In Round 2, a steeper challenge
CAMDEN, N.J. >> The 76ers dismissed the Brooklyn Nets in five games, three of the last four in lopsided fashion.
The next opponent, beginning Saturday in Toronto, will be different.
How?
“One of them is from Brooklyn,” Jimmy Butler observed. “The other is from Canada.”
Brett Brown has said all along that he wanted to keep things simple. But as the Sixers have slogged through formal preparation for a best-of-seven series with the No. 2-seeded Raptors, they’ve been aware that the differences between their first two postseason opponents is wider than 495 miles.
Unlike the Nets, who were inexperienced, small, lacking in proven superstars and just content to have the postseason experience, the Raptors are hardened, large, superstar-driven and hungry. For that, game plans must change, even if the Sixers’ positive attitude should be best left alone.
“That was a small sample size, the first round of the playoffs,” Tobias Harris said before practice Thursday. “We felt we came in and executed. We knew we had to lock in on our game plan and did a really good job of that. For the series, we had a really good game plan, trying to stop their shooting. And we did a good job of that. In terms of our best basketball, I feel the better the opponent, the more you will figure out how great a team we can be.
“This series is going to be good. That’s a good team. And I think it will bring the best basketball out in us.”
In reality, the Raptors have brought out some of the worst in the Sixers. With a smothering, turnover-inducing defense, Toronto won three of the four regular-season games. And the Sixers have lost their last 13 in Toronto, their last victory in 2012. Though both teams employ multiple stars, as per the specs for 21st century NBA championship consideration, the Raptors have been together as a unit for substantially longer. And after all that offseason plotting to acquire Kawhi Leonard, the Sixers must figure out a way to minimize his contributions if they intend on making it past a second playoff round for the first time since 2001.
“I mean, we all understand what the math says with our success in Toronto, and it’s not flattering,” Brown said. “But it’s also not directed to the team that we have. And so you can credit it or you can discredit it. I’m discrediting it. I think that we have a new group. We have a new opportunity.
“I’ve got tremendous respect for the Toronto team. The coaching staff has done great. But we’re excited to go up there and try to fix some of what the math says about our lack of success that we have had. And it’s going to be an incredibly tough series.
“We’re going to be tested.”
That’s how it should be, now that the Sixers have reached the NBA’s Elite Eight. It won’t be simple. For one reason, the Raptors acquired 7-1, 255-pound, 34-year-old, three-time All-Star and 2013 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Marc Gasol from Memphis at the trade deadline. That, it was whispered, was to provide them with a reasonable counter to the potential dominance of Joel Embiid as a stretch-five.
“It’s not like you have the young kid from Brooklyn on Joel,” Brown said, aware that Embiid had little difficulty with the Nets’ Jarrett Allen. “It’s not that. So I have to do a good job of helping to free Joel up.”
That is just one of his responsibilities. Among the others: Finding an answer for Leonard, who averaged 26.6 points in a bounce-back year after providing San Antonio with only nine games last season due to injury. More, Brown must brace for the reality that Leonard has been a problem for Ben Simmons, forcing the 6-10 point guard into 24 turnovers in three regular-season games in which Leonard faced the Sixers. Such Simmons inefficiency, should it continue, likely would have Toronto soon awaiting the Boston-Milwaukee survivor and a third-round opportunity.
Deep as the Sixers are in talent, the Raptors also enjoy 6-9 developing superstar Pascal Siakam, five-time All-Star guard Kyle Lowry and a deep stable of veteran contributors.
The Nets had a certain ability to attack from the perimeter and, at times in the regular season, give the Sixers trouble. The Raptors are more likely to run set plays, benefit from Gasol’s skills as a perimeter passer and, if nothing else, maximize the home-court advantage.
Like the Raptors, the Sixers joined what Brown nicely identified as an Eastern Conference “arms race” during the season, with all of the likely contenders doing something to improve.
“I think you can certainly look at the roster turnover and not make much of the regularseason results,” J.J. Redick said. “But we have to take care of the basketball. They are long and athletic and play at times a swarming style defense. We have to be good with that. We have to be good with handling the basketball.
“I think we’ve gotten better as a team from last year through this iteration of our team. I think we are better now.”
The Sixers are better.
Toronto will let them know how much better. “For us, as a group, we handled our business the way we wanted to in the first round,” Harris said. “But we are trying to stay level-headed and looking forward to the next round and handling our business again.
“That’s a pretty good sign for us as a group, understanding that we have a lot more work to do.”