Playoff Pod: Episode 14 - Jonah Bolden, Squad Staying Hungry

elect far. Now the seventy Sixers change the tone of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Get a chat with Jonah bowl All on this episode of the broadcast. Alright, alright, alright, things looking in film a little bit different now since the last time we spoke. Seventy Sixers and the Raptors all square, tied up at one game apiece heading into a huge Game three of this best of seven second round series between the Atlantic Division rivals. I'm Brian Selzer,

hope you are doing great. We got a bunch to dive into in terms of the good we saw in Monday's game to ninety four eighty nine victory for the seventy Sixers will also look ahead, of course to Thursday's showdown in South Philadelphia. But first, as we normally hit upon at the start of any one of our podcasts,

a couple of reminders. If you are not yet a subscribe to the podcast, we would love to have you, please do visit any one of your favorite podcasting platforms that could be Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, tune in, Stitcher, Spreaker, pocketcasts, SoundCloud, whatever it is. Go there, type in Sixers Podcast Network that will take you to our feed and please do subscribe. So here we are seventy Sixers one game, Toronto Raptors one game, a major swing matchup Thursday at the Center

in South Philadelphia. You know, I thought it probably would have been a little b too dramatic to put game two on Monday in Toronto and must win terms, but there was no doubt in talking to some of the coaches and players on the team. There was of course extra urgency given how things didn't go all that well for the Sixers in game one on Saturday. Of course, Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam got loose. Seventy Sixers just didn't seem to have it. But from the jump Monday

at Scotia Bank Arena. There was no doubt the seventy Sixers looked and performed like a different team. Joel behind his back in traffic, over the running jj for three. That's it. Sevens has got a man into the corner. En Us three ball up at it James and Us knocking down another three time out Toronto Joellabe there comes a double shot. Cocket three picks it out to the right side. Butler three ball. Jimmy Butler has done it again. Back to the three. Immediately we saw some key adjustments.

I thought Brett Brown had a fantastic game. He stuck to his guns and coached with conviction. He put Joel Embiid on Pascal Siakum, let Marcus Saul have his free range shooted from mid ranger distance. Didn't work out for the Raptors. Ben Simmons got the lion's share of the minutes on Kawhi Leonard. With some help, Sixers were passing the ball more effectively from side to side, created some

nice looks on the wing and in the corner. For three Sixers held the Raptors to just thirty eight points in the first half and thirty six and a half percent shooting for the entire game, well below the averages that Toronto had both in regular season and in the playoffs. I thought a defense at the start of the game

was almost as good as it could be. I was proud of a defense, and for those reasons, I think a spiro was just fine and it was reflected in a pretty solid defensive First out, Jimmy Butler, pivotal to the seventy six was playing out a gritty game to win. Twelve of his thirty points came in the critical fourth frame.

That big three that he hits put the Sixers up by seven points with about two minutes to go, and then the past Joel and beat on that twisting, impressive driving lay up, and that gave the seventy sixers pretty much the game and some important insurance in the final seconds. To tell you truth, I just happened to make a couple of shots. Everybody told him to come out aggressive, shoot the shots that are there. I still think that passed the ball when I wasn't open. Maybe a little

bit later. If some people may say Paul and Oman we guarded, I think that's that's the reason that we want and even though Kawhi Leonards still finished with a big number thirty five points thirteen to twenty four, shooting seven rebounds, six assists, I thought Ben Simmons really did make life difficult for the Cloth. Simmons continuing to shine defensively in the playoffs. He is proving his worth on that end against a couple of all stars. Seann Magahart.

You know, obviously Quais, a very talented guy. Lost defensively. He's great, so for me make it tough for him offensively on his side, it was really my job. So I'm glad. I'm glad I got that role. Simmons didn't score a ton in Monday's game, but no matter, his value was present in a lot of other areas, and he also had seven rebounds, five assists and a couple of steals, finishing with a plus two rating in nearly forty four and a half minutes before we put game

two to rest. I gotta give a shout out to the bench right twenty six to five advantage in scoring against the Toronto reserves, fifteen to six against the counterparts from the rafters in rebounding. James Enis, the third had a great game so did Greg Monroe, who Brett Brown tapped as the first big man off the bench to relieve Joel Embiid. And I'm also gonna throw Jonah Bolden

in there. I thought the rookie came in in a pinch after Monroe went out with an ankle sprain and it didn't work out with Boban Marnyanovitch, and Bolden delivered. He had some really helpful rebounds between the third and fourth quarter and that timely triple to push the Sixers lead back to nine early in the fourth. After practicing Campden on Wednesday, Joan and I talked about his growth during the postseason and how some veterans have helped him. Jonah,

