Playoff Pod: Episode 22 - Devon Givens Previews Game 7

of the broadcast. How are we doing out there, seventy sixers pod people, How we feeling? What's the temperature, what's the confidence, the pulse. We are just hours away from a decisive Game seven of these second round matchup between the seventy Sixers and the Toronto Raptors. A berth to the Eastern Conference Finals is on the line. Seventy six ers trying to get there for the first time since

two thousand and one. I'm Brian Seltzer, first of all, wishing anyone out there to whom it applies a happy Mother's Day, one of the great days of the year, and certainly for all you moms out there. Big ups, mad props to what you do. Love it's and hopefully there's a great way to celebrate later on tonight when the seventy Sixers take on the Raptors. We're gonna speak with the von Givens of ninety seven five to the

Fanatic in just a moment to preview this matchup. First reminders that to subscribe to the podcast, you can go to any one of your favorite podcast hosting platforms Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, tune in, SoundCloud, anywhere else. Type in Sixers Podcast Network that will take you to where you need to go to subscribe to our feed. We've got new episodes just about every day of the playoffs and we hope to continue that trend. After Sunday Night, six are

sent out to Toronto early. They left Friday afternoon following a big one twelve one on one Game six victory Thursday night at the Center. Thought it was awesome the way that Joel embiid Ben Simmons responded in particular, Jimmy Butler remained fantastic. Another one sided game in this series that has been so hard to figure out. That's something that I definitely want to bring up with Devon Gibvens.

But before we do, wanted to play back some sound from Saturday morning, the seventy six ers final practice heading into Sunday's Game seven at Scotia Bank Arena. Brett browns coached as part of four game sevens in his coaching history, all with the San Antonio Spurs, the two thousand and five and two thirteen NBA Finals and also the two thousand and six and two thousand and eight Western Conference semifinals.

So yes, Brett Brown is a guy who knows about everything that goes into game sevens, and these were his thoughts about the all important, decisive game. It's a life experience, it's sports, euro sporting experience, but planning game sevens are different. I've coached there in two game sevens in the NBA Championship. I've done it in a Western Conference championship. I've done it in a Western Conference semi final and a few

places you know, earlier days. My experiences and my memory are one of the possession per possession mentality is heightened. If you you all want to be entertained, go go back and watch fourth periods of game sevens and everything is just zoomed in it's it's just raw. And you know, it always gets back to, in my opinion, defense and there are no there'll be no like, oh that's a great shot. Everything's contested. Lots of times you just hope

to get a shot. And there just is a heightened sense of urgency in game sevens, and it incrementally increases as the clock winds down. Game seven's life experiences heightened urgency and intensity. Brett Brown knows all about it, having been involved in four game sevens in his career. Joellenbiad this will be his first Game seven as a professional. He's not getting caught up in what the outcome of Sunday's game could have on his legacy up to this

point in his career now three seasons old. I don't care. I just want to win. This is a big game, you know, whatever I needed to do, I gotta show up and I gotta produce offensive and defensively. So I don't I don't really I want to remember that this point. I just want to win. Joellenbiads seventeen and twelve a just outrageous plus forty in the game on Thursday night at the Center. Jimmy Butler's played in one Game seven.

I have to go all the way back to his second year as a pro with the Chicago Bulls when the Bulls knocked off the Brooklyn Nets. Butler played all forty eight minutes in that game, and he understands the type of mindset that Game seven requires. Do whatever to ask me to do, it's got a best in my ability to win the game and help in any way that they tell me or want me to do it. I don't know what that called for right now, but all else we just want to win. What role could

experience playing Game seven? And they look at all the other subplots surrounding Sundays win or go home matchup. We bring on a guy who there is no one else, seriously who I would rather speak with on the day of a Game seven than our guy from ninety seven five to the fanatic. You hear him on in the post all the time after games and also for pregame coverage as well. The One and Only Divine Givens Divine. I feel like we've been ships passing at different portions

of this playoff series. You're on the post game sometime, I'm on the post game sometime. You're always on the pregame, but I feel like we have to talk it out. This is game set at defining moments of what has been a great season so far. It has been a great season sells thanks to having me. I look forward to it. This is exciting. Who does not get excited for Game seven? I don't know about you. I feel like the build up to this one has been an eternity.

