With the Milwaukee Bucks’ tickets to the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday night, there is only one game left to determine the NBA Final Four. On Sunday night, all roads lead to South Philadelphia. This is the first time the 76ers have held Game 7 since they defeated the Bucks 20 years ago and are scheduled to participate in the NBA Finals.

Throw away X and O and all you know about the series so far. Well, maybe not all, but a lot. The 76ers and the Eagles know each other at this point, and everyone’s nerves will at least be a little nervous before the game starts. I expect a noisy crowd on Sunday night, and these storylines help define what should become an instant classic.

The depth of the river in rotation

After the team’s film conference on Saturday afternoon, the reporter asked Dr. Rivers about the prospect of starting Tyrese Maxi with Ben Simmons and even in front of Ben Simmons. The former was an absurd proposal that was treated this way by Rivers, but when the conversation shifted to Maxey’s possible exchange of Furkan Korkmaz, Rivers did not take the other idea more seriously.

“I totally like it, we started Korkmaz by the way last night and won,” Rivers said on Saturday. “His statistics are generally very good. I will not overreact to every game. If I do, I will start to shake [Milton] After the third game, because he played a wonderful game. This is not what we do, we maintain stability, we maintain discipline, we run our stuff. “

It sounds like Korkmaz will definitely stay in the starting lineup, and Rivers has made a clear move to open up the field for their stars as much as possible. All that remains is to figure out how many people are trusted to play on the biggest and brightest stage.

People will instinctively use the Brooklyn and Milwaukee rotation on Saturday night as a preview of what we saw in South Philadelphia. There are only 8 players on the two teams, and each team is actually more like 7-Tanasis Antetokounmpo gave his brother Giannis less than a minute of extra rest, and Nick Clarkston was on the court for a full second, defending the supervision of inside players in the final game in Milwaukee. I’m not sure this is the blueprint that the 76ers will follow, based on their substitution method so far and what Rivers said before entering the game.

After playing the role of deciding the game in the sixth game, Maxi felt close to lock-in. Matisse Thybulle is a bigger lock, if just spelling Ben Simmons, because he checks Trae Young for most of the game. Then you have two trusted veterans Rivers, even if they go bad, George Hill and Dwight Howard, I hope they can play at any time. Rivers still likes Shaq Milton, and he helped Philadelphia revert the series when it was in desperate need of improvement in the early days.

Wait, aren’t these 10 people? What gives? Well, at this point, Rivers doesn’t seem to want to bury anyone, and arranging playing time for each of his starters is a delicate balance. The head coach has talked to everyone on the list about how much they have to pay, and he feels that they have worked very hard to break through the limits in Friday’s sixth game.

“Actually I contacted every one of them. I have done it three or four times in a row. I have been pushing their numbers and their ideas. I really want Tobias. [Harris] Go to 40 [in Game 6], This is my plan for him, I don’t think we let him get there… but visually you can see that it’s about, we are at that limit. Everyone has a number, and suddenly, their work efficiency is not as high as you want. What many people have learned is that once they overcome it, it is difficult to come back. You must be very careful in the game. I think we followed it very closely, and I think we might have escaped it to the greatest extent. But if we can extend it, we will. “

how is it Rivers deploys his bench as important as who and when. It would be a huge taboo to leave a full bench (or even most benches) to be slaughtered at any time, but it turns out that Rivers is willing to take the risk in exchange for an extra minute of rest for their star. Howard played badly for most of this series, but Rivers did not show a tendency to be small and abandon the veteran center, so I wouldn’t expect everything to change on Sunday night.

No matter what Rivers decides to do, I hope this will become a source of anger for the fan base, let’s put it this way.

What versions of Philadelphia stars have appeared

We don’t need to emphasize this on Ben Simmons. My thoughts on his recent games have been very clear in several articles this week, and his inability to influence the game offensively in the past three games is an important reason for the seventh game. You hope that there will be a turnaround. If he returns to normal form, the 76ers are likely to win.BBut you don’t count on it, assuming he will have to continue chasing Trae Young for 48 minutes.

As usual, the person to watch is Joel Embiid. He spent some absolutely important nights in these playoffs, including in the 5th game where they choked at home, but Embiid was not his most dominant when they needed him most in years. The self. In the final against Boston last season, Embiid scored 30 points, but he was relieved defensively. In the 7th game in Toronto, Embiid was absolutely excellent defensively, but it was difficult to solve Marc Gasol’s problem, turning from the field on the night of 6/18 (although he did lead in free throw percentage).

The only exception is that he scored 27 points in the 5th defeat in Philadelphia in Boston in 2018. In the second half of that game, Embiid kept the team back to back, bullying Boston in the low post for most of the final quarter and a half and they were within the winning range. That game was seen as a potential warning to the league at the time, giving him a glimpse of what he might do with more time and experience. Well, he now has all these things and has a better supporting role than his opponent. It’s time to produce.

