Marco, thank you for joining us. What an exciting, incredible game. You had a tremendous first half and you'll hold off to beat Cleveland. Your thoughts in general here, Marco, Uh, we won the game, that was important. What I think we got something to be better? You know, like, uh we got loose like a I don't know, like twenty five maybe more point. We need to play better. I did sign mistake on the end, like a turnovers or whatever. You know so well, but we need this couple game.
You know, Cleveland is a great team. We want to be a great team, you know, so at least we won a game and keep going. Absolutely if you could just step back though and look at the performances yours, JJ Simmons and Lebron, I mean incredible basketball here tonight. True. I mean, yes, that was a great game, fun game to watch. Um, but I think we can play better. Uh, I'm not really happy right now. I mean, like we
want to game, but especially for the playoff. People want to be like a good team and they play y'all, we can't play all ideas and we need to play badda and we will. Barco. We appreciate you, Thank you so much. So much Marco Bell ninety seven five the fanatic, Let's join Brett Brandon progress right now Lebron and you know, they do what they do. They kind of like surgically, you know, draw the pick and roll, and you know, sometimes we switched, sometimes we didn't. In the very methodical
abutter that's what they've done since he's been there. And we tried to blitz some. We tried to stay on our own with some. When jj Omarco has Lebron, you got some problems. And so the long two we're gonna live with a little bit. I thought his role offs. I thought some of the ways that we showed no
resistance on him was disappointing. But it's a playoff lesson that is a playoff game because you go through the multiple things that go through your mind on the bench, you know, trying to put our guys in schemes that are successful, and we through four of them, and that's what he does. That's what goes on in my mind. Three game with Ben at all, where you saw that he had a look or that he was going to come out without aggressiveness and play that way. I think
he's been playing great basketball. I think our team has been playing you know, great basketball lately, and so I know Ben really embraces the challenge of playing against Lebron. We all were excited to come back here in Philadelphia and play in front of an amazing crowd in such a big game. And it didn't surprise me that he had a big game. When you look at the stat line and you see, you know, a triple double, a significant triple double. It's not like he eaked in it was.
It was a very authoritative triple double. Um, it really didn't surprise me. He's been doing a lot lately that that doesn't catch me as much off guard as it used to talking about this game forward in terms of you're talking before I get up the potential of this game, would it meant turns of the standings and to Pathford us sorry, yeah, no, no, you're fine. What what does it What does it mean to you to see your team kind of grow kind of stage like this when
it hasn't been here before. It find a way to get away in get a spotling. I mean, if you went into the locker room and you will, I suppose soon you I started immediately after the game. There is just a very spirited, genuine group of some old some young players that are sharing in each other's success and led by Joel Embi. You know, I think Joe looks great, Like he's as thin as I've ever seen him. Hears me talk about thin as in all the time. His
body looks exceptional in spirit. Is they to match that? And to see Joel like bring the team in and you know we got a bell Ringer and Ben Simmons and see those two young guys and the veterans. It's just a very tight room. You know, it's a very tight group. That part of it excites me as much as what have we learned about the pick and rolls and not to try to you know, have that environment as much as we did. Well, how do we deal with them them switching? That really hurt our our offense.
That side of it interests me the most. It's run and you haven't had a lot of opportunities to play a game like this. I imagine a week before the playoffs are going to start. It's a pretty nice time that happens. It's extremely timely because it's real, it's a real feeling. It's it's defensive adjustments. Now, what what do you do, it's offensive adjustments. Now what what do you do?
And you know, like you're going through sort of highs and lows and trying to figure it out and try to stay sane, and you know, situationally, we had great situations where we try to foul them twice, one successfully, one unsuccessfully, you know, getting the ball in bounds, recognizing they had no timeouts. Those types of things, along with just the flow of the game, made this game of
very much a a tremendous learning experience. It's always feels more positive when you win, but in general, I hoped I would have said that regardless. Can you talk about the Empire parbabella Elli meate tonight and twenty three off of I mean, there was a stage that he came in and just was lethal. We were sputtering and he came in and just gave us an injection of offense. And uh, you know, we all talk about those players, those lightning in a bottle type players that can come
off a bench and do something like that. Most good teams have somebody like that, and he is certainly always big hight build up surrounding tonight's match between the seventy sixers and a three time Eastern Conference Lebron James led Cleveland Cavaliers. This one did not disappoint, not in the least. Bryant Seltzer with you from Sixers dot Com. Seventy six Ers prevailed past the Cavaliers one thirty two to one thirty. They now have control of third place in the Eastern
Conference standings. The Cavaliers have one less game to play in the Sixers Sixers with three more games to go before everything wraps up. On Wednesday against the Milwaukee Bucks. Tom mc ginnis had the call of tonight's game. It saw a pair of triple doubles against two stars, one established, one certainly on the rise. Just a great, great night with so many dramatic twists and turns. Top I mean to think that Lebron James is at the line with one point nine to go, a chance to tie the game.
