Jailblazers7 wrote:Overall, we showed a ton of fight & resilience which hasn’t been a Sixers hallmark for years. Hopefully that was a cathartic win for the team & they can play with a little more confidence in big games the rest of this run.
I credit the fight and resilience to a couple of things - one, the veteran presence of guys who have been in and won big games, and guys like Oubre and Hield, who haven't seen the playoffs a lot but also don't have the scars from the playoff letdowns that many of our vets certainly still have, and want to show out.
Two, and maybe most importantly, having a coach who understands how to win playoff games, that it quite often includes adjusting and re-adjusting your scheme in the course of a single game, as well as having flexibility with rotations to take advantage of matchups or hot hands .
The difference in watching that game as compared to any playoff game that was a dogfight the last three years was enormous. I went into halftime fully expecting adjustments and a different team in the second half, where I might have shut the game off early before. Win or lose down the stretch, it was an entirely new feeling.