There’s hardly ever unanimous settlement on what went fallacious as gamers let elimination sink in.
That was true Thursday evening following the Sixers’ Sport 6 defeat at Wells Fargo Heart to the Warmth.
For many groups, ending in need of a championship boils all the way down to some mixture of things inside gamers’ management and out of doors of it. Although the Sixers fall underneath that broad umbrella, candid feedback concerning the controllables jumped out.
Not for the primary time, head coach Doc Rivers raised the subject of the Warmth’s superior physicality. Tyrese Maxey thought the Sixers didn’t match Miami’s “battle.” And Tobias Harris went additional in his postgame media session. With a voice nonetheless hoarse after he absorbed Sport 4 contact to the throat by Warmth large man Bam Adebayo, Harris defined why he believes the Sixers can’t crack the second spherical.
“Psychological toughness,” he stated. “I believe so. Simply psychological toughness. That a part of it, I don’t assume we now have but. Seeing the Milwaukee recreation yesterday (towards the Celtics), that’s a staff that’s been by means of the fireplace, with the ability to battle and hold going. At occasions for our group, too many issues simply affected us as a complete. We drop our heads an excessive amount of. Our physique language at occasions is crappy. We wanted that to be higher all through this sequence. And I believe that harm us on this sequence.
“Our psychological toughness for certain harm us towards that group. And so they did a number of issues to sort of problem that — the hustle performs, the 50-50 basketballs, every part. The physicality by them, as effectively. We wanted to be higher as a collective group at simply holding our head and simply preventing, simply going proper again at it. And I don’t assume we did an excellent job of that.”
Harris’ observations aren’t absurdly off the mark. The Sixers did reply properly at occasions this 12 months to losses that might have deflated different groups. They didn’t crumble throughout a difficult, unusual Ben Simmons commerce saga. And so they discovered methods to win large video games revolving across the solar of Joel Embiid, their MVP runner-up middle who actually exhibited “toughness” in lacking simply two postseason video games throughout a playoff marketing campaign by which he suffered a torn ligament in his proper thumb, a concussion, and a proper orbital fracture.
However the Sixers had important moments by which focus, depth, and different old style intangibles had been enormous issues. They misplaced Sport 5 of the Miami sequence by 35 factors and one thing related may need been on the desk if not for a robust particular person second half by Shake Milton in Sport 6.
The staff trailed by 20 factors at one stage and allowed the Warmth to seize seven extra offensive rebounds within the recreation (13-6). At any time when the Sixers hinted at a run, Jimmy Butler pushed that concept out of the image.
“It’s not easy to repair,” Harris stated. “However I believe it simply comes with the intent. Each man to himself, the intent you go into the sport with, the power you come into the sport with. I believe that’s an enormous a part of it.
“And that’s one thing that I’ll say, all through this 12 months, we’ve proven in lots of video games how nice we will be. And we’ve proven when issues are good how mentally robust we’re. I believe on the flip aspect of that, we didn’t do an excellent job of that when issues weren’t going our method.”
Clearly, a lot of the Sixers’ loss will be attributed to points with ability and luck. Embiid’s accidents made a large impression. And the minimal time to combine James Harden doesn’t account for each facet of his scoreless Sport 6 second half, however the circumstances — 33 complete video games for the 10-time All-Star in his first 12 months with the staff, and at lower than 100% well being — do matter there.
Georges Niang, a fiery, trash-talking bench ahead Rivers had known as the staff’s “emotional chief” this 12 months, suited up with an injured left knee and was removed from his regular-season self. Throughout defeats in Video games 1, 5 and 6, Niang shot 0 for 14 from three-point vary in 53 minutes and scored no factors.
As for Harris, he dedicated to defensive enchancment and adapting his recreation after Harden’s arrival to incorporate extra catch-and-shoot three-pointers and complementary contributions.
However the actuality is Harris doesn’t resemble Butler by way of being world-class at keen himself wherever he needs to go on the court docket. Harris made an and-one layup within the fourth quarter of Sport 2. From that time on within the sequence, he tried 50 discipline targets and nil free throws.
Embiid recognized physicality and rebounding as problematic. Certainly, the Sixers had been final in offensive rebounding proportion this season, per Cleansing the Glass. Avoiding turnovers and drawing foul photographs seemed to be key facets of their id with out Simmons, largely as a result of they typically misplaced the rebounding battle and had been quick on genuinely disruptive defenders that would knock opposing offenses out of their most well-liked actions.
Embiid didn’t evade the query of whether or not the Sixers want so as to add toughness.
“For certain,” he stated. “We had just a few robust guys since I’ve been right here that I can recall, whether or not it’s Mike Scott … he didn’t play a number of minutes. However when you’ve dimension and toughness, that goes a great distance. You take a look at somebody like P.J. Tucker — nice participant, nevertheless it’s not about him pulling down photographs. It’s about (the opposite issues) he does, whether or not it’s on the defensive finish or rebounding the ball. You take a look at (him) defensively, he performs with a lot power. He believes that he can get from Level A to Level B, and he believes that nobody can beat him.
“And he’s robust. He’s simply bodily and he’s robust. They’ve just a few of these guys, whether or not it’s Bam and all these guys. And since I’ve been right here, I’d be mendacity if I stated that we’ve had these kind of fellows. Nothing towards what we now have, it’s simply the reality. We by no means have P.J. Tucker; that’s actually what I’m attempting to say. So I believe physicality, particularly when you get to the playoffs or the later rounds, you want that. You want these guys which might be actually robust.”
Once more, the Sixers are grappling with uncomfortable questions for an infinite variety of causes.
However sure, Harris and Embiid made compelling circumstances Thursday evening that toughness was an integral one.
