Sixers hit ‘growing pains’ in two high-profile matchups, including Jaylen Brown’s first game vs. Boston
Brown totaled 13 points and four turnovers in the Sixers' 123-101 loss to Boston Tuesday, on the heels of LeBron James' poor performance in his first return to Cleveland as a Sixer last week.
Nick Nurse grabbed Jaylen Brown for a chat Tuesday morning, hoping to gauge his emotions entering his first regular-season game against the Boston Celtics. Brown expressed excitement to his new coach about the opportunity to face his former team, but not “in a personal way,” Nurse said.
After a transformative offseason — which included adding the additional hubbub that surrounds any roster with LeBron James — the 76ers’ collective belief was that they would get every opponent’s best shot. Their 9-3 start has already featured eight “clutch” wins, along with victories at the New York Knicks on their championship ring night and in a dramatic comeback over the Cleveland Cavaliers in their home opener.
But in their last two circle-the-date games — James’ return to Cleveland last Friday, and Brown’s first clash against the team for which he spent his first 10 NBA seasons — the Sixers have gone splat. They were blown out both times — the Celtics pulled away to a 123-101 victory Tuesday — and both players at the center of the pregame build-up had their worst individual performances as Sixers. Brown against the Celtics totaled 13 points and four turnovers, and struggled with foul trouble throughout the night.
» READ MORE: Jaylen Brown faces Celtics for first time, but former Sixer Paul George steals show in Boston’s blowout win
“We’re still learning each other and learning how to play with each other,” teammate Dean Wade said when asked after the game about takeaways from these early high-profile games. “It’s going to take games like this, and some bad stretches, to mold us a little better and get us a little tighter. So we’re growing, and there’s growing pains.”
Wade, also a former Cavalier who played against his old team for the first time Friday, acknowledged it was “pretty hard to get real locked into the game and not let your emotions kind of just take you a little higher.” He went scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting that night, while James had eight points on 3-of-12 shooting and six turnovers.
Brown, meanwhile, said he did not have “any emotion” entering Tuesday’s game against Boston and instead was “locked in. I was focused. I was ready to go.” All-NBA guard Tyrese Maxey, a locker room tone-setter and leader, said he tried “to be there” for Brown “as much as possible.” And while Wade told teammate Kentavious Caldwell-Pope that Xfinity Mobile Arena felt like a playoff environment Tuesday, Joel Embiid said it felt like a typical Sixers-Celtics rivalry matchup.
“I didn’t think it was anything special [compared to] what it is usually,” said Embiid, whose frequent matchups against Boston included last spring’s thrilling seven-game comeback in the playoffs’ first round. “… The fans were into it. So to me, it was just a normal regular-season game.”
Paul George, whom the Celtics received in exchange for Brown in the summer’s shocking blockbuster trade, echoed at Tuesday’s shootaround that he would treat his Philly return as a normal game. It was his fourth time coming back to a former playing destination. And he was the star of the night, amassing 36 points including 6-of-11 from three-point range.
That George, a former perennial All-Star, would be so used to these types of games speaks to the transient nature for players and coaches in the modern NBA.
» READ MORE: Murphy: The Celtics’ blowout win is a wake-up call for the Sixers shooters … though we use that term loosely
Nurse also has past experience with Kawhi Leonard, who in 2018 was unexpectedly traded from the San Antonio Spurs to the Toronto Raptors. So with Brown on Tuesday, Nurse said he wanted to broach the subject of any brewing emotions and “see if it leads to, ‘OK, see me in my office after practice.’” Then as the game unfolded, the coach said he would adjust communication with Brown accordingly.
Following an awkward pre-tipoff moment between Brown and former Celtics co-star Jayson Tatum, there was no out-of-control spice. Foul trouble kept Brown off the court and “derailed” his rhythm, he said. And when asked after the game if he felt “relief” that this night was finally over — after public scrutiny about his game and relationship with Tatum — Brown said frustration was his more prevalent emotion.
“I wanted to perform better for my team,” Brown said. “… It’s unfortunate, but now we got to — let’s move on to the next.”
Immediately, that is Thursday’s home date with the Toronto Raptors. Yet more games with immense pregame build-up remain on the Sixers’ schedule. James’ first game against the Los Angeles Lakers, the team for which he played eight seasons before departing for the Sixers in free agency, is on Christmas Day. He then will go back to Miami, where he won two championships with the Heat and considered a reunion with this past summer, on Jan. 30.
About a week before that, Brown will play in Boston as a visitor for the first time on Jan. 21. That atmosphere likely will be even more supercharged than Tuesday’s in Philly.
So the Sixers must turn the growing pains from these early-season circle-the-date games into actual growth. Because, before a reporter could finish a question to Maxey about how they have handled such marquee matchups, the star point guard interjected with this:
“I don’t think that’s going to stop now with this group.”