you're a rookie going through this postseason. You've appeared in every game so far. What are some of the things that you're learning and taking away? The details of every play in the position is critical. The attention to detail is magnified. Personnel becomes much more significant than the regular season and obviously more significant than the play itself. I think, you know, Coach repeats it a lot, and it's very true that a lot of the playoffs is the players

um and other players. I think the things that I've taken away from my first UM playoffs here is just like I said, attended the detail significance of every play entity's taken to another level physicality. Um yeah. Does it almost slow down the more minutes to play in a playoff game? Does it feel like it gets slower there's more stuff that you can process? Does it feel more natural? Uncomfortable? Yeah? Yeah,

yeah no dot um, comfortability comes with time. UM. So, I mean it's kind of for me, it's it's kind of a new season UM in some forms, like starting like I said, everything different other than obviously the sport UM. You know, for me, it was just coming in fresh, ready to go. UM. The more time I get, the more comfortable I'd be, and and the more comfortable I feel.

Game two against the Rafters, you came in in the second half, had a couple of big rebounds, hit a key three pointer or what did you think the team needed in that game? In particular? Um, just for everyone to know the role UM, I mean specifically, guys are

telling me, you get the bullet, just shoot it. UM. And that's that's kind of what I did when I came back in UM, and and and and and just sticking to the game play and UM for me, like I said, no, my role knowing knowing that I'm out there to to help my teammates out and in any aspect um possible. And if it's getting the rebound at crucial times or knocking down the three like my teammates

asking me, then that's what I'll do. Can you give you some examples of some of the conversations you've had with the specific veterans on this team, And it seems like a guy like Jimmy Butler is someone who's always coaching young guys up. Yeah. I mean, like I said, the guy just kind of tell tell me specifically, UM to just shoot h That's that's what I do. And I'll continue to do that. UM. And they you know, they give me the upmost confidence and and and believe

in myself. Um that they they also instill the fact that, like I said, every play is is critical and significant, So you can't really take a playoff defensively or offensively, um at this point in this season, in the postseason. UM, so just just being ready, whether you whether my time comes in in the first over my time comes in the fourth quarter. Always remember ready that when I'm coming, I'm gonna need to be ready and my team has depending on me. What do you think the home crowd

is going to be like Game three? You guys have taken home court advantage in this series. Um, crazy like it always is here? Uh if not, if not more crazy, just just how the series is tied. Um. And you know that you speak nothing less of Philadelphia fans. They're they're very you know, fanatical and behind us and and loud. So you're definitely gonna fill him and hear him. Jona,

Thank you very much. Thank you. Jonah Bolden heightened awareness to some of the finer intricacies and subtleties of pro basketball in the NBA postseason, averaging about nine minutes per

game in the playoffs. And you know, I think all things being relative, very relative, I think you can say that he is a solid track record against the Toronto Raptors between the game on Monday and then if you remember the home game right before Christmas, he had not rebounds and four blocks and the Sixers regular season win over the Raptors. What the Sixers, We'll try to do to keep the good things going. In Game three on

Thursday night, will hit that in a moment. But first, I don't know the whole entire breakdown of the demographics of our Sixers podcast network listening audience. But if you're a young kid out there, or more likely than not, you're the parents of a young kid out there, I gotta tell you about these seventy Sixers Kids Club presented by five Below. It's brand new and it is awesome. Membership is only thirty five bucks, includes a welcome Kid team store discount, a five below gift card, plus a

whole lot more. Be an inaugural member of the seventy Sixers Kids Club presented by five Below. Sign up today at sixers dot com slash Kids Club. Okay, we got a big one Thursday night, nationally televised game on ESPN in south Field Alpha at the Center in the primetime spotlight. Seventy six ers very eager to be back at home. Our crowd is amazing. You know, it's loud, they bring energy, it's energetic and for us, that's going to fuel us, and we just gotta be ready to play it. We're not.

