LeBron shows 76ers his greatness
PHILADELPHIA - There can be subliminal messages in just about anything if you look hard enough.
So when 76ers coach Brett Brown said before the game that LeBron James is “the best player who ever played our sport,” well, maybe that’s his way of saying, “Please, please come play for us next season.”
Just think about how good the Sixers can be with James pretty much willing a team to victory.
The Sixers are already very good, as their 132-130 win over James and the Cleveland Cavaliers would indicate. It was their 13th straight win, their longest winning streak since the 1984-85 season.
And the Sixers (49-30) passed the Cavs (49-31) for third place in the Eastern Conference. They are on the verge of guaranteeing themselves home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
But consider James’ greatness on this night.
One night after leading the Cavaliers back from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Washington Wizards, James nearly outdid himself Friday night.
The Sixers had a 30-point lead late in the second quarter. The lead was down to a single point in the final seconds, and James was shooting three free throws with 1.9 seconds left with Cleveland down three.
It didn’t work out, but James finished with 44 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
“We got a real-time snapshot of the difficulty of guarding LeBron,” Brown said.
But, oh, the possibilities of James alongside Simmons, the Sixers’ rookie who had a triple-double himself, with 27 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists, in what Brown called “a very authoritative triple-double.”
Don’t forget Joel Embiid in the middle. Embiid missed his fifth straight game with a fractured orbital bone in his left eye. The Sixers still kept winning.
“With Embiid on the floor, they cause problems,” James said. “Without Embiid on the floor, they cause different problems. They’re a good team.”
Then James was asked about Simmons’ play:
“He was awful,” James said, scoffing at the question. Then, more seriously: “He was great, of course.”
“I think the best teacher in life is experience,” James added. “They’re coaching to his strengths. He’s a student of the game. I know that more than you guys. I’ve been around him He wants to be great, and he definitely showcased that tonight.”
But here’s the thing: There’s a reason James’ teams have been to the NBA Finals for seven straight seasons. He could make it eight straight this season with perhaps his worst supporting cast in a decade.
“It doesn’t seem like he gets old,” Brown said. “He doesn’t go away.”
Never. Not when the Cavs were down 30 late in the second quarter, and not when they were down by eight with 1:34 left in the fourth quarter. The Cavs missed a tip-in as time expired that would have forced overtime. Finally, the Sixers could exhale. The Sixers need this killer instinct that James can provide so desperately. Nobody wills a team to win like James does. That’s one thing that separates the teams that advance in the playoffs and those that don’t.
The Sixers are getting there. After all, it’s almost as if every game there’s a reset on the expectations for this season.
Remember before the season started, SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 2018 the hope was if everything went right, if the Sixers could coax 50-60 games out of Embiid, maybe they can finish around .500 and sneak their way into the playoffs?
Gradually, that morphed into possibly getting home-court advantage at the No. 4 spot, still quite a ways from the top three teams in the Eastern Conference in Toronto, Boston and Cleveland. Now, just look at them. The Sixers played as big a game as they’ve played in years. The sold-out crowd was loud and boisterous, loving every minute of it after four miserable seasons of losing and irrelevance.
“There’s no doubt a level of gratitude,” Brown said about being in a game like this. “But we just want more. I want more for the city, for our program, for our players. Nobody is in that room clicking their heels thinking that here we are. There is a respectful sort of feel, a hunger that we have.”
And they weren’t about to let that opportunity slip away against the Cavs.
“Truly there’s a pride thing for finishing third 1/8 in the East 3/8 ,” Brown said. “There’s a pride thing for beating LeBron here at home My mind is really how do we continue to win.”
Well, the Sixers can start with Simmons. The triple-double was his 12th this season. He is averaging a tripledouble during the 13-game winning streak. He is as exciting and as enlightening a player as the NBA has seen in years, perhaps since James as a rookie.
On one sequence, Simmons dribbled the ball through his legs, then in the same motion fired a pass to JJ Redick for a wide-open 3-pointer. On another, Simmons faked a handoff, then took off through the lane and dunked.
“Jo is out,” Simmons said about Embiid. “They need me to do more. I felt like I had to step up.”
But James is still lurking. Somehow, he is only getting better at 33 years old and in his 15th season. James has his worst cast of characters around him, and yet, there he is, leading his team on.
“I’m just trying to stay in the groove,” James said. “It’s about getting to another level. I’m playing at a high level right now, and I’m going to continue that.”
Who would doubt him?