Sixers and Flyers playoff games at the same time? Philly fans were buzzing Saturday night.
Stateside Live! was brimming with postseason excitement as fans split their attention and passion between the Flyers in Game 1 of their series vs. Carolina and the Sixers’ Game 7 clash with Boston.
The Flyers have won Philadelphia over the last few weeks and it was reflected inside of Stateside Live! on Saturday night, the official away game watch party for Game 1 of their second-round playoff series against the Hurricanes.
From Gritty walking around to Lou Nolan calling out the Flyers’ power plays as if he was inside the Xfinity Mobile Arena, it felt very much like a Flyers home game. And the sea of orange and white jerseys standing shoulder-to-shoulder helped, too.
Samar Dorf, 32, just bought season tickets after recently returning to the United States from Tokyo. She grew up a Hurricanes fan due to her father, but moving back to Philadelphia changed her perspective on everything.
“The change happened because I’m a Philadelphian. It doesn’t matter where you grew up, when you become a Philadelphian, you are a Philadelphian,” Dorf said. “I had on my phone every single game, live updates. Even though I was in another country and couldn’t watch the games, I still had the live updates on my phone.”
Fans started to trickle in during the Phillies game against the Miami Marlins, which started at 4:10 p.m., before the majority of people got there in time to watch the Flyers take on the Hurricanes at 8 p.m. In addition, starting at 7:30 p.m., they watched the Sixers’ 109-100 win over the Celtics to complete a three-games-to-one series comeback and advance to the second round against the Knicks.
From boos when the referees called penalties or the synced gasp whenever someone in orange and black fired a shot, the fans were ready to explode when given the opportunity.
But the Flyers never gave them that chance, falling into a quick 2-0 hole after the first intermission.
“I’m not sure what happened [in the first period], but we need to get it together on both sides because that first period was rough,” 24-year-old Tiffany Hasenpat said.
It didn’t get better from there, leaving fans frustrated on the way to a 3-0 loss in Game 1.
But the play of the Sixers nearly took the top off the roof. The night started with taunts toward the few Celtics fans in attendance. The rotating boos and “Boston sucks!” chants rained down on the select Celtics fans in attendance.
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“Man, what’s a hero without a villain?” said 23-year-old Lancaster native and Celtics fan Gavin Collier. “What’s Batman without the Joker? We’re being Jokers today. And we’ll see if it turns out.”
There was a feeling of cautious optimism from 23-year-old Sixers fan Dawson Sakowski.
“Two years ago after the Sixers lost in Round 2 for the umpteenth time I said, ‘Until they get past the second round, I cannot invest everything I have into this team because you get hurt, you get burnt, you get upset,” said Sakowski, aka IcyVert on X.
“They looked like the better team since [Joel] Embiid’s come back [from an appendectomy]. I have a weird confidence in them tonight, which I think everyone here should have … I do have hope and a belief in the Sixers.”
Fast forward to Tyrese Maxey giving the 76ers a 101-98 in the closing seconds of the game and fans were ready to go ballistic. “We want Boston!” chants rang out.
After the game, people were jumping up and down, singing the Sixers win song, which was blasting through the speakers.
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“Honestly, the vibes have been great. I know they can do a lot better too, so I’m excited to see what both teams do in the next round of the playoffs,” 23-year-old Alison Ahern said. “And the Phillies have been killing it too, so shout out to them.”