April 22, 2019
The Sixers, as Joel Embiid made clear with a joke about the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night, do not want to let their series against the Brooklyn Nets linger. The sooner they can get this pesky young team out of the way, the better. With the Toronto Raptors likely awaiting in round two, Philadelphia could use all the prep time it can get.
When we arrived at the practice facility on Monday, it looked like the sort of all-business affair they needed to back up that talk. Joel Embiid, who has sat out recent practices, was there early putting in some serious work on the far end of the court, putting himself through an intense workout to keep his fitness base high.
Discipline was at the center of discussion Monday afternoon. Embiid picked up his second flagrant foul in Saturday's Game 4 win, and while some (including Embiid) believe it wasn't a foul in the first place, it puts him within two flagrant points of a playoff suspension.
Physical though the playoffs may be, Brett Brown rejected the notion that Embiid's accumulated flagrant foul points were just the cost of doing business during a physical time of the year, insisting that it is on the coaching staff to remind the players that their actions have consequences, and to remember that even when they're in the heat of a battle.
"It's the discipline that we have to have. I've told this group candidly, I sat on a bench in San Antonio [in 2007] when Robert Horry hip-checked [Steve] Nash into the stands, and Amare [Stoudemire] and Boris [Diaw] walked on a court. We weren't beating them, I think they were winning the NBA championship," Brown said. "There are reminders I owe my players as the coach to have them be adults, be big boys and navigate through this."
"It's not our fault at times we're 20 pounds heavier and three inches taller, so in the meantime, we gotta just be smarter. That's my job."
A smart team, a disciplined team would do well to close out the series in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. Though the Sixers have proven themselves the better team with three straight victories — including two on the road — they have had some fortune along the way. Joe Harris, the NBA's leading three-point shooter during the regular season, has missed some wide open looks over the last couple games. The Sixers have created their own luck to a degree, but good offense can beat good defense, and the Sixers are certainly aware of that.
So the Sixers know they need to come out ready to compete and ready to finish off the Nets on Tuesday, lest they have to make a return trip to Brooklyn and expose themselves to more pressure and more games played.
"Coach has said over and over again we have to be greedy," Tobias Harris told reporters on Monday. "I thought after Game 1 we have thus far. For us [in Game 5], it's just to continue that mindset and go into this game, we know they're going to be hungry, we know they're going to be sharp in what they do. So we have to impose our will and go to what we know has been working."
The easiest way to impose their will is to just have everyone available for the game. Embiid wouldn't budge on that subject — with a wry smile, he said he's "gotta keep them guessing" — but he insisted that if he's on the floor, there would be no doubt how much Game 5 means to Embiid and the rest of his teammates.
"If I do play, I'm going to be aggressive," Embiid said. "We've got to close it out tomorrow night, we don't want to go back to Brooklyn, so we gotta do whatever is necessary to close it out tomorrow."
The Sixers need to be prepared for pretty much everything on Tuesday night. Brooklyn was already the "nothing to lose" team coming into the series, and they were slowly beginning to figure things out despite the Sixers taking the last three games. It's an open question if the Sixers can keep Boban Marjanovic on the floor after some rough minutes in Game 4, and they don't have great options beyond Boban as we have discussed many times over.
But one thing has become clear since the Game 1 hiccup — the Sixers are simply the better and more talented team, and as long as their approach to the game is where it needs to be, they will emerge victoriously.
• Joel Embiid spent a decent amount of time talking about the flagrant foul he picked up in Game 4, and he seems pretty convinced that it shouldn't have been a foul at all. Embiid was asked what it meant to him for Butler to come to his defense so quickly, and Embiid's first reaction was to say he didn't even realize what was happening after he fouled Jarrett Allen.
"Someone pushed me and I was like wait, what's going on? And by the time I turned around they were all in the chairs, pushing each other," Embiid said, "and I'm like what's going on? What did I do? I didn't even do anything, I just blocked a shot. Which, the flagrant still doesn't make sense, but it doesn't matter."
Embiid was then asked whether he was able to see a replay at some point to understand Butler's involvement, and he said that happened almost instantly, because the big fella wanted a second look as soon as he returned to the bench."
"I asked them to show me on the iPad if it was even a foul," Embiid said. "You can call it both ways, but it was definitely not a flagrant, but I really appreciated it and like I said, I'm going to take care of that fine."
I tend to agree with the big man, but he might want to be careful talking about this too much.
• If you think you're the only ones who have ever cringed when Embiid hits the deck with an awkward fall, you should talk to his teammates sometime. JJ Redick admitted that he thinks the big man doesn't always have full control of his body, but it used to be a lot worse than it is now.
"Especially last year early in the season, I think every time he fell we all kind of were like, gasping and waiting for him to get up," Redick said. "You know, sometimes I don't think Joel really quite has a grasp on his body. He nearly decapitated me with [a recent] Milwaukee fall. So you know, when he goes to — it happened the other day — when he goes to make a hard foul, it looks worse than it really is."
Somebody better tell that to Sean Marks.
• Embiid's dominant Game 4 has overshadowed the discussion of his knee, but no one should pretend the issue is behind him. He continues to go through treatment every day to deal with the problem, in all the many forms that takes.
"All day, all night, ice it. Weight room, just do whatever that's possible," Embiid said. "It's still the same. Like I've said, you just got to manage it. It's still the tendonitis in the front."
The fewer games Embiid has to play against Brooklyn, the better. The Sixers need him and his aching knee even more against the Raptors in the second round.
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