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Even though the Philadelphia 76ers dropped their series opener against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday amidst a cellphone controversy and some back talk between Ben Simmons and some fans, they are remaining positive, including Jimmy Butler.
Speaking of Butler, he was easily the best player on the floor for Philly in Game 1. He posted 36 points and nine rebounds. He spoke to ESPN reporter Dave McMenamin about never getting too low following a loss and staying in the moment:
Article Continues Below“We're fortunate,” Butler said, even though his No. 3-seeded Sixers dropped the series opener to the No. 6-seeded Nets 111-102 on Saturday. “We get to play basketball every day. We're in the playoffs, we're the 3-seed. We're happy. It could be a lot worse. We could be down 0-4, but we're not.
“So, we're not going to worry about it, man. We're going into this bad baby [Monday] thinking we're going to win.”
The Sixers have arguably the best starting rotation in basketball when Jimmy Butler, Simmons, Tobias Harris, and Joel Embiid all share the floor. Yet, despite scoring 22 points, Embiid made just 5 of 15 shot attempts. Harris scored just four points on only seven shot attempts despite playing 41 minutes. Simmons posted the worst plus-minus while also making just one his five free-throw attempts.
While it is just one game, all of the extracurricular episodes and dramas surrounding Philadelphia's loss did very little to inspire hope against the upstart Nets.
Having stolen the home-court advantage, Brooklyn will be hoping to send another message on Monday night. On the other hand, Butler and Company will be aiming to even the series before heading to the Barclays Center.
