Speaker 1: A brand new, fresh podcast on the seventy six Ers
Speaker 1: Podcast Network is coming your way in just a moment.
Speaker 1: But first, I've got an important question for you. Have
Speaker 1: you ever heard of something called Ninja versus Unicorn? What
Speaker 1: about Death by Glitter? No? Well, if you have heard
Speaker 1: of those things, you probably, like myself, are a pretty
Speaker 1: big fan of craft beer. That happened to be a
Speaker 1: couple of outstanding IPAs that are either currently on tap
Speaker 1: or are waiting on deck at the Beer Garden in
Speaker 1: Parks Casino. Not in the craft beer Well, that is
Speaker 1: totally fine, because the Beer Garden also has the classics
Speaker 1: bud Light, Yengling, It's got Victory, Goose Island, Stella, Local, Domestic.
Speaker 1: Anywhere on the planet there is an outstanding beer selection
Speaker 1: waiting for you at the Beer Garden in Parks Casino.
Speaker 1: What could this possibly have to do with the seventy
Speaker 1: six Ers podcast. Well, on March twenty fourth, it is
Speaker 1: the next seventy Sixers Night at the Beer Garden in
Speaker 1: Parks Casino. You get to cheer on the seventy Sixers,
Speaker 1: hang out with seventy Sixers Entertainment team members, and what
Speaker 1: is perhaps arguably the most important detail of all, you
Speaker 1: get one complimentary drink and light appetizers on the house
Speaker 1: from the great people at Parks Casino. If I weren't
Speaker 1: working that night, I would most definitely be there, but
Speaker 1: working is what I will be doing instead. You should
Speaker 1: get there March twenty fourth, Parks Casino at the Beer
Speaker 1: Garden for the next seventy Sixers night should be an
Speaker 1: awesome time. Now it's time for the pod. The seventy
Speaker 1: Sixers are back from the All Star break and they
Speaker 1: returned in a big way. The final buzzer signals the
Speaker 1: end of an overtime win for the Sixers, their first
Speaker 1: overtime victory of the year. Up next another major test
Speaker 1: Saturday Night in the primetime spot in Milwaukee Game. I
Speaker 1: still feel like I am getting to know the seventies Sixers,
Speaker 1: even at this point in the season. If the joell
Speaker 1: embeat that showed up against the Nets as the Joel
Speaker 1: embad that shows up, I have a lot of confidence
Speaker 1: in what the Sixers can do. That's ESPN reporter Malika Andrews,
Speaker 1: and she'll weigh in on all things Sixers and Bucks
Speaker 1: on this episode of the broadcast. What's up, everybody, How
Speaker 1: you doing I'm Brian Seltzer. I hope you had a
Speaker 1: great All Star Game break. I personally was not like
Speaker 1: many of the hard working people in my department at
Speaker 1: the seventy sixers. I was not in Chicago. I enjoyed
Speaker 1: watching what was an outstanding All Star game, featured great
Speaker 1: performances from two seventy sixers, Ben Simmons and Joel Ebad
Speaker 1: from the comforts of a remote, semi isolated location, but
Speaker 1: it was great. Joe and Ben were awesome. If you
Speaker 1: had a memorable tushy tap, two really good performances by
Speaker 1: two really talented dudes. All and off from the seventy
Speaker 1: six ers standpoints, they were well represented in the Windy City.
Speaker 1: Coming up, we will speak with Melika Andrews from ESPN.
Speaker 1: She will be in Milwaukee for ESPN's Big NBA Saturday
Speaker 1: primetime game on ABC exclusively on ABC Saturday, eight thirty Eastern.
Speaker 1: But first I want to remind you that to subscribe
Speaker 1: to our pod feed, all you gotta do is go
Speaker 1: to anywhere you get your podcasts, type in seventy six
Speaker 1: Ers podcast or Sixers podcast Network and that'll take you
Speaker 1: to our feed, and you can subscribe on Spotify Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: Google Podcasts, tune in, Stitcher, SoundCloud, wherever you get your pods,
Speaker 1: there we shall be and we hope you subscribe right now.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna be honest. This gig that I've got
Speaker 1: it is not a particularly hard one. You know, as
Speaker 1: passionate as we are about sports, covering a team is
Speaker 1: not like a true, true matter of life or death.