It's probably because there's been an extra day in between games, but I'm just like, it's got to start. It is time to get this thing rolling. Yeah. Absolutely. This is one of those deals where after Thursday's big win one twelve one on one, of course, and how things played out in Philadelphia at the Center, you wanted to get right back at it. You wanted this on Saturday. Let's see, all right, one day to travel, both teams get to Toronto and let's jump ball and figure out where we

go from here. But the drama is set the NBA. He knows how they do things scheduling wise, and with the Game seven, they certainly have the entry already build up. I've been talking to family members, some friends, and they've been asking me, well, how do you feel about Game seven? What do you think and I really don't know what

to feel. I feel good and confident based upon the performance seventy six Ers had in Game six with their backs against the wall, an elimination game at the center, but at the same time, given what the stakes are when or go home there, at least for me is just this natural underlying sense of a little bit of

nerves anxiety. How are you feeling well? I'll take it back to Thursday before Game six, where I was pretty indifferent, and I kept using that word of being unsure of how to feel going into a Game six with so many key young players on the seventy six ers side, specifically Ben Simmons and Joel and Be never being in a spot like this, how would they respond to that particular situation. And as I got closer, as we got closer to game time on Thursday night, I felt better.

I felt so much better. And then the way that they came out, both teams at a little tight, you know, no scoring quickly, but once they did get the scoring going and you realize how things played out, the Sixers ending up with the eight point lead at the end of the first I felt really good about that particular game. Right now, I think I'm a little more with you. I'm not gonna say I'm indifferent, but I understand the nature of a game seven, a tournament style one and

done thing win. I'll go home here, particularly in this game. But I do feel better about the seventy sixers chances despite what we saw in game number five earlier in the week in Toronto, and how we know that one turned out. I look at the seventy Sixers team knowing that while there is pressure, the majority of the pressure is on Toronto Raptors because you are at home. This is why you play the regular season the way you do.

You are a two seed over and three seed, and how that normally plays out is the home team is supposed to win. But then I also go back Selts and think back to some of those one and one series percentages, and the team that goes two and one win Games three, they win, and you go to game five and the team that percentages win and that one it has you had me at least going back and forth on how I feel. I think it will be

a close game tonight against these two teams. No one game has been like the other of both teams has done certain things with a blowout, a close win, and this is what Game seven is all about. But I do right now as we speak, like the seventy six chances on the room. The pressure thing is really interesting because you have the whole specter of Kawhi Leonard and

his future with Toronto. And I know that nothing's set in stone with the core that the seventy six ers have right now talking about the veterans they brought in, Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris beyond this season whenever it ends. But it just feels like the looming issue of Kawhi Leonard and his future is something more for Toronto, and I'm just curious to see how that plays itself out. I have no doubt that Kawhi Leonard, I mean, he's a guy who has been through it before Game sevens,

he's won a title. I have no doubt that he would come out ready to go. But I just wonder if that's a dynamic that might somehow play into this, into the psyche of the Raptors to a certain extent. No, and I totally agree, because not only that, there's a domino effect of Kyle Lowry with one more year on his deal, the same with Surgeon blacka Marcosol. You make

that move and all of those things become intertwined. Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard have been deeper into the postseason than any of them, Surgeon Blaka getting to the one Finals as a former member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. But you're right, that's all over this entire wea the the North, that what happens here. We were not supposed to be eliminated in the second round with Kawhi Leonard.

This is why you made some move for him to get us to the Eastern Conference Finals and eventually represent the East and the NBA Finals. So that will not be overlooked. That will be a talking storyline the entire night.

And let's not forget about the head coach. So then Nick Nurse is still a young head coach at rookie head coach, and you cannot tell me that those things, even in game won't come up eventually that it just naturally crosses your mind as a human being, even though you are the head coach trying to win in that moment, it was, it's before the game, towards the end of the game, certain things that happened and you're saying, man, you know, how do I coach this particular spot. How

do I do this with Kawahi? Is Kawhi doing right? Then? How do we get everybody else involved? So that storyline will probably be selves the number one storyline, especially if the seventy sixes are able to get themselves out to an early lead or even in the middle of the game, get themselves out to a substantial league where they at

least seen they have control. You know, those thoughts of Kawhi Leonard are just going to loom over the entire game, right because regardless of whether or not Brett browns coach in the postseason Game seven as a head coach before, which he hasn't, He's been there. He's had four Game seven as an assistant with San Antonio. And I know that you're not the one making all the decisions as

an assistant. But Game seven of the two thousand and five NBA Final Spurs beat the Detroit Pistons two thirteen, the epic series that the Spurs lost to my Emmy head, a couple of Western Conference Semifinal Game sevens. I mean, Brett Brown at least knows what it is like to be in that type of spot, and he's learned under one of the best I'm curious to go back to something you said earlier, like what do we make of

this series? I mean, how much can we extract from the first six games, because aside from Game two and I guess you could say Game four, these have been really one sided games. So what do you what are some of the truths if there are any from the first six games year a series that in your mind you see could be playing out in game seven. Well, the one truth, of course is Kawhi Leonard is the problem. We already knew that. Yes, we already knew that one

