Forging Ahead

Parks Casino. Not in the craft beer Well, that is totally fine, because the Beer Garden also has the classics bud Light, Yengling, It's got Victory, Goose Island, Stella, Local, Domestic. Anywhere on the planet there is an outstanding beer selection waiting for you at the Beer Garden in Parks Casino. What could this possibly have to do with the seventy six Ers podcast. Well, on March twenty fourth, it is the next seventy Sixers Night at the Beer Garden in

Parks Casino. You get to cheer on the seventy Sixers, hang out with seventy Sixers Entertainment team members, and what is perhaps arguably the most important detail of all, you get one complimentary drink and light appetizers on the house from the great people at Parks Casino. If I weren't working that night, I would most definitely be there, but

working is what I will be doing instead. You should get there March twenty four, Parks Casino at the Beer Garden for the next seventy Sixers night should be an awesome time. Now it's time for the pod. The seventy sixers are off to California, but not before getting another win at Home Built Three Balls Up, Shake Built, Knocks it Out, Harrison Built, back to back freeze ball Game.

A lot happened this past week, and we'll recap it all with Lauren Rosen on this episode of the broadcast, How you doing out there, seventy six Ers pod people plenty to review from our previous meeting right here on the broadcast, from career highs to injuries, to a bounce back win and a cross country flight. Seventy Sixers no shortage of news surrounding the team. Break it all down with my colleague, the great Lauren Rosen in just a

matter of moments. But a reminder that to subscribe to our podcast, all you gotta do is head to anywhere you get your pods, type in seventy Sixers podcast or Sixers Podcast Network and that will take you to our feed where we encourage you certainly to subscribe or follow along. Also want to put this out there, we have a new podcast series in our seventy sixers podcast network. Stable

very excited about it. Thought the first episode was awesome, The seventy Sixers Gaming Club Podcast, hosted by head coach Jeff Terrell and Alexanderste's Bernstein, one of the players in the team. Awesome conversations about the team, the league, chick fil a banter, some other stuff. So search seventy six ers GC on your favorite podcasting platform and check those

guys out on the seventy Sixers Gaming Club Podcast. All Right, As the seventy Sixers head west, they will do so buoyed by a needed home victory on Thursday against Atlantic Division rival the New York Knicks. We bring it now Lauren Rosen, who it is awesome and a lot of fun to team up with in covering the squad for all of our digital and social platforms. Lauren certainly a busy, busy newsweek to say the least if we shall review. Saturday in Milwaukee, Ben Simmons leaves early in the first

quarter with a back injury. Then Monday a new high literally and emotionally as Joel Embiid goes crazy for forty nine points. Wednesday, Embiad was then forced to leave the game against the Cavaliers early at the end of the first quarter due to a left shoulder sprain. And finally on Thursday, you get the victory over the Knicks and also news that Joel is going to be reevaluated in a week, which all things considered, is pretty encouraging. But that's a lot, a lot to wrap your head around.

There was a lot that happened this week, ebbs and flows, highs and lows. I think luckily Thursday night was a bit of a highlight. Loved to see a lot of guys that may not always be the prime performers really stepping in and stepping up in a big way. And it felt like a good way or the best way we could have to set out on a difficult road trip, yes, especially one that starts against too really challenging opponents in the La Clippers on Sunday afternoon, and then Lebron and

the Lakers on Tuesday. Lakers as of the recording this pod number one of the West Clippers, six and a half games behind them for third place, so a really difficult start. Indeed, you would figure to the road trip. And I think there is something too that bouncing back quick after a tough loss in Cleveland on Wednesday night. You were there for that game and then quickly putting

that in the rear view. And there were certainly guys who stepped up who may not be in prime roles all the time, but then Tobias and Al were excellent and they needed to have a strong showing. And I think we don't give enough credit to Tobias for a lot of things, but I think specifically his ability to take over a game is something that obviously, when you play on a team with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid,

those opportunities might not always be there. But it felt like from the opening tip Tobias was a man on a mission. Fourteen points in the first quarter alone and

just had this. Coach Brown always talks about maniacal competitiveness, and that those were the words that I was thinking of while watching him in that first quarter, because you could tell after Cleveland that none of them were happy with what had gone down, and they were able to quickly take that and channel that and turn it into a much better performance less than twenty four hours later.

