There were James Harden’s 45 points, De’Anthony Melton’s 3-pointers in the first half, Tyrese Maxey’s decisive interception. But for Doc Rivers, the Sixers mostly displayed a different mentality to take Game 1 on the Celtics floor, without Joel Embiid.
“It’s the difference between this year and last year”, explains the coach. “We trained, and the important thing is that everyone really believed in it. James (Harden) missed games, but we won. Joel missed games, but we won. That’s really the difference between this year’s team and last year’s team. We have a band of street fighters”.
For Tobias Harris too, this team learned to close ranks, to face the difficulties.
“It showed in our level of concentration throughout this game. Things weren’t going our way from the start, given the way they were playing and how well they were able to score, but throughout the week we worked well. Obviously, we knew Joel wouldn’t be able to make the game and we focused on having the confidence and the mindset that would allow us to win those games. »
De’Anthony Melton thus noted the importance of Paul Reed (10 points, 13 rebounds) and PJ Tucker in the paint, even if the latter did not score… and did not even take a shot of the match.
“Guys like Paul Reed and Tuck (PJ Tucker), in position 5, have risen to the occasion. As a group, we supported each other. With James in the fourth quarter, Tyrese in the second half, those kinds of performances because we’re going to have to keep winning games like this.”
Because in the playoffs, you have to know how to pull off this kind of match.
“We didn’t let outside distractions get in our way, wondering if he was playing or not.”concludes Tobias Harris on Joel Embiid. “We said to ourselves, ‘Listen, whoever is ready to play, get ready to go out there and get a win.’ This is what should motivate and guide us. »
