Playoff Pod: Episode 2 - Game 1 Rewind

We do expect to hear from Brett Brown at the podium, some players as well, But this one for the seventy Sixers certainly did not go as planned, and the build up to the game certainly there was a heightened sense of excitement when news came down that Joel Embiad would

be back. He would be playing. In the early going of this game, he was a just physical presence, if not anything else that Brooklyn and especially it's big man Jared Allen could not contain a string of free throws for Joel Embiad as he went to the free throw line, helping the seventy Sixers get out to an early lead midway through the first quarter. But around that time Brooklyn went to its bench and here would start a theme

for the rest of the day. The reserves for the Nets coming up huge in this one this afternoon and the Nets to the one eleven one h two victory. Ed Davis came in, gave Brooklyn a little bit more something in the front court, and during that time it would be a twenty to one Brooklyn run to end the first quarter, putting Brooklyn up thirty one twenty two

going into the second. That completely turned this game around, and the seventy sixers trying to find some of that chemistry that eluded them down the stretch of the regular season because of player availability and health. They were battling up him and they just could not find it today. Thirty six points for Jimmy Butler. I thought he was great.

He gave the seventy sixers everything they were looking for in terms of an aggressive approach, determined mindset, some greediness, but that just quite simply didn't transfer to the rest of the roster. Joel Embiid probably did what he could. He has not played much obviously over the last two to three weeks. He finished with twenty two points, fifteen rebounds, five blocks, and four assists, but five or fifteen from the field over five from three very telling. He was

twelve or eighteen from the free throw line. Ben Simmons nine points on nine shots, and from the foul line he was one of five tough breaks for Ben Simmons. Boban Marnyanovitch thought he was awesome in relief of Joel Embiid thirteen points, three rebounds, four assists, five or seven from the field ultra efficient to bias Harris and JJ Reddick. Not enough from them in this game, unfortunately. Harris two of seven from the field, O two from three point territory.

He did do some other things. He was plus through in the game seven points, six assists, but four points. I beg your pardon. Seven rebounds, six assists, four points. But the seventy sixers in this game, with Brooklyn putting the pressure on with its balanced attack of drives to the laying pick and roll offense, three points shooting Sixers needed more. They were not able to get it. Fifty nine points for the Brooklyn Nets bench just a major

major statistical subplot in this one. Twenty three for Carouselvert a major matchup problem for the seventy sixers. He was able to do a little bit inside and certainly he did from the outside three of three from the perimeter for Carousel Vertz, Spencer Dinwitty with eighteen points. He finished with two threes. Daniel Russell a team high with twenty six.

He got off to a pretty sluggish start, especially in the first quarter, but in the third quarter we saw him get a steady dose of mid range jumpers to fall that seemed to unlock him and he was big in the second half, finishing with twenty six ten of twenty five from the field. He had four assists as well, thirteen for Joe Harris, steady from the perimeter, three of four, Demari Cowl with eleven points and six rebounds. Jared Allen

essentially a non factor. It was Ed Davis in the front court who was a huge reason why the Brooklyn Nets won this game. He was plus twenty eight in the game, twelve point sixteen rebounds, a key cog for Kenny Atkinson and the Brooklyn Nets. We're standing by hoping to hear from Brett Brown from the playoff postgame podium.

Tom McGinnis will share some more thoughts as well. But the Brooklyn Nets take Game one of this best of seven Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series by the score of one eleven to one O two, now three and two on the season against the seventy sixers. Our postgame coverage will continue after this. As we watched the suburban garden Nome carefully, carefully without disturbing it, he noticed that it moves like not at all. It's inanimate and utterly without brain function.

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People might talk. Seventy Sixers dropped the opening game of the two nineteen playoffs one eleven, one h two to the Brooklyn Nets, who take the early lead in this best of seven game Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series. I'm Brian Seltzer, rejoined now by Tom McGinnis. Tom. Certainly, there was understandable build up to this game. It got even more heightened with Joel Embiid being declared good to go in this game.