Speaker 1: I'm not a surgeon anything as serious as that. I'm
Speaker 1: not working the overnight shift on the Northeast Extension expanding
Speaker 1: the highway. This is a relatively pleasant gig. But each year,
Speaker 1: if I'm being totally honest, I am very much ready
Speaker 1: for the All Star break to come. It's an opportunity
Speaker 1: to recharge the batteries, reset for a couple of days,
Speaker 1: get the mind and body right. Then you know, maybe
Speaker 1: after four days I get the etch again. I want
Speaker 1: to be in an arena, see some action. I'm ready
Speaker 1: for more. And given what we saw from the seventy
Speaker 1: six Ers in the last game before the break, I
Speaker 1: was excited. I was eager to see if they could
Speaker 1: carry that momentum over. On the eve of the sixers
Speaker 1: first game back, the team practiced in Camden and there
Speaker 1: was no mistaking what Brett I was saying. The head
Speaker 1: coach sounded certain his seven foot all star was poised
Speaker 1: for big things. I think like he is in a
Speaker 1: space that is excellent as it relates to his excitement
Speaker 1: seeing this final third home to grab the team by
Speaker 1: the throat and lead us in a bunch of different areas.
Speaker 1: I've been with him a long time, and when I
Speaker 1: look at him and I talk to him, and I
Speaker 1: hear his words, and you know, we're always sort of
Speaker 1: like you would with your children, judging their body language
Speaker 1: and all that, I just think he's in a really
Speaker 1: good space. And sure enough, man did Joe ellenbiid ever
Speaker 1: deliver Thursday night against the Brooklyn Nets and the Sixers
Speaker 1: one twelve, one oh four overtime one. Here's duel downlow
Speaker 1: against Alan, comes into the nearer corner, it beat baseline,
Speaker 1: shoots it on Allan and that's good man. He's on
Speaker 1: the fire. Here's with running shot, Noah, he reps the
Speaker 1: rebound out Patty slams it in Joel and be with
Speaker 1: a big time offensive rebound and a dove. Here's Joel, boy,
Speaker 1: What a move by me right on the yard right
Speaker 1: yuard a euro Step and it bead bimics his old
Speaker 1: movies he changes in afterwards embed was understandably and bolded
Speaker 1: I'm here, I belong him being the best player in
Speaker 1: the ward. You know, I just intend to just um,
Speaker 1: you know, keep coming out every single night and just
Speaker 1: play hard and trying to get wins and you know,
Speaker 1: just go out and trying to win a championship. Love
Speaker 1: seeing Joel Embiid look good on the court, but really
Speaker 1: love hearing him sound good, confident, with that swagger and
Speaker 1: sense of self assuredness and self belief. It was a
Speaker 1: vintage Joel embiad performance and Thursday's win thirty nine points,
Speaker 1: a season high, sixteen rebounds, two block shots, the biggest one,
Speaker 1: of course, sending the game to overtime on Wilson Chandler
Speaker 1: and for my money, probably Joe's. I would put it
Speaker 1: as his second best performance of the season. My favorite
Speaker 1: still the December game at Boston when he totally took over.
Speaker 1: But man, he was damn good in the victory on Thursday.
Speaker 1: I'll have an opportunity to back it up along with
Speaker 1: the seventy sixers when they faced the Milwaukee Bucks at
Speaker 1: fiveser Form Saturday, Night eight thirty exclusively on ABC Saturday
Speaker 1: Primetime ESPN. NBA reporter Malika Andrews is going to be
Speaker 1: at the game, and we bring it on the podcast
Speaker 1: now to preview it. Molika, how you doing. I'm doing
Speaker 1: just fine, you know, running around like all of us
Speaker 1: are all the time. But other than that, I can't complain.
