Despite the absence of Joel Embiid, victim of a sprained knee, the Sixers beat the Nets 96-88 in Game 4, becoming the first team to advance to the second round of the playoffs. It’s Philadelphia’s first sweep in a best-of-seven series since 1985 against the Bucks.
A series won quite easily which will allow Joël Embiid to have a little more recovery time to heal. For Tobias Harrisauthor of 25 points and 12 rebounds in the closing game of this series, the “sweep” achieved by the Sixers shows above all the tenacity of the group in difficult times.
“I think, for the whole group, we have shown throughout the year that we are not giving up” said Tobias Harris after the victory. “You look at our away results, with different players in the squad from time to time, and we’ve always managed to find a way to get wins. It’s not always easy at times but I think overall we did a good job of not giving up and fighting until the end and to be honest there will still be a lot of adversity to come. We are a team that is fighting for a title, and these kinds of obstacles will have to be overcome..
PJ Tucker, essential with 3.5 points average
Last season, the Sixers had the opportunity to “sweep” the Raptors in the first round, after leading 3-0. Eventually, they lost the next two games before closing the series 4-2. This year, they didn’t make the same mistake again, and they killed the show at their first chance. According to Tobias Harris, the addition of veteran players like P.J. Tucker in the workforce has a lot to do with this change.
“Experience is a determining factor in this sport” continues Tobias Harris. “Having guys who have been there, having guys like PJ Tucker who won a title… You don’t necessarily see all those things, but on the field, by the way he made people understand that we were going to win, we had that we were going to sweep them… This kind of thing shows his “winner” mentality and his nature”.
NBA champion with the Bucks in 2021, PJ Tucker continues to have a valuable role, at almost 38 years old, within the teams aspiring to the title. Last season, he finished 1st in the East with the Heat before going to the conference final. This year, the goal is to give Philadelphia a taste of glory for the first time since 1983.
“It rubs off on everyone else on the team because you have a guy like him who knows his role, has been there and knows what to do” concluded Tobias Harris about PJ Tucker. “That’s why you have to add these kind of guys and good elements to complete the team. Paul Reed had a great game tonight playing with a lot of energy and not letting the expectations put on him get in the way because he was a starter, but all those little things added up in the end to help us win.”.
The Sixers are now awaiting their opponent for the conference semi-final. It will either be the Celtics or the Hawks.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Joel Embiid | 66 | 34.6 | 54.8 | 33.0 | 85.7 | 1.7 | 8.4 | 10.2 | 4.2 | 3.4 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 3.1 | 33.1 |
| James Harden | 58 | 36.8 | 44.1 | 38.5 | 86.7 | 0.7 | 5.4 | 6.1 | 10.7 | 3.4 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 21.0 |
| Tyrese Maxey | 60 | 33.6 | 48.1 | 43.4 | 84.5 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 20.3 |
| Louis King | 1 | 28.8 | 61.5 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 4.0 | 20.0 |
| Tobias Harris | 74 | 32.9 | 50.1 | 38.9 | 87.6 | 0.9 | 4.8 | 5.7 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 14.7 |
| Mac McClung | 2 | 20.5 | 45.0 | 36.4 | 60.0 | 1.5 | 3.5 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 12.5 |
| De’anthony Melton | 77 | 27.9 | 42.5 | 39.0 | 79.3 | 0.9 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 2.6 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 10.1 |
| Shake Milton | 76 | 20.6 | 47.9 | 37.8 | 85.3 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 8.4 |
| George Niang | 78 | 19.4 | 44.2 | 40.1 | 86.7 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 8.2 |
| Jalen Mcdaniels | 24 | 17.5 | 48.8 | 40.0 | 82.4 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 6.7 |
| Montrezl Harrell | 57 | 11.9 | 59.8 | 0.0 | 69.3 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 5.6 |
| Daniel House | 56 | 14.4 | 47.2 | 33.6 | 75.0 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 4.8 |
| Paul Reed, Jr. | 69 | 10.9 | 59.3 | 16.7 | 74.5 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 3.8 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 4.2 |
| Furkan Korkmaz | 37 | 9.6 | 43.2 | 39.1 | 72.2 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 3.8 |
| pj tucker | 75 | 25.6 | 42.7 | 39.3 | 82.6 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 3.9 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 2.4 | 3.5 |
| Dewayne Dedmon | 8 | 9.6 | 59.1 | 50.0 | 20.0 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.1 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 3.5 |
| Saben Lee | 2 | 5.1 | 75.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 3.0 |
| Matisse Thybulle | 49 | 12.1 | 43.1 | 33.3 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 2.7 |
| Jaden Springer | 16 | 5.6 | 48.6 | 40.0 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 2.6 |
| Michael Foster, Jr. | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Julian Champagnie | 2 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
