In desperation, Sixers land a ‘haymaker’

PHILADELPHIA >> Desperation came early this year for the 76ers, from many directions, for many reasons.

It came at the end of a six-year rebuilding process, embarrassing and unprofessional.

It came at the end of a season in which the general manager tried desperately to build an All-Star team, even without sufficient time to make it work.

It came days after the owner, to that point disturbingly patient with failure, chose not to commit publicly to his head coach beyond another handful of games.

It came in the form of a onegame deficit in a best-of-seven series with the Brooklyn Nets and one game-long display of indifference, on the court and on the bench.

It came under a downpour of boos.

It came from within players

It came before Game 2 of the first-round Eastern Conference series Monday. And it was thick, and obvious, and threatening.

“We expect a haymaker,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson would say before the game. “We know what’s coming. They’re too good. They’re too talented. They are too well-coached.

“It’s coming. And it’s going to be how we react to it.”

So, it came, the basketball version of the heavy punch. Talented as the franchise has been in generations, yet a little sore in the knee and ego, the Sixers played with the determination of a Black Friday shopper. They pushed. They grabbed. They snarled and they attacked and they and they held and they won, 145-123, pulling the series back to even.

“Their coach said before the series that it was going to be a fistfight,” Atkinson said. “And it was very, very physical.”

Even if the Sixers do not show it through multiple playoff rounds, and that appears to be the standard that Josh Harris and Elton Brand have set for Brown to remain employed, they showed for one night Monday what they were designed to be.

Ben Simmons, heckled during and heavily criticized after Game 1 for his tepidness on offense, powered to the basket often and with an edge, collecting 18 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. It was what he’d promised a day earlier in practice, what he meant when he said he would “love” to post-up more often.

Joel Embiid, on a sore knee, was typically valuable in his ability and willingness to stretch the offense. But rather than settle for popping outside, he rumbled around the lane and allowed the Sixers to maximize his size advantage. He also whirled around and hit Jarrett Allen with an elbow to the face. Afterward, while saying it wasn’t intentional, he literally laughed out loud. Once, Atkinson was a fan of hockey’s Broad Street Bullies. Monday, he was confronted with a basketball version.

“We need everybody to be aggressive,” Embiid said. “We have to follow the game plan, share the ball and be dominating.”

Some Sixers were dominating. Some passed the ball. Jimmy Butler, who scored 36 points in the opener but did not have an assist, was more willing to share the shots, settled for seven points but delivered seven assists.

J.J. Redick, exposed defensively in Game 1, responded with a bite in Game 2, grabbing shirts and pushing off and fighting through screens. From

that defensive commitment, he was inspired to shoot with confidence, scoring 17 points.

Bracing for all of that, the Nets competed early. But even the shots they made to remain within a point of the Sixers at halftime were better challenged than they were in Game 1. And when the Sixers unloaded a 14-0 run to begin the second half, Brooklyn was in no more mood for that fight.

“The way we came out in the third period is what we needed to do,” Brown said. “Defensively, the way the team responded to some first-half stuff that we needed to fix was a fantastic statement.”

Despite their Game 1 loss, the Sixers were oddly confident. After practice Sunday, Brown assured that any necessary adjustments would be simple, if not easy. And that spirit spread.

“We’re not going to worry about it, man,” Butler said between games. “We’re going into this baby to win.”

With that attitude, Butler was at the Wells Fargo Center early Monday, working on his shot alone at least an hour before the Sixers’ scheduled and closed pregame walkthrough.

“Jimmy has such an infectious sort of spirit and physicality and chemistry with our group,” Brown said. “He doesn’t have to pepper the stat sheet like he did last game to have an impact. There is a strength and a physicality that he can provide that doesn’t show up on paper. The leadership and toughness from Jimmy was evident tonight.”

From that leadership, everything else worked. One game after nothing could go right for the Sixers, suddenly, nothing could go wrong. That is, Boban Marjanovic was shooting consistently from mid-range, going 8-for-14 for 16 points.

At some point during the Sixers’ 51-point, yes 51-point, third quarter, the Nets had enough, and would be content to leave town with the satisfaction of having won both a game and the home-court advantage. Yet somehow, even while they were heard mumbling otherwise, they knew they had to be better.

“You don’t want them to stop our momentum,” Atkinson said before the game. “So I think we feel the pressure to come out of here with a win tonight.”

The Nets had some pressure.

The Sixers had desperation.

The desperate team landed that haymaker.