Going up 3-0 on the Toronto Raptors may have felt like the end of the Sixers' first-round series to most people, and the numbers suggest that is the case as well. But the Sixers don't really want to hear about that right now. Nobody on their end wants to risk the downside of talking and acting like the series is over, lest they lose the stable footing they have at the moment.
With players going down on contenders around the league — injuries to Khris Middleton and Devin Booker have the chance to shift the title race — the Sixers have been reminded of what can change in one game for their own team, a year after dealing with their own adversity at the tail end of round 1.
"You cannot take any game for granted in the playoffs. Last year, we forget that we were up 3-0 and Joel gets hurt in Game 4, that looked like a bad injury," Rivers said. "What if that had happened? Now all of a sudden, the whole series changed. You got to take care of business, and you got to do it with great focus."
In the same breath that you could call Philadelphia's win a soul-crushing defeat for Toronto, it's also fair to point out that Toronto was finally able to leave their influence on how the games have been played. The Sixers were and are unhappy with their ball security issues and lapses on the defensive glass, but Toronto's desperation level played a big part in how Game 3 unfolded. Presumably, Game 4 should feature Toronto's collective best on all fronts, a back-against-the-wall effort mixed with exotic wrinkles and curveballs to upset Philadelphia's rhythm.
The Sixers have no interest in allowing the Raptors to build any sort of momentum or hope on Saturday afternoon. And there's incentive beyond simply finishing the series if they can get that fourth win — Philadelphia could earn themselves a relaxing week off from games if they can close out a sweep, a situation we've already seen them take advantage of coming into this series.
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Rivers and his players don't want to look ahead yet, but we can afford to. The Miami Heat are a much more dangerous opponent than this Raptors group, a defensive-minded team with a better halfcourt offense and a pair of playoff-tested perimeter players in Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry. They have more natural options to guard Embiid, and they will demand more of Harden as a scorer. Miami does concede a lot of corner threes, a trait they share with the Raptors, but they are not as reliant on transition and offensive rebounding the way Toronto is. They're an opponent against whom extra prep time will be valuable.
But?
"We don't really look ahead right now of the second round, it's just right in the moment of one game we need to play and we need to win. That's what the playoffs are about," Tobias Harris said Friday. "For us, it's really just being locked into the moment and staying with it, excelling in that time."
"Guys have ailments, we're going to need to rest, we're going to need to focus to get some guys back in rhythm, get legs under us," Danny Green added. "It's a chance to focus on the next opponent. We got to get there first though. The job is not done."
At the top of the list in the "ailments" category is Joel Embiid, who showed up to practice with the same soft brace on his wrist that he had on during his postgame session with the media following Game 3:
At practice Friday, Embiid told PhillyVoice that the wrist and right thumb is a bit sore, suggesting he might end up getting an MRI once he returns from Toronto to get a better idea of what they're dealing with. But he reiterated that he is fine after telling reporters it would not keep him out of Game 4 earlier this week, and his head coach told the media that it had no impact on how they handled their day of work.
"He's good," Rivers said. "We did a lot of stuff, we just don't want anybody to hit his arm and all that, but he was fine."
Even still, an opportunity to get Embiid a bit of time to play against friendly competition in practice, rather than a hostile opponent, will ensure that they can keep it out of harm's way. Beyond the big man, Harden getting another physical ramp-up period would be a significant boon, and the vets on the roster would likely all be thankful for the chance to rest a bit this deep into the season.
Danny Green has seen his role increase considerably during this series, both because he is in a good run of form and because of Matisse Thybulle's inability to enter Canada. And as the guy with the most championship-level experience in this group, he knows good and well that this final step is the toughest.
"It's the hardest game of the series, the next one is a closeout game, the hardest one to win. The sooner we can get this series over, the longer we each have to rest. We got to come in locked in, focused," Green said. "We can't take them lightly, we got to get this done so we can take care of our bodies."
A 2 p.m. Saturday tip for a Game 4 sweep opportunity presents all sorts of landmines for the team in the driver's seat, a weird setting with uncertain combatants. Scottie Barnes, who sounded like a surer bet to play earlier this week, continues to be listed as doubtful for the Raptors, who have been understandably cagy about their health woes all week.
The message for Philly, as it has been for two months and counting, has been to simply focus on being the best version of themselves. All the matchup funkiness has resulted in little traction for Toronto so far, the Sixers standing tall as the far superior outfit. And though they will have you know the job is still there to be completed, they know good and well how much they already gained from a week to work in practice, an opportunity they could claim again with a matinee W in Toronto.
"You're seeing ball movement, you're seeing the continuity," Rivers said. "The fact that James had a chance to have a mini-training camp was huge for this team. We were playing basketball on the fly up until that point. Our side out of bounds are now working, our baseline outs are working. We actually know the calls. Those things help us, and each game we get better, we really do."
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