Speaker 1: It is the busy time of the regular season. In
Speaker 1: the NBA trade deadline done, we still got to buy
Speaker 1: out market stuff. But this is the true home stretch.
Speaker 1: Big game on Saturday Night, Sixers Bucks. What type of
Speaker 1: weight do you assign to regular season games once the
Speaker 1: All Star break passes? You know, it's interesting because when
Speaker 1: we're talking about the Bucks, it seems like for them
Speaker 1: waiting and as you hear, I'm at an airport. When
Speaker 1: it comes to the Bucks a regular season game, you know,
Speaker 1: they pretty much at this point, even though they still
Speaker 1: have twenty something games left, have the one seed locked up.
Speaker 1: They have such a sizeable lead on the Raptors and
Speaker 1: it's hard to see anybody catching them. That being said,
Speaker 1: how I evaluate the rest of these regular season games
Speaker 1: is looking at the matchups that we could potentially see
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and so sixers Bucks is absolutely one
Speaker 1: of those matchups. They're both very strong teams in the East.
Speaker 1: They both have superstars on their teams. They have excellent
Speaker 1: pieces surrounding those superstars. And so that's sort of how
Speaker 1: much I look into that. I look at, Okay, what
Speaker 1: things here can transfer to the playoffs. That being said,
Speaker 1: the Bucks dominated the Raptors in the regular season last year,
Speaker 1: and then we saw them, you know, lose four games
Speaker 1: in a row, which never happened in the regular season
Speaker 1: to the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference Finals. So
Speaker 1: all your notes can just be up into a million pieces.
Speaker 1: Even if you're taking them diligently and trying to find
Speaker 1: hidden meetings and codes within a regular season game, it
Speaker 1: can be such a tough call at trying to discern
Speaker 1: what's real, what's not real, or what lies in between. Right,
Speaker 1: I certainly want to ask you about the seventy six ers,
Speaker 1: but I know that you have a history spending some
Speaker 1: time around the Milwaukee Bucks before this breakout, fantastic season
Speaker 1: they've been happening. Did you anticipate this type of year
Speaker 1: from the Bucks coming to this extent? You know I did,
Speaker 1: because let me let me tell you why, and not
Speaker 1: to say, you know, I'm the smartest person in the room,
Speaker 1: but we got a taste of it last year, and
Speaker 1: I think that from being around Jannis, I know this.
Speaker 1: I know that Yannis is like a superhero that absorbs
Speaker 1: other people and takes on their superpowers and then comes
Speaker 1: an even bigger cut type of superhero. Right, So when
Speaker 1: he loses in the Eastern Conference finals, when he sees
Speaker 1: what Kauai was able to do, he nods and he says,
Speaker 1: all right, all right, I see that, and I am
Speaker 1: going to rise to that occasion. Now, is it going
Speaker 1: to be perfect? I'm not suggesting that is he an
Speaker 1: amazing three point shooter or no, but we've seen him
Speaker 1: make some significant improvements in those areas, and so that
Speaker 1: should have been a foreshadowing to this season. Now, will
Speaker 1: they win seventy games? I don't know. Are they focused
Speaker 1: on the regular season? I don't think so, because their
Speaker 1: shortcomings last year didn't come in the regular season. They
Speaker 1: came in the playoffs, and so this regular season was
Speaker 1: absolutely coming. Now the question becomes will they be able
Speaker 1: to build on what they started in the playoffs last year.
Speaker 1: Jannie isn't the first type of professional athlete to have,
Speaker 1: at least from a superficial view. In my eyes, this
Speaker 1: type of demeanor whereas this grounded, humble, modest guy away
Speaker 1: from the court, and then when he steps in between
Speaker 1: the lines he becomes this beast. But for his case
Speaker 1: in particular, what makes him tick. Jannis has this combination
Speaker 1: of an amazing physical gifts. His physical body nearly seven
Speaker 1: feet tall, his wingspand is enormous, right, and then you
Speaker 1: couple that with the fact that the man just never
Speaker 1: stops working his work ethic is something that I think
Speaker 1: we don't see as much with this generation of NBA stars.
