Three days removed from clinching a berth to the Eastern Conference Semifinals for the first time in six years, the 76ers still don’t know who they’ll be facing in the second round of the Playoffs.
They do, however, have a clear plan in place on how to best pass the time until they find out.
Thursday, the Sixers regrouped in Camden for their first formal practice since eliminating the Miami Heat from the post-season in a hard-fought series that went five games.
The hour-long session was competitive, Brett Brown said, and the Sixers got in a “good sweat.”
But sweating for who, and for when?
With the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks now headed for a seventh game in their East Quarterfinals clash (the Bucks held serve Thursday at home, 97-86), the Sixers’ preparations, at least until Boston and Milwaukee play Saturday at TD Garden, can only go so deep, regardless of how much work the team is putting in.
As a result, the teaching points that Brown and his assistants are currently covering with their players are more general and broad based.
Right now, the material can only be so specific.
“We chose a tiny few things on defense and a tiny few things on offense that are helpful, no matter if it’s Boston or Milwaukee,” Brown told reporters Thursday at the Sixers’ training complex.
Cleaning up transition defense was one of the foremost items on the to-do list.
The Sixers finished the regular season tied for second in the league with 1.04 points per possession allowed in transition. That figure increased to 1.12 in their first-round match-up with Miami.
Rebounding (the Sixers are second in the Playoffs, with 48.0 rebounds per 100 possession) and post spacing around Joel Embiid were two other areas the Sixers zeroed in on during Thursday’s workout.
Looking ahead to round two, Brown expects several themes from the Heat series, such as the physicality that this time of the year demands, to carry over.
The head coach thinks this dynamic will serve the Sixers well.
“It only gets harder,” Brown said of the post-season. “The longer you play, the more difficult it is.”
Whether the Sixers ultimately draw Boston or Milwaukee, there’s one stark difference between those two clubs and Miami that Brown highlighted. The Celtics and Bucks are both longer and more athletic than the Heat.
The Cs have used the last two No. 3 picks in the draft to acquire Jaylen Brown (2016) and Jayson Tatum (2017). Milwaukee, of course, has its freakish Greek All-Star, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
On Thursday, however, the Sixers, winners of 20 of their last 21 games dating back to March, sounded mostly concerned about themselves. They seem intent on using whatever time they have between now and the start of the second round to work on making tweaks, and doing some important fine-tuning.
“I don’t think it matters,” said Joel Embiid, when asked Thursday whether he’d rather to go up against Boston or Milwaukee. “As long as you play your game, and stick to your concepts, you’re going to be fine.”
There was at least one Sixer who expressed a preference. Leave it to a professional veteran to lend pragmatic perspective.
“If Milwaukee [wins], we’ll have home court advantage,” Ersan Ilyasova said, alluding to the Bucks being the seven seed in the East, and the Sixers the three seed.
“At the end of the day, I think that whatever comes up, it’s up to us. Recently, the way we’ve played, we have to focus on ourselves. If we do all those things we’ve done before, it’s going to be in our favor.”