CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers head into Game 2 with the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night looking to take a 2-0 series lead before the scene shifts to Barclays Center. The Sixers had significant success when attacking the Nets, and they look to build off that.
In a playoff series, adjustments are made on both sides. The Nets will come up with something as will the Sixers, and it comes down to who can execute their game plan more efficiently.
“In general, coaches rarely over adjust,” said coach Doc Rivers. “I think, most of the time, you don’t adjust a lot as much as you think you do, but there are always a couple of adjustments you have to make because of what they’re doing. At least you have to be ready to make the adjustments more.”
One thing Rivers believes the Sixers can be better at in Game 2 is attacking the aggressive double teams Brooklyn sends toward Joel Embiid.
“I think we handled those well, but I think we can handle them better,” the coach explained. “I do. I mean, we made 3s, but we showed them like six times where our spacing was off, it was late, and we have to get better on that.”
The Sixers can be better defensively in Game 2. While they were much better in the second half of Game 1, the Nets shot 63.2% from the floor in the first half on Saturday. That’s something that has to be figured out.
“Defensively, we weren’t that good last game. Period,” PJ Tucker added. “We scored the ball and we played decent, but we didn’t play good defense. We’re going to have to play a lot better defense to win the way we want to win. That’s just being honest. On a lot of plays, we played really hard. I feel like we tried to cover for each other and play hard. Communication’s got to be better, but we’ve got to be better, period, on defense.”
The Sixers are not going to drastically change anything they do schematically. This is about preparing to execute what they want to do at a high level.
“Teams aren’t going to recreate the wheel overnight,” Rivers finished. “None of us are. We are what we are. You have to be better at what you do and your adjustment has to be to get you back to being what you are more than changing yourself.”
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