Early on, he was just creating a individual parade to the free throw line of Because of that, the seventy Sixers jumped out to a lead. But Brooklyn, their bench had great spirit. They hit the key in the ignition and then as this one went along, we saw Damiel Russell come up big. But I thought their reserves were just fantastic, no doubt about it, and they were able that This is what I thought was a little concerning

for the Sixers early on. Specifically, I believe it was like twenty one to nineteen, the Sixers were in the lead, the Sixers at one point at a five point lead, based on what you were saying with the foul shooting him, not just Joell Ebid but Jimmy Butler and Brooklyn. Meanwhile, I was like old for their first five from the field. But Joe Harris had three quick threes, I mean, limited opportunities,

tight window, bang, bang bang. He made three threes, and again at forty seven percent, he was the top three point shooter in the league this year, so no surprise that he was successful. But he kept them in the game and they were tight. And Jared Dudley, you know, he just kind of shared with his postgame that yeah, they were but they kind of shook off the the inexperience in the playoffs and kind of got right in a little bit and then they come on and like

you said, Ed Davis was a big factor. Their bench was a big factor. You look at their plus minus in the game, and again for the uninitiated, that's the scoring of your team when you're on the court. So in other words, Brooklyn's bent their reserve. They did better Dudley din with the LeVert Davis. They were all big plus twenty eight for Davis. In other words, the Nets outscored the Sixers when Ed Davis was in there to the tune of twenty eight points. Their top score Russell

twenty six points, but he was minus ten. So, Brian, circling back to what you were saying, their reserves were key in this game, outscoring the Sixers whereas the Sixers Jonathan Simmons played, he was minus sixteen. Simmons, Reddick minus twenty one. And you know, you talk about spirit now again, they were dominating the game. Here, here's apparently coach Brown's

getting really good. He wasn't missing or do you have to kind of help I mean, I'm always putting it on me to help him, you know, try how do you help your players, And uh, I'll stick with that. You know, I get a fine ways to help him, and he cares at times too much, you know. And I think that that you learn quickly in the NBA playoffs that the first kind of open look you got is probably going to be your best look. The game

will tell you to shoot. And at times I feel like he's trying to maybe press a little too much or you know, go someplace else when you know he can shoot more than seven times. And is that what it ended up? Yeah, So you know, I I will own that I got to find ways to help to bias defensively on stuff. It's just stuff that you know playoff teams do. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary. They just did it quite well. You know. There's a

physical side that they played with. You know, lots of teams sort of play on the high side of JJ and try to like staple him to a baseline. I thought that they did that well, and uh, he got in some into some foul trouble and I don't think that helps sort of cultivate a rhythm. But but I give them credit that they were physical on JJ and and kind of went into him playing just before the game.

But you know, we went into the decision. How do you think I mean, I'm I'm always just a recipient of news as as opposed to like any kind of level of a decision maker when it gets to the health like um they head coach. I listened more than I advise as I as I should, and I was advised that he could come in and play very late. Joel really wanted to play. He really really wanted to play. I think the thing that I was most concerned about is what what what's going to be like the outcome?

We we don't want to look in the rearview mirror and have regrets. It's game one. Somebody's going to find a way to win four games, and it happens, as we all know, in many way, shapes and forms. I thought that Joel Um looked like he hadn't played for a while yet was still you know, dominant. Look at look at his numbers and look at the free throw attempts UM, But it was clear that you know, the pace of the game, the the the the speed of the game types of stuff, you could you could see

that he was tired. And those are my initial thoughts without seeing the tape. Pretty good for you. And often in that game the guy could lift a team around it and inspire them to join him and do it. That first of your thoughts about Butler's games and your thoughts about why that might not happen with the team following a lot. Yeah, first, I'm so with you, Bob on Jimmy, like that was the adult in the room,

that that was a man. And I think that that especially like we've seen it from time we see it here in filling the regular season and fourth period stand out a lot, but you saw it kind of consistently spread throughout the game, the physicality of the game, the elite athleticism, the toughness. It is true. He was the adult in the room and he was trying to, like, you know, pull others along. And you know, just when you look at the starting five as an example, Ben

had a down game, JJ had a down game. To Bias at a down game. You know, if you go straight to the three point shooting, we were three for twenty think about this now, we were three for twenty five. And then if you take a little bit of a pivot on a statue, you're going to see that we will only sixty nine percent from the free throw line, and so you know, we missed a bunch of shots. We had three starters down a bench was I was scored heavily by their bench. I think it was fifty

nine to twenty six. I thought Boban did some good things, but trying to find participants outside of Joel, who we really wasn't she was going to play. It didn't happen tonight for whatever reason. And I I give Brooklyn credit more than I do anything. But I feel like the room that we have to get better and find a way to change some things to win. I see it. It's not like it's a mystery to us. That's really seventy six Ers head coach Brett Brown following today's one eleven,

one or two lost to Brooklyn. That's in the opener the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. So Tom, we heard a little bit about that. Jimmy Butler was fantastic today, a playoff career high of thirty six points on eleven of twenty two shooting, and he had a spirit. As Brett was talking about that, you just were hoping that it would have rubbed off on the rest of the team. And whether it was because the group hasn't played a lot of the last two weeks together or for whatever other reasons,

