The Philadelphia 76ers are up 2-0 in their first-round series with the Brooklyn Nets as they took care of business at home. This series shifts to Barclays Center for Games 3 and 4, and it looks as if the Nets are not going to return to Wells Fargo Center for a Game 5.
The Nets are a scrappy bunch who have done a nice job recovering following the big trades sending Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving out of Brooklyn, but this version of the Nets is not on the same level as the Sixers. Mikal Bridges is a solid player and the cast around him is filled with role players, but none of them are stars.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith hopped on “First Take” on Wednesday and said the Sixers should take care of business and this series should be a sweep:
It’d be a damn shame if the series goes five games, to be quite honest with you, because in Doc Rivers’ eyes it shouldn’t. Take them out. Stop wasting time with them. Stop playing around, and we’ve seen it. As a reporter, you’ve seen it many years when people play down. All of a sudden, you hyped up, you got elite competition waiting for you, your game elevates sometimes, and sometimes when you see inferior competition, you know you can amp it up anytime you want to, sometimes you take your time doing so and that is what I’ve seen from the 76ers. They took their time and when it was time, they said OK, let’s finish this off and get to Game 3. That’s all.
Smith is right. This is a series the Sixers have to sweep. Philadelphia had a chance to sweep the Toronto Raptors in the 2022 playoffs, but they allowed the Raptors to hang around and push the series to a Game 6, in which Joel Embiid suffered an injury that limited him in the second round.
Philadelphia has to handle the Nets rather quickly and move on to the semifinals where the vaunted Boston Celtics will likely be waiting.
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