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When Elton Brand landed Jimmy Butler, there was excitement, but also worry.
Butler's reputation – fair or not – was involved after an informal start to Minnesota. He feared he would not get along with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, two young players the Timberwolves were building.
As relations between Butler and Joel Embiid grow more and more off the ground, these concerns seem to be well entrenched in the past. The pair played in the impressive Sixers 116-95 win over the Raptors in Game 3 on Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center. (see comments).
It was a preview of what they can do with their combined powers.
"They recognize that they need each other," said Brett Brown before the game, "they realized that they would often be paired up in difficult situations." There is an appreciation I see of The growth is constant – these are two excellent players with strong personalities who recognize that everyone needs a little help. to help each other, that they need one of the other is, in my opinion, authentic ".
Brown could not be more on point with this little "strong personalities". These are two players who are never afraid to speak and who are certainly not afraid of hurting their feelings.
But Butler's ultra-competitive nature did no harm to the Sixers. Although it was reported that Butler had "aggressively challenged" Brown in an animated film session, there was not much else. There is no evidence that Butler did not enjoy his time with the two budding Sixers at Embiid and Simmons.
In fact, it seems to be exactly the opposite.
"It's obvious that he's a force to be reckoned with," Butler said of Embiid, "especially when he's doing trey bullets like he does, but that's not the case." 39, he then attacks the rim at the same time, I think that's how we have to play, you know, you bring him the ball, he'll score, play the right game. thing with Ben [Simmons]you can go down the line, but all in all we share the ball. "
Since his arrival, Butler has been criticized for sharing the ball too much. At Games 2 and 3, he seemed to find a good balance, especially Thursday night with 22 points and nine assists. He also added nine rebounds and two interceptions. Charles Barkley is the only other Sixer to have reached that number in the playoffs.
It is obvious that Butler has improved his game since the start of the playoffs. While the players shared the post-game on the podium, a normal event lately, Embiid acknowledged that the playoffs, Jimmy Butler, were a totally different animal.
Obviously, he is an excellent player. I noticed a difference. Jimmy is a different player. This is not serious. Jimmy, the two guys are the kind of guy you want in the team, because when it counts, you know when it's the last shot or the fourth quarter, you know it's going to be there. It will happen no matter what happens. The way we adapted and the way we played together, I always feel like we have so much potential, especially with Tobias [Harris]Ben [Simmons], NOT A WORD [Redick].
It's scary to think that the Sixers, with only 17 games in their 3.0 version, could scratch the surface, but it's possible.
Embiid struggled in games 1 and 2, but match 3 opened up the potential of what the team may be when he and Butler both click. Embiid was more similar, scoring 33 points while adding 10 rebounds and 5 blocks in just 28 minutes.
He also had the impression of having an absolute explosion, celebrating his three with a shimmy and throwing a dunk at the windmill when the track opened in the fourth quarter.
Just Jo being Jo.
"I think for everyone who knows me, you know, I need it," said Embiid. "When I'm having fun, my game changes. I am always told that if I do not smile during the game, I play badly or I am not. When I know that to play, I have to have fun on the field. At the same time, I had to make games, but this part of theatricality, it must happen for me and the game is more fun that way. We all have fun as a team. You can see that this raises my teammates and we all do a good job. "
Of course, when you win, everything is more fun, especially to convince to take a lead of 2-1.
"I think we played incredibly hard tonight," said Butler. That's why we have to play at home or on the road, but I think more than anything we enjoyed. As [Embiid] said, we were having fun. Obviously, it's fun to win. It's fun to take pictures. But if we keep that energy, I think everything will be fine. "
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