It was interesting. I think the first question of the press conference that Brett got before Thursday's game against the Knicks was something to the effect of, do you feel like it's necessary to sit down with Tobias and with al and talk to them coming off of a game like Wednesday? And Brett said, the second game of back to back, haven't had a chance to speak with him yet, but I will talk with the team. We didn't know

the details necessarily what happened after that. But the other part of it is is like, I don't even know if it's necessary that he would have had to have had a talk with guys like Tobias and all who have been around forever, because the way that Tobias in particular came out and started that game against New York. I was like, listen, you don't need to tell me what I already know. I'm just going to go out there and try and take care of business. Essentially, he

just gets it. He knows he knows that a he's under a bit of pressure, a lot of scrutiny given his role, but he's responding to it and just a very mature again to quote Brett Brown once again, he's a very prideful and you could tell that this game and performing well really meant something to him, and he was able to go out there and put his money where his mouth is and do everything that we needed

him to do at a very high level. And I think Tobias is the next person that people will look to now that Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid are going to be out for at least a week together. We know that Ben's going to be reevaluated in two weeks, and listen, I think that Tobias is always realistic about this being a team that is going to be driven by Ben and Joel. A few weeks ago, he said something to the effect of and a paraphrase, and we're going to go as far as those two take us.

But now this is a situation in which the circumstances demand that he probably take on more, and I don't think that he's afraid of that. Like, he certainly has leadership DNA in him and in addition to talking the talk to come out and produce the way he did, I think underscores that for sure, And if I'm not mistaken, this trip to LA will be his first time revisiting

the Clippers since he joined the Sixers. Last time we played the Clippers, obviously we were fully loaded, had all of our guys available, but I remember Tobias having a similar level of conviction in that game. Ended up with seventeen points, twelve rebounds, played aggressively, and you have to

imagine that. Obviously, playing on the road is a challenge, playing without two all stars as a challenge, But for him, I think we might be able to see that same kind of energy that he's brought last night and the last time on Thursday night and the last time we played the Clippers on Sunday, And hopefully we can gain as much ground as we can on that visit Al Horford. We know that he's had a lot to adjust to this season. Thursday's game, to me was vintage Al Horford.

Fifteen points, nine assists, that was the season high, seven rebounds, flirting with a triple double. Offense was able to go through him a little bit more. He was able to quote unquote quarterback the gym a little bit more, playing full time in the five spot, and for me, that's something that I'm looking forward to seeing for however long Joel Ebid is out, for what type of rhythm can Al get into, perhaps playing at a spot that he's

more familiar with Now. Long term, you have to figure things out when Joel gets back, But at least for the short term, listen, here's a guy who is a very strong track record who can fill in for you, and I think that Thursday was a good sign to see him possibly get going in the right direction. Absolutely. I mean, silver linings are going to be few and far to come by when you talk about being down

your two best players. But it does feel like with this West Coast road trip for guys like to Bias and Al who will fit in in a very big way when the playoffs come around, these are valuable opportunities for them to get more minutes, to really not necessarily more minutes, but to have a higher usage during those minutes and really figure themselves out a little bit having the ball in their hands a little more. Quarterbacking the

gym a little more. It seems like maybe that's the small silver lining here is that those guys are going to have an opportunity to shine and get comfortable before the playoffs roll around. I was kind of surprised by this was as it seemed more and more likely that Horford might have a shot at a triple double in the next game. I looked up, thanks to the exceptional Basketball Reference Player Index tool, how many triple doubles Horford tad in his career. I was a little bit surprised

that he only has two. Is that true? It is a true statement. If I'm remembering what the results were of that query, I would have thought probably six seven. Yeah, you have to think, I mean, and last night he did it rather effortlessly. Yeah, I was hoping that he would get there, but obviously that's not necessarily the priority. It was a very balanced performance and maybe we'll see his third triple double in the next couple of weeks. Ben.

