particularly on the defensive end.
Of course, without Arya Stark in their lineup there was very little the Sixers could do to stop Leonard’s continued assault on them as he scored 35 points on an efficient 13-of-24 shooting. But while the Night King got his, the rest of North was effectively neutralized in the face of Brown’s defensive adjustments.
Most pronounced among these dials Brown turned was to put Joel Embiid as the primary defender against rising Raptors star Pascal Siakam.
After torching Philadelphia in Game 1 for 29 points on just 15 field-goal attempts, Siakam still managed 21 points but saw his efficiency tank, going 9-for-25 from the field.
“We knew that Pascal had a big game in Game 1 and me guarding it was my job to slow him down,” said Embiid after the game.
Added Brown: “We had a taste of some success with [Embiid] on Giannis [Antetokounmpo] in our Milwaukee series [in the regular season]. We felt like there was some similarities there.”
Included in Siakam’s dismal night was a 2-for-7 performance from deep, many of which were wide-open looks, a common theme for both teams Monday night, including Danny Green’s potentially game-tying triple with 10 seconds to play in the fourth quarter.
However, wide-open misses or not, full credit should still go to Philadelphia’s defence, as it managed to hold Toronto to only 36.3 per cent shooting from field and an abysmal 29.8 per cent if you don’t include Leonard’s brilliance.
By so drastically changing up his defensive coverages, Brown appeared to invite the Raptors to try to take advantage of these so-called mismatches, to their own detriment, as evidenced by not only Siakam’s rough night but also a 7-for-17 performance for Kyle Lowry whose impact as a distributor was lessened with so many more shot opportunities that presented themselves for him.
“I thought we were a little stand-around-ish and a little trying to play mismatches a little more than just continuing to play and let things come to us a little bit,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse.
But even though Nurse says this, it was the Sixers attack that forced the Raptors’ offence into uncomfortable situations. It was a risky proposition by Brown, especially because Embiid was dealing with a stomach flu before the game and was actually hooked up to an IV a few hours between his arrival at Scotiabank Arena and opening tipoff.
In the end, Brown and the 76ers were rewarded for their commitment on the defensive end with some good luck go their way in the form of wide-open Raptors misses, some unexpected contributions from bench players like Greg Monroe and James Ennis III and the re-emergence of Jimmy Butler.
After a rough Game 1, Butler answered the bell and had himself a 30-point, 11-rebound performance that included 12 big fourth-quarter points.
“This was James Butler. That was the adult in the gym,” said Brown. “He was just a tremendous sort of rock. He willed us to a lot of different situations.”
And even though Butler took exception to Brown calling him “James” – “my name isn’t James, it’s literally Jimmy” – what Brown said of the 76ers star still holds true of his Monday performance, not that Butler wants any of the credit.
“To tell you the truth I just happened to make a couple of shots,” Butler said of his fourth-quarter heroics. “Everybody told me to come out aggressive and take the shots that were there. All in all, we guarded and I think that’s the reason why we won.”
He had a little more to do with the outcome of the game than he’s willing to admit, but Butler isn’t wrong about that last point either.
When Brown made mention of his team’s spirit a few hours before the start of the game Monday, no one had a clear idea what he may have been referring to. Now we know it’s likely his team’s defensive effort and focus.
“I was proud of our defence and for those reasons … I think our spirit was just fine,” he said.
The 76ers will be hoping for more of the same spirited performances with the series shifting to Philadelphia starting Thursday.
[relatedlinks]
