‘This is what we prepared for’: Georges Niang’s Inquirer diary gets readers ready for Sixers’ stretch run

Welcome to the latest edition of Georges Niang’s 2022-23 Sixers diary. Throughout the season, the reserve forward will exclusively share first-person insights about his on-court and off-court life as part of an NBA team with championship aspirations.

In this entry, Niang recaps his “very relaxing” All-Star break, and details how he and the Sixers have swiftly transitioned to preparing for a daunting stretch run.

Past entries: Jan. 23: Embiid’s ‘disgusting’ drink | Jan 6: New Year, Same Me

I was back in Boston for the break. People don’t understand that the schedule week-to-week is games on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday, and then you start over the next week and then it’s Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. You have four games a week, and those weeks just keep revolving. You’re traveling. You’re on the road. You have to unpack your bag. You have real-life stuff. So to just have four or five days that you know you’ll be in one spot is something that I really cherish. When I was younger, I was like, “I’m going to Mexico to get away.”

But then I realized, gosh, I was so tired coming back. It was good for me to just say, “I’m going to sleep with no alarm on. And when I get up, I’ll have a gym in the afternoon that I can use while I’m home and get my on-court work in there and get my conditioning and lifting in.” Then, I don’t want to say the stresses of always thinking about basketball went away, but there was no basketball to watch unless it was college. My mom, my grandmother, my aunts and uncles, I got to see all of them. It was really beneficial for me. It was just very relaxing — mentally, physically, emotionally.

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Doing the three-point competition would be super cool if they ever want to invite me. And then I look like at guys like KCP [Denver’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who ranked third in the NBA in three-point percentage] wasn’t invited, and all these other guys weren’t invited. I’m not going to be bitter about not doing something over All-Star Weekend. If it happens, it happens. I guess we can use the word “campaign” loosely, because I didn’t want to be one of those dudes just begging to get in. It’s important, but it’s not the end of the world. I have other things that bring me happiness, even though that would have been a really cool thing to do. It is what it is. I enjoyed having my break and actually sitting down on the couch and watching it all.

You slowly ramp it up during workouts. You take a day or two off, and then you increase your load as you go. I want to be peaking while I’m getting back into the game, not peaking the first couple days of All-Star break. Obviously, your body needs some rest, but I think guys realize the last 25 games are like a sprint. You’ve got to be ready. It’s almost like playing two games in one. You have to be mentally prepared and focused and not let too many other distractions get in the way.

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The best way to describe coming back to the facility is everybody’s excited to see each other. It’s almost like you have a new energy. With those four games a week, seeing someone for 14 weeks straight, you do get sick of seeing some people. The fact that you get some time off away from them and get away from the game, you miss it. You miss being around the guys. You miss the camaraderie, the jokes, the laughs. It’s exciting that we can get back here and reconvene, get on the same page and then go play a tough schedule. That’s what it’s all about. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.

Implementing Jalen and Dewayne is almost like a moving train, right? You’re just trying to grab them and do things on the fly. Because we’ve been running these plays since September, and they came from a different situation. There’s different expectations here. Obviously, Dewayne’s a vet and he’s done it before. Jalen came from one other team. Just being understanding and ready to help those guys as much as we can, but those two seem like they’re pretty quick learners. I’m not worried about Dewayne. I’m not really worried about Jalen, either. His natural athletic ability kind of gives him an advantage, anyway. If he messes up, he can make up for a lot of mistakes. Just hang on, and everything will be all right.

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The biggest thing for us is staying connected. Obviously, Philly is close to New York, where media can kind of wedge their nose in and say there’s pressure and kind of maneuver their way in and say guys need to do more of this. If we can just kind of stay in our own bubble and kind of just focus on things that we need to do individually and collectively as a team, I think we’ll be all right. Because we have the talent. We have everything that we need to make a championship run. We just have to go out there and do it.

I want to finish strong, especially going into the playoffs. I know I catch a lot of flak that I didn’t perform in the playoffs last year. But I try and tell people, “If we ended at the Toronto series, people would have thought I had a great playoffs,” and then I was trying to play on a bad knee against Miami. That didn’t help anything, especially that we lost. That adds motivation for me to dial in even more, saying that these last 25 games are a sprint. Being the best I can be and locking in in all aspects, whether that’s doing more after practice or before practice.

But mentally, being more locked in, because the playoffs are all mental. Treating these games as if I have 25 playoff games to get ready for a chance to play in another 25 playoff games. Having the right mentality if we lose. Having the right mentality if something doesn’t go right on the court. If my stint out there wasn’t the best one, being ready to bounce back in the second half or being ready to bounce back the next game. That’s something that you really have to understand is you always have to be level.

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Everybody looked at the back half of the schedule when it came out. Now it’s here and it’s like, “Damn.” It’s like that test that your teacher reminds you of in college and then you’re like, “Shoot, I didn’t know that was going to pop up that quick.” I know all the guys are ready. This is what we prepared for.

These are going to be some really intense games. Other ones earlier in the season, you can say, “Oh, they didn’t have it tonight.” No, these are games where teams may go down 20, but they’re coming out swinging to make it happen. Because these games are for seeding, and you’re trying to catch people. The teams that are lackluster and take it easy fall on their face. You don’t want to be one of those teams.

— Georges Niang, as told to Gina Mizell