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The good, the bad and the uncertain in the sixth round of Thursday 6.
Game 6: 76ers 112, Raptors 101
Loser: the shortest memory of the NBA, and yes I mean you, Philly fans
How the atmosphere has changed, Sixers nation, in the last 24 hours. How did it fluctuate through game 6, even. Three minutes after the start of the second quarter, Philly had gained 19 points; Three minutes later, still seven o'clock, the Wells Fargo Center was booing; At the end of the fourth day, the crowd cheered on the team. Upon entering the game, some of the fans thought that the franchise would be better if it was marketed as soon as possible. Cut their losses now before it's too late; I mean, he's already 22 years old, and it's almost everything year since he was the rookie of the year. At the end of the game, Ben Simmons was once again the prince who had been promised, the first of his name, the one on which Philly should really build around.
Because Joel Embiid will be really healthy? He had not played five games against Toronto. He will probably never be free of injury, no matter the health problem limiting him in the fifth match is a respiratory infection, probably the same respiratory infection that your child has contracted last month in school. You know what they say about respiratory infections and big men; it could be an end of career. Well, except that in the sixth game, he looked pretty good. Great, even. Could he be the best great man in history? Who excludes it? Embiid finished with 17 points, 12 tables and a plus-minus-40 plus. Plus-40! Has Wilt already done that? Well, did he do it? (We do not know, the statistics do not go back so far, but still: plus-40!)
I love you, Philadelphia. And I fear you, Philadelphia. But most of all, I admire you, Philadelphia, and your total indifference to everything that happened more than six and a half minutes ago. Are you reckless? You tell me. An impulsive fan base the ink itself with Mike Scott tattoos three months of his tenure with the Sixers, knowing full well that he is an unrestricted free agent this summer?
The past is the past and the past is not part of the process. Jimmy Butler, who also joined the organization this season, who could also leave this summer, who is now also the god of Philly, and who once took the mirrors of his van as a "symbolic reminder of never looking back."
Winner: Jimmy Buckets, contract year
Brett Brown must be delighted that Simmons and Embiid are back in Game 6. The duo is the future of the Sixers and will also determine Brown's future; he would have coached for his job this post-season. But more than Simmons and Embiid, the Philadelphia coach has Jimmy Butler to thank for keeping the team in this series of Raptors. Butler scored 25 points Thursday, his third straight game at the top of all the Sixers, and added six rebounds, eight assists (another team-high) and two interceptions. He was the hero, even alongside Embiid and Simmons in the sixth match.
It's unclear how long Butler will be a Sixer. He is an unrestricted free agent this summer and it is realistic to leave. It's a nice coincidence that Butler, who was last fall when it was an ambush in a locker room, reestablished his reputation in a place dubbed the City of Brotherly Love. At the head of Toronto, Butler has demonstrated his strengths: his veteran experience, his competitiveness, his two-way elite talent and his desperate need to win. Brown hopes it will continue in Game 7. For the moment, nothing proves that it will not be the case.
Loser: Raptors Bench
For a team often acclaimed for its depth, the Toronto bench was particularly unproductive in the second round. Three games in the Raptors' reserves played He had 163 minutes totaling 21 points, 21% of the shot. In the fourth match, only Serge Ibaka scored in the second unit, adding 12 points. The bench nearly exceeded his points total in the first four games of the fifth game, scoring 32 points in Philadelphia's worst playoff loss since Dr. J wore the uniform (a 1982 loss to Boston's 40 points). ).
They regressed again in the sixth match. At the end of the third quarter, only Ibaka was on the board (nine points). Ibaka directed all the people; Fred VanVleet, once hailed as the replacement no one is talking about, was again a non-factor, yet Nick Nurse did not play Jeremy Lin while he was briefly under Pat McCaw. The bench managed to finish with 23 points, but most of it was lost.
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