I think, you know, when Ben is on the verge of one, like and there's just some guys who are like this, there's a loudness to Ben game. Whereas, as you put it, al perhaps some more subtleties. You know, you look up at the scoreboard and you're like, oh, he's he's got like eight assists and you know, six

boards and double figures scoring. It was sneaky they did get They took away a rebound at one point because he was closer to it than he ended up that he had eight boards midway through the second half, and then I guess they gave it to somebody else. And it's okay. He was close. He was flirting with a triple double, like you said, and that's always something to celebrate. That would have been a bummer for the triple double to have been registering on the scoreboard only to have

been taken away. Sure, well, here we are. It was good to see though from Al Horford and Tobias Harris alike, I'm gonna get to shake Milton, but I want to keep in line of the theme of what will happen on the front line without Joel embiad for at least the next week. There's obviously Norval Peal. He's been out sick the last couple of games. Seemed like before the next game he was available, but still maybe not quite the energetic Norvelle that we're used to having a round.

Kyle O Quinn love seeing it. It's awesome, Like he is a and you're around you know, he is a super dude, big part of the spirit of the team. And I'm happy for him now that he's been able

to get out on the court and produce. And he's come up in conversation a few times even before these two games, where he's been referred to by other players or by his coach as just the ultimate locker room guy that really is always supporting his teammates, there for support, for a good laugh, just a generally lovely person to be around. And so to see him have this opportunity to produce at a pretty high level pretty quickly. I mean, he had ten rebounds last night, which is nothing to

look away from. That's incredible. I think it's been great to see how much work he's put in on his own, as coach Brown said after both games, that he's always in the gym, always running drills, even if it's by himself, just to make sure his body is ready for opportunities like this, and in a back to back, like when you haven't been playing NBA minutes multiple weeks at a time, and then you have to come into a back to back that's a home and road back to back, Like

that's a lot of stamina that he had to keep up and then was able to show off all that work he's put in, and it's just something that's really nice to see. He hadn't played more than ten minutes in a game talking about O'Quinn since January seventeenth against the Bulls. He'd only played in two games in between then and the Cleveland game on Wednesday. It was incredible. I mean, the Sixers lost the game, but in less than twelve minutes he had four block shots and it

was energy. I mean, again, obviously they lost the game, but they did bring energy in the second half. I think as they were just adjusting to Obviously they came into that game thinking they were going to have Joel and thinking they were going to run the offense through Joel, and I think naturally were a little bit unsure about how to move forward without him. But Kyle came in, He brought energy. He sort of helped turn that game around when they made the run and closed to the

lead as much as they did. I just thought there was a lot to admire about the way he performed both nights. We're a big fan of Kyle o quinn in terms of seventy sixers content, always gracious with the arrival and departure shots, the O'Quinn cap. Yeah, it means a little something humorous, just a lovely person to have around, and it's it's really nice to get to see him do. I mean, as we all, we all want to succeed

in our careers. We all want to feel used and feel like we're doing a good job with what we do. So it's great to see him get to do that because obviously playing basketball is probably more important to him than those lovely content moments. Okay, let us now go to another really positive topic, and that's Shake Milton Young Shaike has been presented with an opportunity and he has seized it absolutely. I mean again, it's awful to have

your all stars out. It's awful to not have Ben Simmons, but to see a guy like Shake who sort of like Kyle, hasn't gotten at least hasn't gotten consistent minutes all season, step in in and back to back and be super productive both nights. And just the thing is with Shake, have you ever seen him rattled at all? No? Not really, there was. It's funny, so he started the Lakers game, which was the big Saturday primetime game at the Center a few weeks back. And that's a big

spot to be in. You know, you've got the jump on court before the game, everyone's watching, You're the biggest game in town. And I'm like, a start against the Lakers. I mean, that could be an interesting spot to be in. I mean, he really hadn't played since before Thanksgiving at that stage of the year, and he didn't start, and I was like, Yeah, I kind of wonder how this is going to go for Shake. And I think he might have committed a turnover within the first minute or two,

