NOT DONE YET
Sixers dig deep for win in Atlanta, force Game 7 on Sunday
There wasn’t a scripted pre-game speech. There wasn’t a shouting, lockerbanging spree of coaching orders. There wasn’t even a reminder from Doc Rivers before Game 6 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series Friday night in Atlanta that the Sixers were out of opportunities to fail.
There was just business. And that was going to have to suffice.
“There’s going to be pressure, always,” Rivers said, shortly before the Sixers would promptly extend their season at least one more time, via a 104-99 victory over the Hawks. “If you are going to achieve anything big in life, there is always going to be pressure with that. It’s just part of the process. So you really need to focus in on what you need to do.”
For that, Rivers planned to engage Hawks coach Nate McMillan in the usual in-series strategy gymnastics, making a subtle move here, a subtler move there.
One thing the Sixers’ coach did not do in the swirl of a two-game losing streak was change his starting lineup. Despite predictably being listed as “questionable” on the 5 p.m. injury report due to a slightly torn meniscus in his right knee, Joel Embiid was cleared to start with Tobias Harris, Seth Curry and Ben Simmons. Furkan Korkmaz made his third consecutive start in the absence of Danny Green, who is recovering from a strained calf.
“I think our guys are ready,” Rivers said. “But you never know. If I knew that, I would be picking cards and doing tricks. But my feeling is the guys are ready to play.” The feeling stuck.
After justifiably winning a spot on the NBA’s All-Defense second team, Matisse Thybulle showed some fundamental flaws in the first five games of the Atlanta series. That included biting on shot fakes, particularly from
Trae Young, who is an expert at drawing fouls.
Thybulle was not concerned.
“Not really,” he said after a Friday morning shootaround. “I think I made the mistake once last game. But if you look at the series, I’ve actually done a good job of being disciplined.”
Thybulle was not alone in the Game 5 loss in falling for shot fakes, with multiple Sixers being fooled by the veteran Lou Williams.
Thybulle did agree that his defense, which rightly has been celebrated during the season, needed to improve if the Sixers were to continue their postseason march.
“The main thing is doing what I do,” he said, “and then doing it better.”
He did not agree, though, that he had to do a better job whenever Young went into a shooting motion.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with doing it better,” he said. “That’s just a discipline thing. That is something that has been a theme in the regular season and especially in the playoffs. But as far as biting on pump fakes, that is a minute detail in the grand scheme of things.”
If Thybulle was pleased with his spot among the best NBA defenders, he kept the celebration to a minimum.
“It’s good,” he said, apparently willing to leave the topic there. Pressed for more, he said, “I’m more interested in winning games than in winning personal accolades. It’s cool to dedicate so much time to this game and your craft and then to be recognized for doing so well. So I take it as a compliment. But it just makes me want to work harder. And it motivates me to want to win even more.”
The Hawks handled themselves well through the first five games of the series. Before the sixth, McMillan understood there would be an added dynamic. Facing elimination for the first time, the Sixers could be expected to play with added desperation.
“This is a must win for them,” McMillan said beforehand. “I expect them to come
out with energy and urgency right from the start. It’s got to be a fight right from the start and for 48 minutes.”
The Hawks did a good job of handling that in the first round when, after pushing the Knicks to within a game of elimination, they stomped into Madison Square Garden and won by 14 points.
“The approach that we have taken throughout the season is that it is one game at a time,” McMillan said.
“And then after that game is over, it’s about finding ways to get better than we were in the last game.”