Sixers proved something, no matter how Game 7 against Raptors ends | David Murphy
From Ben Simmons, to Jimmy Butler, to Brett Brown, the Sixers proved that the future is still bright, regardless of what happens in Toronto on Sunday.
They were done. Everybody thought it, didn’t they? You, me, all of the experts who’d predicted the Raptors in five or six, anybody who’d been anything other than comatose for the 36-point loss that pushed the Sixers to the brink of elimination 48 hours earlier.
The Sixers themselves? They felt it. They didn’t think it. But as Brett Brown looked around the locker room before a do-or-die Game 6, he could tell that his players were well aware of the implications.
“You could sense the serious side," the Sixers head coach said afterward. “They got the moment.”
Boy, did they get it. They got it early, and they got it often, and they did not stop until the final horn sounded and their season was still alive. Roughly seventy-two hours from now, the Sixers will take the court at ScotiaBank Arena, having pushed the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference as close to the edge as a favorite in a seven-game series can possibly go. Whatever happens from that point forward, whether they extend this whirlwind of a season by at least four more games or drop suddenly into the thick of a pivotal offseason, the Sixers’ death-defying 112-101 victory at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night should live on as a big, bright positive grade on a lot of different lines in the ledger.
From Ben Simmons, there came a reminder of all of the reasons the Sixers would be fools to consider a future without him as a foundational piece. A player whose approval rating could be charted with a seismograph’s needle, he spent Game 6 flashing all of the physical gifts that made him an All-Star in the second year of his career, scoring 21 points, dishing out six assists, and grabbing four offensive rebounds. In doing so, he flashed plenty of growth, something that many in this market seemed to have given up on ever seeing after his passive, confused performance in the Sixers’ 125-89 loss in Game 5.
“He’s 22 years old,” Brown said. “His game as he grows his shot and tries to get a better command of his position and deals with the stage of the NBA playoffs, shame on us for thinking he’s going to be all-day every day.”
From Jimmy Butler, there came a reminder that the Sixers will have no choice but to consider maxing him out once he reaches free agency this offseason. The one Sixer who has worn his big-boy pants throughout the series, Butler was the Sixers’ counterpuncher in the win. He summoned his inner closer on a number of occasions, hitting a pull-up jumper to stop a 12-0 Toronto run in the middle of the second quarter and scoring seven points in the 78 seconds before halftime.
And from Brown himself, there came a reminder the Sixers will need to think long and hard about whether the labor market is likely to yield a coach who is better than the one they have. For a man who arrived at the arena with head coaching’s grim reaper riding in his back seat, this was a must-win in the most literal sense, and his players came out looking as though they knew they would win it. We’d hold it against Brown if the opposite occurred, so it seems dishonest to not at least consider what it might say, given the level of dominance the Sixers displayed. Whatever you think of his overall scheme, or his in-game adjustments, or his dead-ball plays, Brown leads a team that has responded on two occasions after taking destabilizing punches in the mouth.
As for Game 7 . . . .
Nobody should ignore the fact that Game 6 was first and foremost a reminder that Kawhi Leonard is, in fact, a human being. In the midst of one of the great postseasons of all time, Leonard shot just 9-of-20 from the field and 0-for-4 from three-point range. It was an almost stunning sight, given the automation that he has displayed through most of the series. As was this little fact: in his last two games, Leonard is 0-for-8 from three-point range and 16-of-36 from the field, after the first four games, in which he shot 55-of-89 from the floor and 13-of-28 from three-point range, while averaging 38 points in 40 minutes a night.
Counting on Leonard to play like a mortal for a third straight game is a dicey proposition for a Sixers team that has spent much of this season trying to find itself defensively. Still, there were precious few who thought they’d even get that chance. Whatever the expectations that ownership has set forth, it says something that the Sixers will enter the last game of this series with a pulse.
Just before tipoff, Simmons walked onto the court and did a quick check of the four other players dressed in white jerseys.
“We have a lot of talent,” Simmons said. “With that comes great responsibility.”
For all four quarters of Game 6, they took care of their business. And, now, that responsibility is extended one more game.