A third seed won his first two games over a sixth seed.
This is not a surprising sentence. Every other year, this joint performance would be met with talk of a pivotal Game 3 on the way, and how the team that is down will have some extra juice at the opening moment.
“We’re a team that really cares about the home crowd,” Al Horford, Philadelphia 76ers, said Thursday. “Obviously we don’t have this here, that has played out very differently here without fans.”
The Sixers outscored their audience better than any other team, setting a 31-4 record at home, a league record. However, take them home, and they are only 12-26.
“It’s true, you are not going to walk to the Wells Fargo Center, where we had the best home crowd in the league, the best home record in the league, and feed on it, so it has to be driven internally,” Sixert head coach Brett Brown sei. ‘It should not be falsely produced. There must be a real faith. That’s how I feel. That’s my mission to help create that, if to discover that. ”
This begs the simple question of how the Sixers will do that. How will a team that has shown lack of the type of fight needed for these moments actually find it?
“It just takes human qualities, and obvious human opinion things like character, a competitive pride, a belief that the team has more to do, that they really have the ability to come back and win,” Browns said. ‘It’s not always about’ we should get better at Kemba in pick-and-rolls’ or ‘let’s bring Tobias to the open court.’ And I think everyone has a breaking point. I have the feeling for myself, the thing I love most is that there is enough talent, there is enough character, there are enough positive things to find a way to win. ”
It’s not hard to imagine that Philadelphia’s breaking point is within sight. There were more than a few expert NBA observers predicting more sweeps in the playoffs, simply because teams would find themselves in the Sixers situation. The Boston Celtics are certainly in a position to take out the listless Sixers soon, but they could also be negatively affected by this environment.
If we look at Philly’s suspected body language and declining willingness to fight, the Celtics should see it too. This Boston team has not always had the so-called ‘killer instinct’ in these situations, and has often found itself relaxed and playing until the competition
“I think for some reason it’s called human nature,” Brad Stevens said. “If you want to be special, you are unique. You can focus on the task at hand. You can understand how hard it is to win. ”
There is a joy that some players feel to close an opposing audience. The sound of silence in the Wells Fargo Center could be amplifying for the Celtics, as the hostility and hatred Philadelphia fans have toward Boston is palpable. You can taste the hatred almost in the arena, and these fans can turn against their own team on their own energy.
“You can look at it both ways, for both teams it’s neutral,” Horford said. “For us, it is real to find that drive and that energy in our group. That’s what we need to do, and this is a very important game for us tomorrow. ”
The Sixers say the right things. The question now is whether they really believe it. Whether they finally can depends on whether the Celtics give them a reason to believe.
“This game is all about being able to stay in the moment, do your job as best you can,” Stevens said. “And for us, we have a very specific formula to play for us to be successful, and if we do not, we are probably in trouble. And we’ve seen that at various times in the last few games. ‘
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