Speaker 1: That's not to say they don't all take care of
Speaker 1: their bodies, they're not all looking for ways to fine
Speaker 1: tune their game. But Jannie takes it to the nth degree.
Speaker 1: He takes it even farther than I think the average
Speaker 1: player does, and that is something that's incredibly impressive. One
Speaker 1: more question about the Bucks, then we will bring up
Speaker 1: some seventy six or stuff. What sense do you have
Speaker 1: of on their list of items about how they feel
Speaker 1: about their team? What is perhaps the biggest thing on
Speaker 1: their mind that they still despite how good and dominant
Speaker 1: they've been, they need to iron out before the playoffs start.
Speaker 1: I would say that the last big thing that the
Speaker 1: Bucks are concerned about is just one. You know, Janie,
Speaker 1: as hard as he works, he's also had to learn
Speaker 1: to work hard at managing his body and his time.
Speaker 1: You know, in the path, Jannis has gone one hundred
Speaker 1: and ten percent all the time. And then there was
Speaker 1: this question of Okay, is he going to be rested
Speaker 1: and ready for the regular season. I think he's learned
Speaker 1: to be able to take a little bit of a
Speaker 1: step back there. So that's one, and then the second
Speaker 1: thing for the Bucks is just whether or not they're
Speaker 1: going to be able that They're big questions really can't
Speaker 1: be answered in the regular season. Their big questions still
Speaker 1: linger in the playoffs. Their big questions are, you know,
Speaker 1: when it's coming down to the wire, who was going
Speaker 1: to hit those big shots right? Because that's what happened
Speaker 1: last year is defenders shut down Yannis. He wasn't able
Speaker 1: to get to his sweet spots. Has his three game
Speaker 1: evolved enough to be able to hit those clutch minute
Speaker 1: three pointers or will he kicked it out to Eric
Speaker 1: Bloodsoe and regular season Eric bloodso shows up? Or is
Speaker 1: it going to be playoff Erry Bloodso that shows up
Speaker 1: those are the questions that honestly, I don't see the
Speaker 1: Bucks answering in the regular season. Those answers have to
Speaker 1: come in the playoffs. And ironically enough, that's a very
Speaker 1: similar theme for the seventy six ers, but a sense
Speaker 1: of what they could be in the regular season. They
Speaker 1: knew the playoffs would be coming at some point, but
Speaker 1: it's ken they ultimately clear the hurdle from the past
Speaker 1: two years when they've been stopped in the second round.
Speaker 1: So what have you made of the Sixers this year?
Speaker 1: You know, it's still it's hard that you know, we
Speaker 1: say that All Star marks the halfway point, it really doesn't.
Speaker 1: It marks the two thirds point. And what I still
Speaker 1: feel like I am getting to know the seventy sixers
Speaker 1: even at this point in the season. And I say
Speaker 1: that because they are clearly so good. They are so
Speaker 1: good at home, and they are still this waffling team
Speaker 1: on the road and we don't know night tonight which
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid is going to show up. So if the
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid that showed up against the Nets and was
Speaker 1: able to beat them in overtime, as the Joel Embiad
Speaker 1: that shows up. I have a lot of confidence in
Speaker 1: what the Sixers can do, but because they are so sporadic,
Speaker 1: that's where the questions start to come from. Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: obviously a dynamic talent. What impressed you the most about
Speaker 1: that game he had again the nets? How long he
Speaker 1: was able to play. I mean, usually this is a
Speaker 1: guy you're trying to see stay under the you know,
Speaker 1: thirty five minute mark, and he was able to really
Speaker 1: lean in during the playoffs and I think that was
Speaker 1: something that was really impressive from him. And then you know,
Speaker 1: for him, it just so much of it comes down
Speaker 1: to health. Can he stay healthy? He said earlier this
Speaker 1: season that was his goal to go into the playoffs healthy,
Speaker 1: and it's been dicey at times whether or not he's
Speaker 1: been able. He's going to be able to do that.