We're not. A crowd is always behind us and wants us to win more than anybody. So we're gonna fuel off that. That's Tobias Harris think he's having a great postseason, averaging sixteen points, ten rebounds a double double for the whole playoffs, plus four and a half assist per game. He's shooting nearly forty five percent from three, a double double in each game of the Raptors series. Really strong

stuff from Tobias Harris. No doubt Joellenby knows what his numbers have been, and of course he'd love to get himself going and do some more scoring. But I thought it was also great to hear him say that he doesn't want to force the issue. He talked about this on Wednesday at practice, and he's got a very matter of fact view about how he's fitting in and his role. Man is the layoffs. We all make adjustments. We had a bad first game and we made some adjustments. I'm

sure they're gonna make some adjustments too. We gotta respond to that. But at the end of the day, it's all about playing hard me especially if I'm not getting open looks or I'm not in situations where i can't play one on one. You know, Like I said, I got to make the right decisions and go from that. But uh, it's a game of adjustments and they're gonna make theirs and we gotta respond to it. But at the end of the day, it's all about playing hard.

And you know, if I don't got it going offensively, uh, you know that I tend to focus extremely on the defensive and so uh, he goes both for us, and you know what about that? And to that point, as we saw in Game two when it mattered most game on the line, who was there the big man to pass out to Jimmy Butler on the double team for

three and then that driving layup. I think it's a great mindset that Joe has, very healthy, team oriented focus as far as how things have gone for him in this series, speaking of offensive numbers, Danny Green of the Rafters, he was the other important part of the Kawhi Leonard deal and he's been a significant subplot due really impart to what he hasn't done yet in the Eastern Conference SEMIS and that's hit threes his bread and butter, two for ten through his first two games, had an open

look with time expiring late in Monday's game in Toronto. Ten total points in the series thus far, and he finished the regular season second in the league in three point percentage at forty four and a half percent. Brett Brown once the seventy six ers on high alert. He coached Danny Green in San Antonio. I know Danny Green well enough to know that the chance of that continuing is small, and we caught a break the other night

with the open look that he had. But to think, like you know that's a common with what you know numbers he's produced in the first two games is not at all what I'm thinking and what I have learned having spent a lot of time around him. The three point shooting behind Kawhi Leonard's so vital in this series to Toronto's chances. Toronto's combined for nineteen for sixty four. That's under thirty percent through two games, and the seventy six Ers have to continue to clamp down on the perimeter.

You gotta love that statistic, Toronto shooting under thirty percent from three to start this series. Let's end this thing on a lighthearted additional field good notes at m del NBA. You probably know the handle by now. Got to give it to the man. You got a Mike Scott Hive

tattoo after getting enough followers on Twitter amazing. Mike was asked about it on Wednesday, and if you've picked up an anything about Mike Scott's personality so far, authentic, real, no bs, just a true, straight up dude, and he was. He was gushing on Wednesday when he was asked about the tattoo. That's crazy, that's crazy. It was dope, man, shout out to him. I got off the tickets for Sunday. That's crazy, man, crazy fan. I love it. I never

I told him. I never had fans like this since probably UVA, but as far as I'm in a league, best fans new disrespect to Atlanta Clippers in DCUM, but I never had fans like this, So I just I love it, and they embraced me. I embraced them. I feel like I'm one of them. And uh, it was dope. So I only hope to see Mike Scott's back out on the court soon. He is progressing from his right

heel and planter fascitis injury. He did practice on a Wednesday, and he is questionable going into Game three on Thursday. Some keys then I'll be looking for Thursday night at the Center six. Continue to ride the wave. It was a close win, but it was a win on Monday, and capitalized on the momentum and the boost at the home crowd figures to give on Thursday night. Cut down

on the turnovers that would be good. Sixers had nineteen of them in the game on Monday, and in that respect, I thought they were fortunate to escape with a win. Toronto also scored twenty two points off the Sixers turnovers in Game one. Sixers also have owned the glass in this series and that has got to continue. In Game one on Saturday, when the Sixers still had a shot, it was because in large part they're rebounding, especially on the offensive glass. Sixers dominated the boards in Game two

on Monday. They are outrebounding the opposition. This is Brooklyn and Toronto combining the playoffs by almost twelve and a half rebounds per game. That is amazing and almost five rebounds better in terms of rebound differential than the next closest team in the postseason, and that is Milwaukee. So get those extra possessions by crashing the glass and three point defense. As we said, if the Sixers are able to limit and just even mitigate the threat of Kawhi Leonard.

If there's no three point shooting behind him, that takes a huge weapon away from the raptors. So keep that going, seventy six ers and I think if those things come to fruition, hey sixers take the swing game on Thursday night. Thanks for Jonah Bolden for hopping on this episode of the podcast, Thank you for listening. Enjoy the game on Thursday night. Should be a great atmosphere at the Center and hopefully we'll be talking more about a great results.

And lastly, a reminder if you're gonna look out for a rewind edition the podcast in your fee, either later on Thursday night or first thing Friday,