for sure. But one of the other truths is the leadership that we've seen now from Jimmy Butler over the course of this series. And even can even take it back to the Brooklyn series where he stepped up in game one and they needed the point production thirty plus for him team loss. But after that he impacted in different ways of seven point game, I believe, a sixteen point game, but Ben Simmons started to take over and in b had a game to Bias Harrison, JJ Reddick

had a game together where they really exploded. I think the truths are that these two teams are maybe a little more evenly matched than we had thought. That despite the fact that Kawhi Leonard is such a great player, arguably a top three player in this league, the teams together, this thing right here is a fight to the finish

because they are evenly matching. Maybe we did not know that going in where people would select the Toronto Raptors in series, and maybe not the seventy six is pushing to a seven games because they weren't capable of it. So I think the truths of how close they are in terms of team and individuals, guys being able to

step up, that is true. And the fact that while Kawhi Leonard has done what Kawhi Leonard has done, we've only seen one Joe well and Bid game and it just maybe it just screams Selts that any situation like this, similar to the coach, as you said, not many guys have been there. Kawhi has been there, he'll perform. So Jibaka has been there, we don't know how he's going to perform. Jj Reddick has been to an NBA finals,

we don't know how he's going to perform. Both but at the end, you say, talent does, as Brett Brown likes to say, rule the day, and Kawhi Leonard is with the Raptors, Joel Embiid is with the seventy sixers, and no matter despite any illness that he may have been going through in the ups and downs of this series, you would think that the talent will prevail at the end. The question is which side will prevail at the end. It just feels like, based on the law of averages,

Joel's due for a game. Maybe it won't happen, but how good he was before the sickness came along in the illness for this series, you just feeling I know, Marcus sol has had success against him in the past, you just feel like Joel Embiid could be due for a big game. Do you think the first situation like this, it's all about our players or might we see someone

who we might not expect step up? I mean, I'm even thinking about Game six between the Rockets and the Golden State Warriors the other night, where yes, Steph Curry goes for thirty three and the second half, but do they win that game without andre Igodala doing what he did from three? I don't know. No, they do not, because while they needed Andrew Igodala and his played throughout the entire game, specifically in the first half way where Steph Kurry had zero and he erupted for thirty three

and the second half. But that to your point, Steph Kurry erupted for thirty three in the second half and they needed every bit of that, and that would even go to the absence of Kevin Durant in that series, losing that star power. So I do believe that star power is key in this game, because once again you know Kawhi Leonard is gonna get it. How do you

match that? Yes, you can match it as a team where the balance is there from Butler, Harris Reddick and Bed Simmons throughout the starting five and getting the contributions that you will from the bench. But you're right, Embid had a big game in Game three subpar games, and the others did enough in Game six to help push

this one bring it back to Toronto. But it says situations like this, while it is about the team, it does kind of scream for another eruption from Joel Embid to enforce his will and all the things that he says and gets engaged with the crowd, and I'm the best in the business, and all of those These are the moments that those things really stand out and put you in those conversations of being the best. And this

is an opportunity for him. The team overall can feed off of his dominance if he's able to do that, where you get outside shooting nights, some really good nights from Harrison and Reddick specifically, and we'll see how it plays out. But I totally agree that this does seem like a spot for a Joel Embid blow up along with the steadiness that you've already gotten from Jimmy Butler.

I know this is the playoffs team shoot worst the playoffs seventy six ers just under thirty three percent from three, Toronto just under thirty one percent from distance, but always seen good three point defense. I was looking at some numbers, and neither team have contested a ton of shots. What do you make of how the three point shooting has gone in this game, because that to me is certainly variable that obviously in the game, seven could swing it

to either side. No three point defense has been awful on both sides. You can think back there's so many chances that both teams have had way which is wide open sel it's too many wide open three. Luckily for the Sixers Gay some of those Danny Greene and Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry, those shots have not fall. And I'm sure the Toronto Raptors fans would think the other side, Hey, let's create that JJ Reddick and Tobias Harrison not hitting

at a very high clip. But what happens in these big games, you know, what happens that maybe teams get a little bit of tight, players get a little bit tighter, and those shots will still be there. But who steps

up and make those shots? As I pointed out, with him be getting the attention that he's gonna get to, Kawai Land is gonna get that same attention on the other side, because the seventy sixers do have to pay attention to Kawhi Leonard, any attention that he will draw, which will leave Kyle Lowry and Dan green and Pascalfy I'm open for a few more looks. Do they have that necessarily comfortability of being at home and feeling at ease, you know, with their role players being in front of

