PHILADELPHIA–Before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers at the deadline back in February, Jalen McDaniels was toiling in NBA obscurity with the Charlotte Hornets. Those teams in Charlotte had some talent, but they were not able to make any playoff appearances during his time there.
On Saturday, McDaniels finally stepped on the court to make his playoff debut in Game 1 against the Brooklyn Nets. The lanky forward out of San Diego State had five points, four rebounds, and two assists and he knocked down a 3-pointer in a 121-101 win over the Nets in the Round 1 opener.
After the win, McDaniels discussed what it was like to get some playoff minutes against the Nets.
“Honestly, the playoffs is way different,” he said wide-eyed. “Like everybody says just like the intensity of the game. Everything, every detail matters. I think I did something like little and Doc (Rivers) was like ‘Hey, like that can’t happen’ and I’m like ‘Yeah, you’re right. It can’t’. So it’s locking in. That’s the big thing in the playoffs.”
McDaniels did make a few defensive mistakes when he allowed Seth Curry to step into an open triple for the Nets, but overall, he played very well. His defensive activity and his movement off the ball gave Brooklyn trouble and the Sixers were able to benefit from it.
Philadelphia will now be looking for more of that when they move on to Game 2 of this series on Monday at home. They will look for a 2-0 series lead before the series shifts to Brooklyn.
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