The Sixers layed by as many is thirty What dichotomy between the halfs right as you say, layers and layers. But let's go to the fouleshooting. He's a seventy four seventy five percent fouleshooter for his career, you know. And I'll tell a quick story because he was amazing. I mean at nine points at halftime. Now he had a
high turnover game. But I just remember, and actually was sharing this with Brett Brown earlier tonight because Coach Brown called him the greatest player ever, and I was just saying, he's been susceptible at the line. I remember about this time, like late March many years ago, when the Sixers ended up playing clear or Miami in the playoffs. Lebron would be done with his warm up, like when we got to the arena, and he would finish his warm up
with half court jumpers. You've seen our guys like have a half court shooting contests, and guys have different approaches. Some guys do this that Lebron shoots jumpers with ease, and he'd make like seven out of ten and then you know, a little competitive in my mind, I'm like, yeah, make a couple of free throws out the game on
my mind, you know, And here tonight he miss. How about he ran to the three point line and shot at three with an open runway where I think he could have dunked it and conceivably could have been fouled. That was you could question that right there. But like we visited with Marco Belinelli and he was ticked that they gave up that lead. And it started at the end of the first half when it was thirty and
they cut it to twenty three. Doesn't sound like much, but when you couple that with like nine in a row to begin the third quarter, then they were back in the game. And again they had just done this the night before. And yet the Sixers during this streak and over the last two three months, they're showing the maturity, the development, the ability to arrest a situation corrected and go on and win the game. And that is as
good as anything. But Simmons and Lebron put on a battle for the ages seventy sixers over the calves one thirty two to one thirty. If you need an update on the stats, Simmons final line twenty seven points, twelve of seventeen from the field, fifteen rebounds, thirteen assists for steals, Lebron James forty four points thirty five and the second half eleven boards and eleven dimes. The two of them
were fantastic. They didn't disappoint one bit. But really I almost thought that and certainly the game was at a different point, because the Sixers were up seventy eight fifty five at the break. That if the only thing you were to take away from this game is that the Sixers young stud and the rest of this unproven team came out primed and ready to play against a proven,
accomplished team like the Cavaliers. In the big picture, if you step back, that would have said something, of course you want to see them winning, get into third place, but they were able to hold on. I mean that still kind of brings us back to that subplot that we saw in the earliest stages of this season when the Sixers were learning how to close out games and
they had enough. Absolutely no. And then you'd take Brett Brown for his word after the game, where it was a learning experience because like I said, there's so many scenarios that come up, like he said, trying to foul, in bounding the ball, playing with lout of time out and the six You've seen it, Brian, you watched it
over at the practice facility. They've gone over these situations from mid October earlier than that, where they were going over late game situations, all for games like this, all for games in the next week and two weeks and hopefully beyond. So it was like I said, this was one of those games coming in you didn't have to look what Cleveland's record is. You knew it because we've been watching their record over the last three weeks. And then an indendum to that, he's like, well, who cares
what the other scores were? Well, wait a minute, now, Indiana loss. So the Sixers no matter, you know, obviously I think they still have to win out in order to secure this third place. But because they tie the season series, but I think Cleveland, and I don't know this off the top of my head, but they have probably a better conference record than the Sixers, which, if I'm not mistaken, as the first tiebreaker among teams that
tie in the season series. But Indiana loss. Indiana had seventy three points in a twenty one make that a nineteen point defeat at Toronto. The Sixers had seventy four points in the first half, and they had that here's one they had that seventy three the Sixers against the Warriors in a game here that they lost in the first half. So the numbers are amazing. But I don't don't think we can continue without talking about Reddick and Bellonelli.
I mean, how about that from the two guard spot, you got two guys lightning in a bottle microwave type quickness. I mean terms of heating up and Bellonelli was just incredible in the first half, to Brett Brown mentioning where he just got on fire when they needed it the most. Dariel struggle tonight and to me, they won the game and he's back now, he'll be better. In terms of Sunday, he was out of sink, being out of action for a week. It's not just the elbow that's on the men,
it's his lead. He didn't have his legs underneath them. And the biggest and most dramatic improvement in his game has been his three point shooting, which wasn't there tonight for him. I believe he was one of six, but Rashawn came in and got those two dunks in the first half. I think the six Years will learn from these defensive scenarios where they ended up with Marco and Reddick mostly Marco Bellonelli single coverage against Lebron James and as Brett Brown said, you know they tried it four
different ways. Even when Brett Brown when he first got he remember he was in what hundreds and hundreds of timeouts in the playoffs with the Spurs where they're they had a veteran team. They're switching their coverages out of a time out, and the Sixers have kept things vanilla defensively for years and he's, like he said, perfect vanilla over the last few weeks without and beat over the last ten days or so. Well, now you can't. You can't play that way. And they altered some things in
terms of towards the end. They doubled Lebron and I know they'll grow from that. But just all in all, a scintillating game, totally lived up to the billing, and just an exciting, gratifying end for the Sixers. One thirty two, one thirty seventy Sixers over the Cavaliers. So we could talk about this for the rest of the night. Then Devon Gibbons might be angry with us, who would not want that, But just again, maybe more along the lines
of big picture themes. I mean this is the Sixers provided plenty of evidence over the course in the last five months that they were a team that had arrived at a different state, at different stage than what we'd seen the last four years. But this is like, you know, I go back to that bell and Ellie three point of that made it sixty five thirty seven. Midway through
the second quarter of the building was going crazy. I mean, that's a moment where you just kind of stopped looking around soak it all and you're like, all right, this is maybe one that if you write the book and this all goes well about this team and the journey it's been on. Like, that's a moment that you remember when the building's going crazy and your squad is taken
it to the three to conference chap. Now you're you're right, and again you know the mantra, the marketing slogan is this is the moment and this is it and it lasts longer than a moment. It's going to go on. The NBA's marketing thing is this is why we play, and that has you know, many multiple manifestations. You can take that along, but this is tonight. This is why we come out. This is the excitement, this is what the Sixers have been waiting for. And then I add
Ben Simmons. I mean, this guy waited a whole year to play. He's been waiting to star in the NBA for probably the last decade, and tonight and one of the questions was did you see something in Ben's eyes? Like, yeah, the jump ball and he is raring to go. He was incredible tonight. And you talk about the Marco play, how about Ben Simmons in the first half going right to left, throwing the ball between his legs and then kicking it out to an uncharging Reddick for another Monster
three early in the game. That got the crowd going and Tyrone you know, look, he took all those timeouts where they were they exhausted their allotment. He was burnard timehouse left and right, just to stay in the game. And one would have to think that has you know, part of the ultimate outcome is due in some small part because of that. He's probably thinking, man, I need to go on another hiatus. Sixers team's driving me nuts.