their home crowd versus on the road. Maybe so, But then you have guys on the Sixers side that just seem like they are not afraid of the moment, Mike Scott, Jimmy Butler and JJ Reddick specifically, where that may not be a problem. So both sides, I believe, will have another night where they'll have plenty of attempts from behind the three point line. Looking at the statue from what happened on Thursday thirty six for the Toronto Raptors to the twenty eight of the seventy sixers, these two teams

are going to get him up. And we know the game is played that way, but these two teams are definitely going to get him up, and it may be it may ultimately be the difference in this game tonight. Ben, what do you think it takes for Ben to bottle up what we saw in game sex bringing into Game seven? Well,

so I don't know. I don't know, and I hope that whatever was in him to come out and perform the way he did from the tip from the opening tips, similar to what he did against the Brooklyn Nets in game number two after he a tough game one that he does in fact realize what the moment is, how much better this team is when he's playing like that, playing downhill, playing with a full head of steam, playing with the goal of I'm going to pass because that's

just in my nature as a basketball player, but also realizing that this is what we need tonight. We need this tonight. Maybe he feels like some nights they don't need it and he can just focus on the defense of Kawhi Leonard the assist numbers to get everyone else going because he is a point guard, but right now they need to all around basketball player Ben send it.

So maybe there's another conversation in there with doctor Jay or doctor Jay said enough for two games anyway, and it works and carries across the border to get him going. But still he was phenomenal on Thursday night. They need every bit of that. Again, it may not be in terms of point total with twenty one points. Maybe it's instead of twenty one points, maybe there's six more assists mixed in there in a big moment where no one can look at it and say, well, did that triple

double really mean anything? Well, if he's able to bottle it up as you use that term, and bring it with him to Toronto. I hope he feels confident coming off of that game number six and decides to lay it all out on the line in this game seven. Tell me what have stood out the most to you about Jimmy Butler specifically in the second round. Whether it's tangible stuff that we can measure through stats or intangible things. I think it's more of the intangible things of the leadership,

the command that he has on the floor. All year long, we've said this is Ben Simmons and Joelnbiad's team, hands down. We all knew it. But as this playoffs has moved on and we've gotten to the second round, we knew that Jimmy Butler from Afar could score. We've seen it with the Chicago Bulls, we saw it in the playoff round with the Minnesota Timberwolves. That was never a question. The question was how does he get along and interact

with his teammates. And then the biggest moments right now with this basketball team, the ball being shifted into his hands a majority of the time to help Ben Simmons initiate the offense. The leadership that you see from him

on the floor really really stands out for me. And even when you have the wired up stuff from the nationally televised broadcast and telling Joel embiiding game number three to take us home, big fella, and how they respond to him on the floor, the interactions that you also see with him communicating with Brett Brown, that stuff really stands out. Not being afraid of them moment, that stuff

stands out to me. And how much of an impact he has had on this basketball team with the two young guys and of course the veterans and Harris and Reddick, Scott Ennis and everyone else that contributes off the bench that just simply follows that lead. Now maybe Reddick and the Harris not so much because they are those veterans,

Scott and Ennis, but they're all engaged as one. And I would say it's really about his leadership and the intangibles that he does bring to the table hopefully get the scoring again, but watching him through the playoffs and in the second round, he will also know that there are those opportunities where Embid and Simmons need to get off, Reddick and Harris need to get off, and just that iq that he has out there on the floor, the right decisions that he makes out there on the floor,

playing the way he plays, not turning the ball over, and still giving you solid defense on the other end, those things really stand out more than the overall production of points. All righty, we will leave it at this. I will not put you on the spot, Divine for a prediction. I will just simply ask to put a bow on all this. The seventy sixers will advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since two

thousand and one. If you're two young guys, your two young cornerstones Simmons and Embid are able to have positive productive games tonight. The shooting from Reddick and Harris and Scott specifically, I will even include in this and that they will shoot at a pretty high clip on the road tonight against the Toronto Rafts. The turnovers will have to be down, of course, and the assist numbers have to be up twenty four plus in order for this

basketball team to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. Excellent. If you're listening to this before four o'clock Eastern on Sunday, Divine's gonna have pregame coverage lockdown on ninety seven five to the Fanatic, where you can hear Game seven on the radio, and then Divine will be on the old radio again after the game to break it all down regardless of whatever happens. Divine, thanks so much man, Thank you so susy. Soon hopefully we're talking for the Eastern

Conference finals. Amen, brother, That is Divine givens awesome stuff as always from our guy from ninety seven five at the Fanatic. Hey enjoyed tonight's game. Hopefully we are talking more about it in the days and weeks to come. At the very least, we'll have a rewind episode of the podcast recap in the game shortly after it goes final or first thing on Monday morning. All righty all comes down to this, have fun, see yah