Notable Quotes from Sixers vs. Bucks Postgame

Brett Brown

On Joel Embiid…

I think for the time that he hasn’t played basketball, he had an amazing game. Really, when you think he hasn’t played with us or been with us for what is it now, eight days? I think you look at his stat line, it just confirms how dominant he can be. I think the thing that we feel is we just haven’t been playing with each other. You feel uncertain a little bit. Discombobulated at the end when it mattered most. But I think in general, I mean statistically when you look at what he did, it’s eye-popping.

On if he thinks this group of starters has played together enough that going into the playoffs he really knows who his team is…

No. Why would anybody expect me to say anything different? It’s to nobody’s fault. We’re in a situation where our starters have played 10 of 25 games with each other. So you’re going to play teams that are teams and have been playing - pick ‘em, Detroit, Toronto, Milwaukee, - whoever you want. You know, Indiana took a hit with [Victor] Oladipo, but you know that hasn’t been our path. So be it. Like I’ve said, nobody’s crying about it, I’m not crying about it. I’m trying to own it, one, and two, in a twisted way, embrace it and what does that really mean? And what it means is, you get talent, that’s a good starting point. So now how do you conquer simple, master vanilla, whatever phrase I keep throwing out that I mean. I genuinely mean it.

On keeping everyone healthy…

You don’t have the wiggle room to absorb injuries to these guys. You need everybody firing and healthy to take a legitimate run at a deep playoff run.

Mike Scott

On his rhythm tonight…

It felt good to see the ball go in again. The past couple games I’ve been struggling, so it just felt good to see that go in.

On what happened in the fourth quarter defensively…

Yeah, I’ve got to watch that film again, but I felt it was a lot of transition. They got a lot of offensive rebounds. Giannis [Antetokounmpo] kind of controlled the paint, got to the free-throw line, got dunks. I don’t know. I probably got to watch that film over. It wasn’t good though.

On how important it was for him to jump in for Joel Embiid during the scuffle with Eric Bledsoe…

Yeah, I mean, I’m always going to ride. That’s just how I am. I mean, there’s right or wrong. If it’s wrong, we’ll talk about it after the game, but during the game that’s just how I am.

JJ Redick

On if there was one particular thing late in the game that was a deciding factor…

There’s a couple of plays where we didn’t come up with loose balls and they scored on those plays. To me, that was really the game. Much more than what happened after it was 119-119. To me, the game was in our control and there were just a couple plays where we just got hurt not coming up with loose balls. Obviously, Zhaire’s [Smith] play, I mean he had a tough break on that layup and then they come down and hit a three right away. You know, that’s a huge swing at that point in the game. And then, Joel [Embiid] blocks George Hill, we don’t come up with it, they score again. It just felt like we were in control and then those plays happen, all of a sudden you look up and it’s a tie game and there’s a minute left or whatever it was.

On if the Bucks guard differently…

There are a few teams that have done that this year. Just in terms of what you would call ‘top blocking,’ but they kind of do it to an extreme. Basically, as soon as I cross half court. Joe Ingles did that to me for an entire series when we played Utah [Jazz]. You know, Ben [Simmons] and I had a good thing going tonight at times and then if they chose to keep their big back with Joel, if I was able to come off Joel at any point in time, it was an open shot.

On if the team is as playoff-ready as they were last year on April 4…

Well, we didn’t have Joel healthy then either. So, I don’t know. You want your best player to be healthy and in a rhythm. Obviously, not playing for a week, at times he looked a little rusty. He still had a monster game because he’s one of the five best players in the world. I would love for him to be able to be out there and us to all have five starters be healthy and feel like we’re in a rhythm. That’s probably not going to happen at this point, if we’re being realistic, so we’ll just have to make the most of the last few games and hope to secure third.

Joel Embiid

On the intensity of tonight’s game…

It was great. Both teams competed and it was a great atmosphere, so it felt like a playoff game. It was a bad loss, thought we had it, but we’ve got to move on. Onto the next one.

On how he feels at the three-point line…

Everybody just kept telling me to shoot it. I mean, if I shot every time I was open, I guess would have put up at least 25 threes, but I know how to pick and choose my moments. Sometimes I shot it, sometimes I went to find JJ [Redick], so you’ve just got to mix it up and play and leave them guessing.

On missing Jimmy Butler tonight…

He’s our closer. In the fourth quarter, it’s either him or me. So we needed him definitely for that. And then also defensively, I thought we did a poor job in the fourth quarter starting with me.

On going into the playoffs…

I feel like we already understand each other really well. We all have a great relationship and that helps a lot on the court so I don’t really see any problems. Everything changes in the playoffs, players got to make plays; it’s based on talent and we are going to be fine.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

On the playoff-like atmosphere…

Of course the intensity was really high. You know, both teams made it to the playoffs, both teams are really great teams. A few weeks ago they beat us at home. We just wanted to come out here and play good basketball and try to get a win.

On helping Brook Lopez against Joel Embiid…

I was just trying to help Brook out. He’s a great post-up player, great scorer. It’s hard to go one-on-one. So I was just trying to be sneaky so they wouldn’t see me come block from behind or try to come in and help him.