So now a tremendous matchup and hopefully many more of these games to come in the in the playoffs, and one would expect so well put by Tom McGuinness. Next game as matinee Sunday one o'clock against the Dallas Mavericks beat Detroit tonight that's right account, Thank you, Brian. At the start of the first quarter, pretty evenly played, the game was tied at eleven, and the Sixers snapped off eight straight points. Rashaun Holmes, as we've known him to do,
with a big spark plug off the bench. Simmons next away from Love bets Simmons. It's a TJ TJ into a cutting homes. Oh yeah, right down Broad Street, Roshawn Homes jams at heart. You could tell the Sixers had something brewing at that point in time. Twenty nine to seventeen. Time out called by Ty Lou and the Cavs. Ben Simmons put the front of the gas coming back after the break. Here's Ben double a baby, Ben Simmons between
the legs and then he rocks the room. Simmons with a ferocious Jamty twenty eight all Sixers after one quarter of play. The bench squad came in after that, Mark el Folds playing some great ball to help build the lead to eighteen early on in the second quarter, and Robert Covington doing some work from outside the arc to widen the gap into the twenties. Markuel gets away from Smith now drives into the lane kickout corner. It's Covington for three good Marquel folks. It's wheeling and dealing, and
Cleveland cannot use too many timeouts. They're calling them left and right. Fifty five to thirty two, seventy sixers in total control. Things called for a moment. Then Marco Bellonelli and JJ Reddick started feeling it. Hella's steal by Ben Simmons to JJ Reddick in traffic, Reddick with the lamp,
it's up it and got it, got it. After that, Marco Bellonelli with a three pointer making its sixty five thirty seven calves called another time out, and that was the reference point that Tom and I were talking about. You just kind of sat back, soaked in the scene. Here twenty thousand, seven hundred and sixty nine, at full throat cheering on the sixers gone up against Lebron, James
and Cleveland. You're like, all right, this feels like it's it still a lot to be written, but definitely a moment that you earmark Sixers all over the Cavaliers at the half, seventy eight to fifty five to seventy eight points, the highest first half scoring total for the seventy Sixers since nineteen ninety two and a floor record down here at the center. Onto the third quarter the Sixers and
the Cavaliers. A trend that we saw towards the end of quarter number two was that Cleveland was starting to make a run and that would continue with Lebron James doing his thing. Marco Bellonelli came up in big moments. Do we have the highlights mark with the corner, quick catch shot, three ball cut again, Billonelli delivers quick release, another trifecta. Bell and Elli made it one o two to ninety when the Sixers needed big baskets. Marco Bellonelli
was there throughout the night. Sixers led one oh five to ninety eight after three quarters of play. On to the fourth more from Lebron James. He scored eight straight points at one juncture and the Sixers were looking for something to stem the tide. Simmons play. He's into Iliasilva again, a new clock ear sid backing in on Austin left hand shot, rimming around again. He put it up with the left hand a little off balance, didn't look pretty,
but it's in. Got the margin back to eight points and the Sixers were looking for every bit of insurance that they could get Reddick in the corner for three. That's good day. J Reddick puts it in. The Sexers laid by eight earside, got the ball back sevens with a kick out and Reddick with a three. Sixers coming up big and they would go up one twenty eight to one twenty with about one and a half minutes to go. The Cavaliers answered with seven straight points to
make it one twenty eight to one twenty seven. The Sixers hit some free throws courtesy of JJ Reddick and Earthson Iliasova. They led it one thirty two to one twenty nine with one point nine seconds left. That's when Robert Covington was called for a foul on Lebron James from outside the arc. James hit his first, missed his second, was forced to missus third. Sixers got the rebound ballgame and the Sixers hang on to win it one thirty two to one thirties