but after that he was often sailing. And to your point, no, he does not seem phased, seems totally ready. And I think this even goes back to last season as well, that when he was called upon, good things happened when he was out on the court. And to your point about Ben Simmons, no, no one wants him out. But even if it weren't going to happen immediately, I think

we are seeing some immediate results. This is going to help shake Milton down the road, being able to get this extensive amount of run, and his stock has absolutely Risen. I mean, you heard Coach Brown talk about him after the game about how how can you not go with Jake at least for now considering what he's done, especially from deep. He took I believe eleven threes in the

back to back and made nine of them. I mean, obviously numbers even out eventually, but for now he's the hot hand and it really felt like I mean last night he literally did not he could not miss from deep and had an incredible game. So I think it's just again great to see guys that stay ready, stay motivated, get out there and get rewarded at a high level.

Thirty nine points in the back to back between Cleveland and the Knicks and nine for eleven from three, he rerunds well, he can make good decisions with the ball

in his hands. Goes back to the development plan that the team had in place from last year when he was a two way player with the Bluecoats, and has improved on defense, which is something that has been brought up a lot over the last two nights of media just that that's the area that coach says he's seen the most improvement from Shake and a team that says its identity is all about defense. That's obviously an important thing,

and he's been able to hold his own. I'm not sure what vibes you got when Brett Brown was talking about contingencies in the aftermath of Ben simmons injury, and I want to say this was before the Atlanta game on Monday, and I don't think he referred to it in terms quite like he did with the wing rotation when he used the whole tournament thing. But you know, he listed options. He was like, you know, there's shake,

there's Josh Richardson, there's Alec Burks and all that. And it's certainly nice to have had someone step up and raised the proverbial hand almost immediately this first week without Simmons, Like for as much as his kind of been in flux because these injuries as of late, it's nice to have some sense of clarity at least at one spot. And we talk about it all the time. We just talked about it with Kyle. Could not happen to just

a nicer, more pleasant dude. And you love to see people that are great off the court get rewarded on the court. Do you have any good shake anecdotes during the last two years, putting me on the spot a little bit. Nothing other than that, he's just always lovely, always says hello, always says thank you, just super engaging. The man loves Honeygrow. We were able to capture some honey Grow content with Shake on our way to Cleveland, and seems like there's a burgeoning partnership between Shake and

honey Grow. So we know he's performing well and maybe that's due to him fueling well. Honeygrow does not sponsor me to say this, but it is a great It is a great restaurant to lots of balanced, healthy options and clearly fueling Shake quite well. Do we know what he rolls with? Is he a noodle man? Is it more saladies? You know? I have not checked. I have not checked, but he should have a shake. I think

that should be like the Shake bowl. Sure there is a shake shack at the center, and perhaps it could be. I said this after the game last night, and this is a tangent, but I think it's worth it. In arena, there are these sixer versus sixer opportunities where two sixers are challenged to name a certain amount of items. Last night it was vegetables. On Thursday night, it was vegetables,

Shake Milton versus Matisse Thible. Matisse Thible struggled a little bit when it came to naming vegetables, but Shake Milton was really rattling them off. And to be honest, now that I know about his affinity for Honeygrow, I think he's just naming all the toppings he gets at Honeygrow. And naturally he won the sixer versus sixer battle using vegetables that included edamame cilantro. I'm not even sure if cilantro is technically a vegetable, but he got credit for it,

and I believe they have it at Honeygrow. Excellent. Was that the story you were looking It's a great anecdote. No, look at that. We just rattled off two minutes of the podcast talking about Shake Milton and Honeygrow. Two good things. The state of California is where the seventy six ers are headed. They have four games Clippers Sunday, Lakers Tuesday, Kings, Don't Sleep on the Kings Thursday, and then the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco on Saturday. First two games

