The Sixers didn’t put in their best performance on Saturday afternoon.

They lost the turnover battle at a -6 margin. They allowed 13 offensive rebounds while only grabbing 12 themselves. They managed two fewer shots than Brooklyn while hitting just 76% of their free throws and eight of 26 three-pointers. Brett Brown’s team only mustered nine fast break points while finishing the game short-handed after Jimmy Butler’s ejection.

But they hung in there, showed some resilience on the road, and simply made more plays down the stretch, more than a young Nets team that displayed their nascent playoff experience with some inexplicably brutal shot selection and a number of crippling turnovers. The Sixers went on a 16 to 7 run that began at the 4:22 mark in the fourth quarter and took them to the final buzzer.

It was the first truly close game of this series, and Philly was simply better in clutch time scenarios minus their best fourth quarter option in Butler, who was sent to the locker room after what I thought was a total nothing-burger of an altercation. I’d call it a pseudo-melee or faux-donnybrook. Twice the Sixers pulled to within three points and just could not grab the lead until the third effort, as those scenarios played out in this fashion:

  • First time: They missed two shots before Boban was whistled for an offensive foul. Brooklyn pushed the lead back to eight.
  • Second time: JJ Redick missed an open three and D’Angelo Russell hit one on the other end in a back-breaking six-point swing. At that point, the Sixers were 6-23 from deep (26%).
  • Third time: Offensive foul on Joe Harris, Redick misses another three, Sixers get a defensive stop, Embiid dunk, then Brooklyn turnover and Embiid bucket.

Third time was the charm, that six-play stretch of possessions where they got a stop that was book-ended by Brooklyn turnovers. They kept beating down the door and finally went ahead at the 2:54 mark and made more plays en route to a 3-1 series lead.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

If you watched the national broadcast, you saw Reggie Miller spot this and narrate through three straight possessions where the Sixers went to the same exact play. They scored baskets on the first two tries before Joel Embiid threw a bad pass on the third effort, resulting in a turnover.

This is basically just a dual-action elbow set involving Embiid, Redick, and Tobias Harris. Here are the three plays for your viewing pleasure:

Right, so Tobias Harris plays the elbow entry to Embiid, then Redick goes to screen or brush cut off of him, where he can then lay a pick on Harris’ defender.

Then, if Harris’ defender goes underneath, Tobias can go over the top and then find Joel on the ensuing roll to the basket, which is what happened on the first play:

On the second and third efforts, the Sixers went with the other action, where D’Angelo Russell did not get screened by Redick and instead left the back door open, resulting in Harris just going underneath and simply cutting right to the rim:

The only thing I don’t like about this design is that it invites the sag from Joe Harris, who is guarding Ben Simmons, a non-shooter. If he and Spencer Dinwiddie both collapse, you’ve got Mike Scott open in the corner, who can shoot threes, but on the third attempt, Harris sagged, Embiid threw a bad pass, and the Sixers turned the ball over.

Still, this played worked the first time, and Brett called it a second time. It worked a second time, so he called it a third time. They were two critical plays in the guts of the game, as Marc Zumoff would say, and they resulted in two big baskets.

Brett Brown’s SLOB

SLOB = sideline out of bounds play.

The Scott three-point dagger came on a broken look, where the Sixers tried to get Embiid in the paint and bobbled the initial catch and control after a great defensive read from Joe Harris. Joel collected the loose ball and made a heady play to spot his teammate in the corner:

I thought the design made a lot of sense.

They simply looped Scott into the far corner while having him put a body on Caris LeVert on his way over. That allowed Tobias Harris to get to the corner and take the inbound pass from Ben Simmons. Redick came high, Embiid went low, and they had their 6’9″ power forward throwing an entry pass to their 7’2″ center, who was being fronted by Jarrett Allen:

If Joe Allen doesn’t make that play, Embiid is dunking the ball for a one-point lead. Instead, he jars the rock loose, Joel recovers, and sees Scott wide open, since his defender (Harris) had to drop off of him to make the read in the first place.

Here’s what Brown said about it after the game:

We wanted to get Joel the ball quick. We went on a high/low, Joel kind of lost the ball and made a pass to Mike that was obviously the dagger part of the game. JJ had made a three earlier. Mike’s experience and toughness and veteran leadership, I’m sure that had a lot to do with the confidence of making that shot.

I think Brett got this one right by drawing up a look for Embiid instead of going to someone else. Redick did hit the big three-pointer a few possessions earlier but did not have the best shooting game (3-11). Butler is normally the closer, but was unavailable. So keep it simple. Make your best player the focal the point, the target of the play, and see what happens. On this one he was able to corral the ball, stay composed, and throw the game-winning assist.

Said Scott:

Joel made a hell of a hustle play and saw me in the corner. Cashed out.

Cash me outside. How about that.

The kerfluffle

Honest to God, no Philly bias, I think the refs got it wrong.

I would have done this:

  1. common foul on Embiid
  2. technical on Jared Dudley
  3. technical on Butler

That’s it. The end.

I think everything else was just a tangle of bodies falling into the first row. You saw the ref get squished in there, and then Simmons tried to release his hands while falling to the ground on top of Dudley. They just ran out of room and everybody lost their footing, like a mosh pit at a South Philly basement show.

Instead, they went flagrant on Embiid and ejected Butler and Dudley, which seemed like a bit much to me. Dudley was the one who came from about 30 feet away to go after Embiid, and Butler responded to that.

The weird thing is that I thought Jared Dudley was playing really well before that sequence. He was being a pest, dishing out assists, guarding Ben and making things difficult. Simmons came down on two of three possessions immediately after the ejection and got a dunk and a goaltending call right at the rim. Of course Butler is the bigger loss, but Dudley was 3-4 from the field and a +12 when he was sent packing.

Also check this out:

Other notes:

  • James Ennis continues to throw some inexplicably bad passes in this series. He did, however, hit a corner three in this game and shot 3-6 overall.
  • Jonah Bolden was not effective in the 3:29 he played, going -6 with a turnover, a foul, and a couple of blown defensive assignments.
  • Boban had a down game after his excellent Thursday night performance. Brooklyn showed no zone defense against him, at least none that I recall off the top of my head, and did a good job attacking him on offense.
  • Kenny Atkinson’s new starting lineup seemed to get them going a bit more. DeMarre Carroll played 20 minutes off the bench and Rodions Kurucs was dropped entirely. Dudley and LeVert played from the jump.
  • Embiid blocked six shots and was just a menace in altering attempts in the paint.
  • Harris had another good defensive rebounding game (8 total), which helps on occasions where Embiid might be pulled out of position in rotation and rim protection.
  • Five deflections for Ben Simmons, who again looked great defensively.
  • This was the Sixers’ worst turnover game of the series, and they still found a way to win.
  • Closing out Brooklyn in five will get this team some direly needed rest and practice time ahead of a round-two matchup with Toronto.