After winning the 6th game, Embiid was very happy to have the chance to win, but he was not particularly satisfied with his personal performance in the 6th game. He vowed to do the right thing in the final game of the season.

“We must be stronger than them,” Embiid said Friday night. “I will definitely get better, and my shooting performance tonight will never be worse than me. I am in front of the home audience. This will be, this is the perfect setting for us to win. We just need to maintain the same mentality—— For 48 minutes, don’t be disappointed, move the ball, share it, pass the ball to the right person, and we will be fine.”

On the other hand, Tobias Harris (Tobias Harris) will hope to catch the ball from where he stopped in Game 6, leaving passive games and wanted posters behind. The 76ers played against Harris early in the 6th game. Although this did not bring immediate results to the Philadelphia team, the move finally paid off. Harris got into trouble and helped the team. Attacked for a long time. The game on Friday night. For the 76ers, this is the focus of a game. Harris told reporters that no matter what all of us outside say after the 5th game, they will support it.

“No one in our locker room is really worried about my game,” Harris said on Friday. “It’s like, hey, we have to let you participate in the game earlier, so at the end of the game, we will not try to get you into the rhythm in the fourth quarter… Guys in the team “Trust me as A player, hopes me success, hopes our team succeeds. We all encourage each other in various aspects of the game. “

Leaving aside the mistakes in Game 5—it’s admittedly hard to put aside—Harris has performed well in these playoffs, much better than any of his previous appearances. He has been the leader of Philadelphia on and off the field throughout the season, and his other strong effort will greatly help in a battle with Milwaukee in the conference finals.

How the game is played

Working for NBA teams and players is 24/7 work. If the call is not done your way, there are many ways to get the attention of officials. You can yell and pick up techniques to prove a point, lobby them by listening during the timeout, and in critical situations, you can lobby them to act together through the media and publicize your complaints on the podium.

Broadly speaking, Embiid is respected by officials because he spends a lot of time in small chats when no one is watching. But he chose to take the lobbying route after the 76ers’ sixth victory, putting pressure on the referee and entering the climax of the final game.

“I was hacked all night, I think I didn’t get a free throw chance [line] Until the fourth quarter,” Embiid said. “I told them they must call both ways. We have a group of people, whether it is Ben or Tobias, who are in foul trouble. I just think it’s not a two-way street, especially because when he came to us, they had very little contact with the point guard. We didn’t get the same thing, so I just want it to be called in two ways. If we were to make a phone call, it should be the same way as their point guard does nothing. When I get or I get touched, they will say the same thing to me. “

“I think he is right, I think the big men take more freedom and don’t have a phone,” Doc Rivers added on Saturday. “There was a push in front of our bench. Trey just pushed Ben away and Ben barely moved, but it gave Trey an advantage. I asked the referee if Ben did this to Trey, it would be an offense. Foul. This is what this is. We got three free throws at halftime…Big guy, I complained to the competition committee about this, it looks like you can treat them as you please, and you can’t take a defender on a three-pointer. Go free. I don’t agree, but that’s the truth.”

You have to love the trivialities of the seven-game series-Embiid only refers to Young as a “point guard”, which is the kind of thing you will only be treated when there is a real resentment. If the series had started without hostility before, there must be now.

The refereeing tasks announced on the morning of the game throughout the season were handed over to the 76ers, which included James Cappers, Kane Fitzgerald and Sean Wright. They are not household names that 76ers fans seem to be afraid of at these moments (look at you, Scott Foster and the Tony brothers), but each of them has their own way of looking at a game that will shape the night in some way game.

Broadly speaking, Capers and Fitzgerald are in the opposite range. Capers prefer to let men play, while Fitzgerald allows less leeway on rough things. For Philadelphia, this may be two ways-they certainly hope to get some contact while defending Tre Young, but Embiid clearly wants to hit the free throw line more than in Game 6. All things being equal, I guess they would rather see the officials swallow the whistle, because it might be better for their defense, rather than hurting them on offense, Embiid can get through contact if necessary To provide motivation.

After all, my opinion of referees is always the same. This is almost always a factor in one way or another. All you can really ask for is the relatively stable performance of officials. However, if your destiny is in the hands of the referee, especially as the more talented team that owns the home court in the seventh game, then you will have a loss, not a zebra. If we talk about this after the game, there is a problem.

---

Follow Kyle on Twitter: @Kyle newback

Like us on Facebook: Voice of Philadelphia Sports

Subscribe to Kyle’s 76ers podcast “The New Slant” apple, Google, with Spotify