Speaker 1: Then one of the other pieces of the equation for
Speaker 1: the seventy six ers is Ben Simmons, who defensively has
Speaker 1: been fantastic this year. What growth have you seen from
Speaker 1: him in year three? You know, Ben has been able
Speaker 1: to take a next step. You know, the thing about Ben,
Speaker 1: I don't even know if it's growth so much as
Speaker 1: just as just maturation. He's really been able to evolve,
Speaker 1: just in terms of the way he sees and reads
Speaker 1: the court and his relationship with Joel Embiid. I think
Speaker 1: he knows him a little bit better now. Are there
Speaker 1: questions still lingering about whether or not Joel Embiid and
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons can play together while they're both in their
Speaker 1: prime and if one compliments the other, sure, but I
Speaker 1: do think, you know, he has been able to make
Speaker 1: up for the fact, if you will, that he is
Speaker 1: not the most confident shooter in the way he reads
Speaker 1: the court. But for him too, you know, Joel had
Speaker 1: this monstrous game against the Nets, and where was Ben Simmons?
Speaker 1: He wasn't on the court, and so that kind of
Speaker 1: becomes the question. It's not so much a growth thing
Speaker 1: from either one of those two players, it's a chemistry thing.
Speaker 1: Is it that then has to be on the bench
Speaker 1: for Joel to explode like that? Or can those two
Speaker 1: things happen at the same time, And that's something we're
Speaker 1: kind of still waiting to see. Where do you see
Speaker 1: Al Horford figuring into all of this, because of course
Speaker 1: the last two games the seventy six ers, well, they
Speaker 1: may not be married to this entirely for the rest
Speaker 1: of the season, they brought him off the bench. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we've also seen him and Joel on the floor
Speaker 1: at the same time at times, which has been an
Speaker 1: interesting combination. The thing about Al Horford is when I
Speaker 1: saw that signing for the seventy sixers, in my mind
Speaker 1: it was like, look, he is the honest stopper he
Speaker 1: has had. Even though Boston lost to the Bucks in
Speaker 1: five games last year, he has had a really excellent
Speaker 1: track record defending Janie as excellent as it can be,
Speaker 1: you know, guarding the reigning league MVP. But that's kind
Speaker 1: of where I see him. I see him as the
Speaker 1: experienced voice in mind in the playoffs, and so whether
Speaker 1: or not they keep fiddling in the regular season with
Speaker 1: that lineup will be something that you know, Brett Brown
Speaker 1: has to yet to reveal. It's something that remains to
Speaker 1: be seen. But in the playoffs, I wouldn't I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised to see that be tinkered with just a
Speaker 1: little bit more. And by the way, it's not a
Speaker 1: bad thing to have that be the firepower that's coming
Speaker 1: off your bench. That's a luxury that a lot of
Speaker 1: teams would love to have. As we begin to wrap
Speaker 1: this up, while the seventy sixers is you alluded to,
Speaker 1: have been a little bit mercurial this year, especially between
Speaker 1: the performance at home and on the road, they can
Speaker 1: say that they have at least one victory against to
Speaker 1: the four teams ahead of them in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: When you size up the remainder of this race, what
Speaker 1: do you see as the big obstacles for the seventy sixers.
Speaker 1: There's certain teams you feel they match up better with
Speaker 1: than others. How do you view it? Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: they it's great that they have teams, they have wins
Speaker 1: over those four teams, but you know, as the Bucks
Speaker 1: will tell you, they had three wins I believe over
Speaker 1: the Raptors last year and it didn't make a difference, right,
Speaker 1: So it's sort of like you can only put so
Speaker 1: much stock into that. It's more about how those wins
Speaker 1: came to be. And then my my my thing for
Speaker 1: the seventy sixers and I'm looking for for the rest
Speaker 1: of the season. Again, it's not so much the one
Speaker 1: specific team or one specific matchup for the Sixers. It's
Speaker 1: much more about discovering themselves, I think than any other team. Right,
Speaker 1: it's about whether or not they can win on the road,
Speaker 1: because guess what, in the playoffs, you're going to have
Speaker 1: to win on the road. It's you can't, you can't
Speaker 1: just you can't just win at home and make that work.
