PHILADELPHIA — They pressed the fast-forward button in Philadelphia for moments like this.
On Thursday, at home and facing elimination in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, the 76ers had the hungrier group, and arguably the better starting five, on the floor. They looked whole, and even as coach Brett Brown utilized a seven-man rotation, the group looked deep. The result, a 112-101 win over the Toronto Raptors, only seemed that close.
By the end of the third quarter, Philadelphia’s bellwether of joy, Joel Embiid, beamed after making a 3-pointer that expanded the lead to 22 points. When Embiid is smiling after swishes, and the defense is clicking, opponents should just save some time and start revving up the charter bus outside Wells Fargo Center.
Good night and safe travels.
“I always say when we play like that, we’re hard to beat,” Jimmy Butler said. “At home. On the road. Neutral site.”
Embiid took it a step further.
“If we play defense like we played tonight,” Embiid said, “we feel like we can beat anybody.”
Though the Raptors didn’t head for the bus early, coach Nick Nurse finally emptied his bench with 3:33 to play, giving his starters a break from the onslaught and extra time to wonder about Game 7 in Toronto on Sunday. Philly’s starters finished the game on the sideline, too, preparing for the game the franchise has rushed to witness.
“I’ve been fortunate to be in a few Game 7s and they’re very unique. They’re special. They are a life lesson, a life opportunity,” Brown said. “And Jimmy sure allowed us to better achieve that.”
The Sixers, only in their second playoff series since the completion of years of tanking known as “The Process,” are heading to a winner-take-all showdown. It’s the reason they gambled so much this season.
Instead of learning how to ride the roller coaster that can be the playoffs, and allowing point guard Ben Simmons to develop fundamentals such as a jump shot without the pressure to produce now, the Sixers purchased a fast pass to zip to the front of the Eastern Conference.
They traded young core players Robert Covington and Dario Saric because Butler was unhappy in Minnesota and maybe, just maybe, his six-month tryout in Philadelphia could turn into a championship. They shipped two future first-round draft picks and another pair in the second round, as well as promising rookie Landry Shamet and a bounty of other guys to the Los Angeles Clippers, because the addition of Tobias Harris would create the scariest starting five east of Oakland.
So far, the risks have worked.
Through the playoffs, the Raptors’ starting five leads the NBA by averaging 9.8 points more than opponents. The Sixers rank second with an 8.9 plus/minus mark. But Thursday night, Philadelphia dominated Toronto’s first group.
Butler scored a team-best 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting to go with eight assists and six rebounds. Simmons snapped out of a disappearing act with eight points and five rebounds in the opening quarter and he finished with 21 and 8. Harris grabbed nine rebounds to go with 16 points and though Embiid reached a double-double (17 points and 12 rebounds), his impact on the floor proved more significant than his individual statistics. The Sixers outscored Toronto by 40 when Embiid was in the game.
While JJ Redick’s rhythm was interrupted with fouls, he finished with 11 points to push all five starters in double figures. In contract, four Raptor starters finished with plus/minus figures in double digits.
After the rout, Embiid lumbered to the postgame dais with an ice pack over his left knee but re-energized as he talked about the individual efforts of his teammates.
Ben “was great,” Embiid said.
Jimmy “was great.”
Tobias “was great.”
“Everybody was great,” Embiid concluded.
Mike Scott, who came over with Harris in that February trade, gushed even more. Early on, Scott recognized that he was joining a monster.
“Oh yeah,” Scott said. “Once I got the call and I put two and two together, I was like, ‘damn!’ ”
“Ben, Tobias, JJ, Joel,” Scott continued. “It’s crazy, you know what I’m saying? But then you’ve got Jimmy Buckets. You can’t (mess) with that. That’s tough. We got to bring our side from the bench, we’ve got to hold it down. But that starting five, it’s unstoppable.”
With these moves, the Sixers pried open their championship window with the biggest crowbar they could find. Butler, who has a player option, can leave in July. Harris, too. Still, the summer seems distant. Especially when Boogie Down Production’s Jimmy blasts inside the arena every time Butler scores and a sold-out house of fanatics serenades “Jim-my But-ler” during possessions. If Thursday was the last night Philly’s faithful could chant that name, it didn’t feel like an ending. Only a validation that a season of trades and restructuring was worth it.
Philadelphia mortgaged its future so it could show its fangs in must-win home games such as Thursday’s. They rushed to get here; now the Sixers are ready for their defining playoff moment.