probably gonna be tough, difficult challenge. You'll expect a challenge, but you'll expect opportunities to learn and to grow as well, no matter what happens. I think it's always good to play against high level competition. I think they'll go in there determined, maybe with a chip on your shoulders, as people tend to get when you're facing adversity. You're shorthanded, and hopefully there will be some positive lessons learned in

that first weekend. And you're going on that first weekend, So yes, what are you most looking forward to about spending time in La Sunshine? Yes, understandable business trip, though it doesn't matter where it is. It could be Milwaukee, it could be Cleverly Hills. You know we're there to take were there to do to content and it's always great. I had a great time in Cleveland. I will say

it was a great city. There's some underrated spots. The game obviously didn't go as planned, but I wasn't necessarily psyched to get to the city and I loved it. I'm a big small city gal. I like a small city. I like a Cleveland, I like a Charlotte, I like a Orlando. I don't know what it is. Well, based on how the schedule usually goes. You can tackle cities like that in about thirty six hours, which is usually all we have in a city Los Angeles the exception,

because you're playing those two teams in consecutive games. I'll see this, you know, these regardless of what comes from especially the games against the Clippers and the Lakers, these are more opportunities to do up close in person fact finding, Like regardless of who the seventy six ers put out there or what they do, still a chance for Brett Brown and the staff whoever else from basketball operations out there to see these teams up close in person, do

some fact finding, get a little bit more hands on intel. Who knows when you can see these teams again at some point. So there's that. I mean, that was kind of the same vibe that Brett had about the game against Milwaukee a week and a half ago. Sure, that's what I was going to say. You never know when you're gonna see these see these teams again, whether it's this season, postseason, next season, what have you. And it's never a bad thing to play against a guy like

Lebron James or finals MVP and Kawhi Leonard. I mean, it's always there's always going to be things that can

be learned whether or not you're fully staffed. And while the Lakers are rolling, they've won seven in a row going into the weekend, Clips have had their ups and downs too, they have, I think, honestly, I feel a little bit of empathy for the Clippers teams that have a really high ceiling, but I've had to deal with some adversity along the way this season, so I think it's an interesting team to compare to the Sixers, and I if it's anything like the first time we played them,

it'll it'll be entertaining, that's for sure, all right. And then the team wraps things up against the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors, neither of whom should be slept on. No. No. Kings have had a couple of good wins as of late. Golden State certainly in a different, different phase, even different or phase, if I can use the word different to her than when the seventy Sixers

last saw them at the end of January. Obviously, the Sixers have two players who are on Golden State's roster at the time, in Glenn Robinson the third and Alec Burke's while the Warriors picked up young Andrew Wiggins, so he and Steph Curry might be bad. I mean that, I don't know if that's I don't know what the official update is on stuff. I was just looking into that actually on the old internet machine. But you can't sleep on the Warriors. You just can't. It would be

silly to do so. They've been one of the best and some of their young guys are really exciting, So regardless of who they run out there, that's definitely one that shouldn't be missed either. If you are a podcast listener on the East Coast, do get your rest this week. Maybe sleep in a little bit more, take midday nap, early evening nap, stap late with your seventy six ers. It starts off easy from a viewership standpoint. You got a three thirty Eastern game on Sunday against the Clippers,

but after that two late games. Actually, this is from a fan standpoint if you're based in the East in Philadelphia, could be worse. You've got book ended with reasonable start times because the Warriors game is in eight thirty. Game absolutely, and that first West Coast swing that they did earlier in the season, those were all late so if you made it through that, you'll make it through this and

hopefully we'll get some excitement. It seems like we have a couple of guys that are really ready to go, and if it's anything like Thursday night, it feels like there will be more sixers that are ready to perform at a high level whenever called upon. Alrighty, Lauren, thank you very much. Thank you. If you are not yet a follower of Laurence on Twitter, you should be at Lauren m Rosen doing an awesome job this season covering the team. Thanks to her for joining the podcast, and

thank you as always for listening. We'll be back at it next week recapping whatever happens for these seventy six ers on this upcoming West Coast road trip. Let's see you