John Smallwood: Young Sixers getting on-the-job training Posted on April 29th
PERHAPS the youngest 76er of them all has the best approach for tonight’s pivotal Game 5 of the team’s Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Detroit Pistons.
If you don’t know what you don’t know, don’t worry about it and just go play.
“I’m just going out there, playing basketball and having fun,” said Thaddeus Young, who, at 19 years, 10 months, is the second-youngest
player in the NBA, behind Seattle’s Kevin Durant. “I’m not looking at this as playoff games. I’m looking at them as regular games.
“I know that things are more intense and there is more pressure. I’m taking it as a playoff game, but I’m also going into it with the mind-set that it’s still just another game.”
There is a lot to what Young said.
Yes, with the series tied, 2-2, whoever emerges tonight as the victor at the Palace of Auburn Hills, will be only one win away from moving on in the playoffs, and the loser will be one game away from calling it a season. But no matter how high the stakes, it’s still the same game - played under the same rules, on the same size court, with the same basketball - the Sixers played 82 times during the regular season.
To view it as more than that only adds another layer of anxiety to what already is the most anxious moment of most of these young Sixers’ basketball lives.
“Don’t get me wrong, because it’s definitely a different level,” said Young, who is averaging 11.5 points and 4.8 rebounds in 27.8 minutes in his first playoff experience. “The guys are much more aggressive and going at you every play. But it’s just a matter of going out there and trying to match [the Pistons’] intensity and be as aggressive as they are.”
Certainly, this is new for the Sixers. Coming into the series, their starting five of Young, Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller, Willie Green and Samuel Dalembert had 30 combined games of playoff experience.
Reserve forward Reggie Evans, who played 16 playoff games with the Seattle SuperSonics, is the only other player in the Sixers’ nine-man rotation with any playoff experience.
For Young, guard Lou Williams, swingman Rodney Carney and forward Jason Smith, the last four games against the Pistons have been the first four of their playoff careers.
By comparison, Detroit starters Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace have all played at least 100 playoff games, including this series. Forward Antonio McDyess’ 67 games are more than the Sixers’ rotation combined.
Still, while Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks has stressed that virtually each game and situation has offered a new learning experience for his young squad, he has been pleased with his players’ overall reaction.
“The first game, the way we played the first half was very visible of a team in its first playoff game,” Cheeks said. “In the second half, I think we settled down and got ourselves going again.
“I think overall, for the first playoff experience for a lot of our young guys, I like the composure they’ve showed. A lot of it has been game by game. A lot of it has been the learning experience of how to bounce back and do different things. How to play off what Detroit is doing.”
The learning process for this team is unavoidable. The problem is that lessons are being taught on a pass/fail basis, with time running down. During the regular season, it always seems as if there is another game to apply the lessons learned from the previous one.
In the playoffs, you get three strikes to figure out everything you need to know.
“It’s been about growth,” said the 21-year-old Williams, who is averaging 11.3 points off the bench, but, as his 37.5 percent shooting indicates, is finding it much more difficult to get the good looks he found during the regular season.
“Every game, I look forward to trying to learn something new and helping us win,” he said. “Personally, I haven’t gotten the shots I’ve been used to, getting layups, getting to the rim.
“It just creates challenges to learn to get around. It’s all part of the playoff setting. It’s something I’ve gotten used to at this point. It’s still just basketball at the end of the day. The only thing that’s different is that it is a lot more physical, and teams definitely concentrate on stopping you from what you do best.
“It’s all part of the learning process.”
Since that is the case, the best thing the Sixers can do in this now-best-of-three series is take Young’s advice, not worry about things and just do what they do best - play basketball. *
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