Everything is almost in place for the tension to be at its peak tonight during the game between Philadelphia and Brooklyn, a month right after the trade that sent Ben Simmons to the Nets and James Harden to the Sixers.
Almost, because only Ben Simmons will be missing in uniform with his new team, even if the Australian will indeed be present at the Wells Fargo Center, where he risks being heckled by the public.
Aware that Philly fans are going to be particularly heated, Doc Rivers gave his views on the start of this rivalry, confident that he would prefer the antagonism to first involve two teams before involving individuals, James Harden on one side, Ben Simmons on the other in this case.
“I don’t like the way this rivalry started”said the Philly coach. “I’ll pass on all that, let me put it like that. Now I appreciate when there are rivalries. I love when teams from the same conference want to play against each other and challenge each other. This is a good thing. The league is having a great time right now, really. I mean, if you look at the East, there are five, six teams that can legitimately win. In the West, it’s the same thing. When you’re Adam Silver, you like it. Because competition is good, right? That’s what we want. We want a good match, difficult, with adversity. And that’s something great right now in the NBA. “.
Two more teams in search of a collective experience
Even before the exchange, the last two oppositions between Brooklyn and Philadelphia had been punctuated by a little “trashtalking” on both sides. The exchange only spiced it up…
Always in his desire to desecrate this match and thus remove some pressure from his players, Doc Rivers minimized the impact that the result could have on the rest of the season. In particular because the two teams will not be complete and will also lack automation while there is still a good month of the regular season.
“Kevin Durant is a top player. Kyrie Irving is a top player. When you give them the ball, they are really hard to contain. There is no secret on that. We have some top players here too, and there’s probably no secret about them. Both teams are probably still trying to integrate things. They’ve had guys come in and out of the team all year. We too, with the trade”, he specified. “So it is difficult to have a real analysis after five games, one way or the other. But it’s always good to play against them. It’s good to play against all these teams. I think you learn a little each time.
Will this match remain a match ” like the others “ as Georges Niang mentioned in this final sprint for the playoffs? Answer tonight!
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Joel Embiid | 52 | 33.2 | 49.2 | 35.1 | 82.0 | 2.0 | 9.2 | 11.2 | 4.3 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 2.7 | 29.7 |
| James Harden | 5 | 36.8 | 53.1 | 44.8 | 89.4 | 0.4 | 7.2 | 7.6 | 12.4 | 2.8 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 3.6 | 24.6 |
| Tobias Harris | 55 | 35.2 | 47.6 | 33.5 | 85.5 | 1.1 | 6.0 | 7.1 | 3.5 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 2.1 | 17.9 |
| Tyrese Maxey | 57 | 35.6 | 48.2 | 42.3 | 86.4 | 0.4 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 17.6 |
| Seth Curry | 45 | 34.8 | 48.5 | 40.0 | 87.7 | 0.4 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 15.0 |
| George Niang | 60 | 23.0 | 43.6 | 40.1 | 86.8 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 2.7 | 9.4 |
| Shake Milton | 37 | 23.0 | 42.2 | 29.5 | 86.2 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 2.5 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 9.1 |
| Furkan Korkmaz | 56 | 23.0 | 38.9 | 29.0 | 81.6 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 8.2 |
| Danny Green | 46 | 22.3 | 39.8 | 37.6 | 90.0 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 6.1 |
| Andre Drummond | 49 | 18.4 | 53.8 | 0.0 | 51.2 | 2.8 | 6.1 | 8.8 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 2.5 | 6.1 |
| Matisse Thybulle | 49 | 26.1 | 50.0 | 29.1 | 72.4 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 5.8 |
| Paul Millsap | 7 | 10.5 | 45.8 | 28.6 | 66.7 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 4.0 |
| isaiah joe | 45 | 11.7 | 35.5 | 33.1 | 91.7 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 3.8 |
| Tyler Johnson | 3 | 12.7 | 40.0 | 42.9 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 3.7 |
| Charles Bassey | 23 | 7.3 | 63.8 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 2.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 3.0 |
| Paul Reed, Jr. | 28 | 8.4 | 45.9 | 20.0 | 40.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 2.2 |
| Deandre Jordan | 1 | 10.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Charlie Brown | 16 | 9.8 | 26.5 | 11.1 | 90.0 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 1.9 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.8 |
| Myles Powell | 11 | 4.7 | 29.4 | 16.7 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 1.2 |
| Jaden Springer | 2 | 2.8 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Braxton Key | 2 | 3.2 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| Aaron Henry | 6 | 2.8 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Willie Cauley-stein | 2 | 2.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 |