just didn't happen, no doubt about it. And at one point in the second but had seven points in a row, sixteen out of twenty. He really pulled, especially at the end of that first half when he hit a big three to give the Sixers some life into the dressing room. And then he came out and played well in the

third quarter. And in fact, okay, you're thinking, all right now, now it's a game where the Sixers they cut it down to two, they were right there on the precipice of tying it and potentially taking a and Brooklyn countered with a six oh run. And then from that point on, you know, the Nets were leading by mostly eight, nine ten points per game, and they had to confidence, the swagger, and they had the spirit. The Sixers talk so much

about the spirit if you watched their bench. Now, don't get me wrong, they were pulling off an upset in the enemy territory. Of course they're gonna be fired up. But there were time there was that one time out where the Sixers took a break and the Sixers players had a walk through the nets who were out there dancing, celebrating, congratulating one another on the Sixers court. Like I said, tomorrow is going to be a day of reflection for

the six Ers. There probably won't be a little on court work that o'd be a little clip they show the Sixers right there, look at this their party and on your court, and the fans are disgruntled and dis happy the Sixers. They have to show more fight and way way better spirit, form and play in game two

because again there's a long way to go. As coach Brown says, you got to win four games, but you cannot go down O two going to a building where over recent years you've struggled a little bit, the Barclays Center in the games three and four in this series. And the other thing I'll say is their scheme, how they play is not going away. Like the way they spread the court. It wasn't necessarily the three point shooting by them. Now they made eleven. That was telling, and

that's thirty three of their hundred and eleven points. I get that, But it was the driving lanes in the space they created and they four and again limiting JJ to five points. Big thing in the game, but running at him. They got him out of the game by forcing him to file fighting over screens. He got two of his six files fighting through traffic to try and questionable calls, but he got calls at the defensive end

where he was trying to, you know, stay connected. So yeah, I mean there is a lot, a lot for the Sixers to clean up after this. One seventy six ers bad of the Brooklyn Nets one eleven one h two, Game one of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. First thing, Tom, I mean when you look ahead to the game two, I mean, how much do you think this is maybe at least in terms of certain things like I guess the first thing, I'll look at three point shooting. How

much of that was influenced by the defensive Brooklyn? Do you think half much of it was perhaps the Sixers just not hitting some shots. No, some of the looks of six Ers Scot they think of Jonathan Simmons and Mike Scott, some of those were wide open looks. So that's not the defense. Those shots just weren't going down. And look, I think it was pat Riley years ago, but says, you know, like a playoff series doesn't start until you know, somebody wins on the road or something

along on those lights. Well, they just won on the road. Wake up call, you know what I mean? So yeah, I mean the Sixers look Ben sim and you could just watch him during warmups. He was so rebbed up. And that's all well and good. He's he swants this so badly. He's such a great athlete and such a key player for the Sixers. But when it doesn't translate into open shots, makeable shots down low, that takes a lot of steam out of your tank, sort to speak.

And they did. They took Simmons out of the game. They walled them off. He wasn't getting close at the basket. And as Coach Brown said, you know, Joel did not have Numerically he had a good game, but even his shots weren't clean looks. And certainly when Davis and all we are there, he's trying to play through the likes of Jared Dudley and forcing the end and they weren't

clean looks. And so I mean at some point and Joe, you know, he took I think five threason missed them all, but he had a lot of shots at the elbow. Maybe just sit there and accept the fifteen foot shot from around the following but and then Tobias Harris a non factor in the game. And you know, and again the Sixers with Butler fantastic and Tobias you were hoping for that, you know, the ability at times one on one to be able to score. But I mean Brooklyn

took it to the Sixers in this game. And this is not I mean, you knew this was going to be a series, and like I said, a very concerning matchup for the Sixers, and it all revealed itself here in this afternoon of this evening's game. Alrighty Tom talks to you next on Monday night, seventy six will try to bounce back and level the series before heading to Brooklyn. Seventy Sixers lose to Brooklyn first game of the Eastern Conference quarter Finals by the score of one eleven two.

