After getting blown out in Game 1, Brett Brown and the Sixers made adjustments. Ben Simmons guarded and slowed down Kawhi Leonard. Joel Embiid, battling a stomach virus, bothered Pascal Siakam. Greg Monroe and James Ennis were huge off of the bench. Jimmy Butler came up clutch, again, in the fourth.
And the Sixers evened their Eastern Conference semifinals series against the Raptors at one game a piece.
"First and foremost, this was the biggest win of this young core's career," TNT NBA TV analyst Greg Anthony told the 94WIP Midday Show on Wednesday. "Now, it's a short span, but if you think about The Process—everything that this franchise and this fan base has been through. That night was kind of the culmination of all that anxiety, all of that frustration because that was a championship caliber win.
"You go play a team that can win it all, in a hostile environment, on the road, your best player is not a hundred percent and you find a way. You can make the sacrifices that a lot of those guys made in order to pull off that win, that's monumental. Those are the kinds of games that can change the course of a franchise, they really can."
Simmons, in particular, has been a polarizing player really throughout his short two-year career in Philadelphia thanks to his inability to shoot from the outside. On Monday night, while Simmons was brilliant defensively, he scored just six points on six shots and was pretty much a non-factor on offense. Anthony urged the Simmons' critics to chill.
"Go look at where Giannis Antetokounmpo was a second year player in the NBA. Here's a guy that can't shoot now, I'll be the first to acknowledge, but he can freakin' play!"
— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) May 1, 2019The Sixers host the Raptors on Thursday night in Game 3.
