The alarm went off Saturday afternoon.
There’ll be no sleep against Brooklyn.
BOX SCORE: NETS 111, SIXERS 102
“It definitely wakes them up,” Nets forward Ed Davis said after his team pulled off a 111-102 victory in Game 1 over the Sixers. “You lose Game 1 on the road against a team that’s you’re supposed to lose to, for sure it woke them up, woke the fans up for sure.”
What began as a celebratory atmosphere in Wells Fargo Center turned into boos and early exits, as the Nets put everybody on notice: despite their talent deficit and inexperience, this will be a series. A real series.
“We just look at it, we have nothing to lose. If we go out and get swept, that’s what’s supposed to happen, so you got that mindset – that I don’t care, I don’t give a f--- mentality. Sometimes it works in your favor,” added Davis, one of Brooklyn’s heroes after scoring 12 points with 16 points.
The Nets, seeded sixth, simply outran and stifled No. 3 Philly, forcing Ben Simmons to disappear and Embiid to lumber through inefficiency. They held three of Philly’s vaunted starters -- Simmons, JJ Redick and Tobias Harris -- to a combined 18 points.
If Jimmy Butler hadn’t gone off for 36 points, the Nets would’ve sealed a victory by halftime. As it happened, they still led for the final 38 minutes.
Nets forward Jared Dudley explained that the Sixers lacked the teamwork to overcome Brooklyn’s defensive schemes.
“Look at their Big-4 (Embiid, Simmons, Harris and Butler). The last time their Big-4 played together was against us (on March 28). Chemistry matters. Like I’ve tried to say, when it’s the fourth quarter and it’s crunch time, keeping it close, is that team willing to make the extra pass?” Dudley said. “We know Joel Embiid wants to shoot the ball. We know Jimmy Butler wants the basketball. There’s only one basketball. It’s not the Warriors where it’s a great passing team that shoots the 3. And so, they’re capable of beating you, capable of scoring in bunches, but can they make the extra passes? And I felt like we did a good job in limiting that.”
Brooklyn’s offense was led by D’Angelo Russell (26 points), Caris LeVert (23) and Spencer Dinwiddie (18), who all pounded the Sixers in transition and off the dribble. The bench outscored Philly’s, 59-26, and LeVert agreed he could beat defenders off the dribble at will.
“Yeah, I think so, especially in the second unit. You know, there’s a lot of matchups that we like to exploit,” he said. “I think, Spencer [Dinwiddie], myself tried to just come in there and give us energy any way we could, and I think it worked out for us.”
Before his first playoff series as a head coach, the tireless and obsessive Kenny Atkinson was concerned that he was over-preparing.
So he Google-searched “general playoff preparation comments in the NBA,” proving that the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets tackles perplexities like the rest of us with internet service.
“I was checking myself to make sure I don’t do much,” Atkinson said. “I did some research this morning – how does (Spurs coach Greg) Popovich prepare and what do other coaches say about preparing for the playoffs. Be careful that you don’t complicate it too much. And we’ll see if I did a good job or not, or we did a good job, because I always second-guess myself."
“I’m not sure how advanced that research is. But I did get some good things.”
He did good. The Nets, the underdogs, snatched home-court advantage.
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