Speaker 1: Will we see the same kind of really violent swings
Speaker 1: from them that we've seen earlier in the season, or
Speaker 1: will they ron that out? And then also, you know
Speaker 1: how many different looks can Brett Brown throw at a
Speaker 1: team in the playoffs, because that's the real test of
Speaker 1: the playoffs is that you have at least four games
Speaker 1: against someone to make adjustments. And the Sixers have so
Speaker 1: much diversity in their talent that they really could be
Speaker 1: throwing lots of different looks at teams and really surprising them.
Speaker 1: And that's an advantage that they have. But for me,
Speaker 1: what I need to see from the Sixers for the
Speaker 1: rex of the season, and they know this, They've talked
Speaker 1: about this. It's not so much about what they can
Speaker 1: bring against other teams. It's who they are, just them
Speaker 1: when they're in the locker room, when they're going out
Speaker 1: in the court. What's the Sixers' identity? And I think
Speaker 1: that that's yet to be determined, and that's the edge
Speaker 1: that the Bucks have. It's the edge that they had
Speaker 1: last year, it's the edge that they have this year.
Speaker 1: They have established who they are, what they're about, and
Speaker 1: nothing penetrates that. And I think that that's sort of
Speaker 1: an underrated X factor that comes into play when every little,
Speaker 1: slight advantage counts in the playoffs. Last thing I'll ask you,
Speaker 1: because I feel like he's sometimes get lost in the
Speaker 1: national conversation about the Sixers, which understandably is very focused
Speaker 1: on Joellenbet and Ben's what's the national view on Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris in the year that he's been having. You know,
Speaker 1: I think Tobias is a quietly exceptional player. I think
Speaker 1: that for a lot of people, there was this overshadowing
Speaker 1: of was was Tobias Harris the chosen one over Jimmy Butler?
Speaker 1: And what was the front office brass thinking. But if
Speaker 1: you can remove that cloud, if you can remove thinking
Speaker 1: of it as Tobias Harris versus Jimmy Butler, this was
Speaker 1: the signing they did instead of um, it's really it's
Speaker 1: pretty impressive what he's been able to do, you know,
Speaker 1: is the questions, the linger of whether or not he
Speaker 1: can hit the big shots down the stratch ship. He's
Speaker 1: the clutchman like like Jimmy was, because in that way
Speaker 1: he does have to fill that role. They don't have
Speaker 1: someone necessarily on this team. Um that is as proven
Speaker 1: as Jimmy was in terms of hitting those clutch shots late.
Speaker 1: But Tobias is an excellent shooter. He needs to grow
Speaker 1: into that a little bit. But he's also, um, you
Speaker 1: know from from being around Tobias a little bit. Won't
Speaker 1: purport to say that I've been around him all the time.
Speaker 1: He's also an excellent force to have in the locker
Speaker 1: room for a team that's been up and down and wishywashi.
Speaker 1: He's someone that you want in your locker room to say, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: let's get in on this, let's focus, let's look at
Speaker 1: these things that we're doing wrong. And people will actually
Speaker 1: listen to him. And so in that way too, I
Speaker 1: think he's an important piece for this team. I appreciate
Speaker 1: amidst some jet setting Malika Andrews joining the podcast. Her
Speaker 1: handle on Twitter is at Malika Underscore Andrews Catchers a
Speaker 1: part of ESPN's coverage for Saturday's game exclusively on ABC
Speaker 1: eight thirty Eastern seventy sixers and the Milwaukee Bucks the
Speaker 1: seventy sixers. As of the recording of this podcast, they
Speaker 1: were just a half game out of fourth place in
Speaker 1: a home court spot for the first round of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you, as always for listening to the pod,
Speaker 1: and be on the lookout for rewind episodes between now
Speaker 1: and next week when the broadcast returns. Brian Seltzer talked
Speaker 1: to Estime