Let us get to some highlights from today's game. About five minutes before tip time, Joel embiid it was announced would be in the starting lineup. He got to the three throw line and did some other things as well. Here's Joe Slow got it in beat, getting the crowd fired up. So Russell made two free throws and Ben Simmons again rifles it download of Joel in Bead scores it in a foul and that put the seventy Sixers up nine to five. Thanks to in Beads back up

boban Marnianovitch. The Sixers would lead twenty two nineteen midway through the first quarter, but then things changed in a hurry. The Brooklyn Nets would go on a twenty to one run that bridged the end of the first quarter and the start of the second. Sixer or down thirty one twenty two after one, and cast Lavert added to Brooklyn's league early in the second. Here's Lavert open tray and

down it goes time out Sixers. Caris Lavert gets the three, and now the booze a little more broth cypherus here in Philadelphia, not two minutes into the second quarter, as the Nets have taken a fourteen point league thirty seven twenty three. But the Sixers got some amentum backpacks, some guys off the bench. Baranovitch against Jared Dudley turning passes. The TJ McConnell puts it in that Boulbon pass was

really a dumb down. He's so big. He just threw it down to McConnell, who faded baseline left by the Nets fence from ten behind Russell and Dinwitdie. The Brooklyn Nets would expand the lead back to fifteen, but Jimmy Butler gave the Sixers a shot in the arm going into halftime. Butler with it. Jimmy Butler with five seconds, the crowd rising is one. Jimmy Butler steps back, shoots

to three ball at the horn and it's good. Had the Sixers get ball met him into the halftime locker room at eighteen point second quarter for Butler, he was great in the second frame, Sixers down sixty two fifty four at the break. In the third, Sixers got off to a strong start and Joel Embiad was right in the middle of it and beat against Allen sidesteps up through two defenders, puts it up at it and be with a reparkable drod and the crowd standing ovation four feet.

So at that point it was sixty five sixty three Nets, the Sixers so close to being right back in it.

But then D'Angelo Russell strung together a scoring string that put them margin back to eight and he would be a menace for the seventy sixers in the second half, Russell seventeen footer and got it unstoppable right now, D'Angelo Russell twenty one points that made it eighty two seventy four middle of the third, Sixers down eleven ninety three eighty two going into the fourth and D'Angel Russell down the stretch of crunch time would put it away. Here's

Russell stop being seventeen footer up. Good ball game. De'angelo Russell now with twenty six at Brooklyn leads by thirteen with two minutes to go, and Brooklyn would gone to win It's by nine one eleven, one h two to take a one game to none lead in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. Some final stats in the final stat sheet, seventy Sixers held to forty and a half percent shooting

Brooklyn forty three percent. But here's one huge disparity. The nets eleven of twenty six for forty two and a half percent from outside the arc seventy six ers and uncharacteristic three of twenty five and nets twenty four of twenty six from the stripe. Seventy six Ers missed thirt

of their forty two free throws. Six Ers finished plus five on the glass plus six on the offensive boards, but Brooklyn out rebound of the seventy six is by five in the second half, one of the reasons why they were able to create some distance and ultimately put this game away fourteen to nine advantage for the Nets scoring points off turnovers. Jimmy Butler finished with a playoff career high in game high thirty six points. He was eleven of twenty two, thirteen to fifteen from the line,

also had nine rebounds and two blocks shots. He was plus eleven for the Sixers. Joel and Bead with twenty two points, fifteen rebounds, four assists in five blocks. He was minus seventeen and twenty four minutes. Ben Simmons with nine, Jj Reddick with five two of seven from the field, one of four from three, Tobias Harris with four points, seven rebounds and six assists. Boban Magnanovitch awesome off the bench with thirteen points and three rebounds in four dimes

plus three in fifteen minutes for the Nets. Stanzel Russell led the way with twenty six a big second half for him twenty three for Carselvern. He was a huge X factor from a bench that put out a lot of good talent in tonight's game from Brooklyn twelve and sixteen for Ed Davis. He had much more success against Joellen beating the Sixers front court than Jared Allen, who

played under ten minutes in the game. Spencer Dinuity with eighteen, Joe Harris the thirteen including three three pointers, Damari Carroll with eleven, and all importance. Quickly it becomes an all important game too. This best of seven series is going to be right here at the center on Monday Night. They always told Will he was too short to play basketball, but Will never listened. We'll let his work ethic do the talking for him. Always in the gym, always running drills.

Will knew where there was a will, there was a way, and he was Will. But then after his second child was born, he realized the pros were all way better than him. So Will gave up and buried his high tops in a tearful ceremony. But one day he heard that Geico could save him money on car insurance, so he switched and saved a bunch, which was awesome. You've been listening to a playoff edition of seventy six ers Rewind,

presented by Geiko. Be sure not to miss new episodes following each game of the postseason