Sixers Notes: Jerami Grant witnessed brother's valiant try vs. Kentucky

CLEVELAND - Jerami Grant almost witnessed his older brother, Jerian, slay the Goliath of college basketball.

Jerian Grant, a senior guard at Notre Dame, misfired on a last-second three-pointer Saturday night as Kentucky escaped with a 68-66 victory in the Midwest Regional final at Quicken Loans Arena.

With the 76ers in town for Sunday's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Jerami Grant attended the regional final with his family. Former NBA player Harvey Grant is their father.

The rookie forward out of Syracuse said the atmosphere made him miss college ball a little bit. He was swept away by the intensity of the crowd and the players and how hard the teams were playing.

"It's kind of similar to the playoffs in the NBA," Grant said. "Just seeing that is just exciting for everyone."

Notre Dame (32-6) nearly pulled off a huge upset. The Irish led the Wildcats (38-0) for most of the second half. And with his team down two, Jerian was forced to rush a three-pointer at the buzzer. He scored 15 points.

"It was a tough shot," Jerami Grant said. "When he released it, maybe I didn't think it was going in. But the closer it got to the basket, it looked good to me."

Cavaliers opponents can't just focus on stopping LeBron James in their game planning. If so, Kyrie Irving and/or Kevin Love and members of their supporting cast will hurt them.

"You can't [look] past LeBron, I still believe that," Sixers coach Brett Brown said. "But, my goodness, when you start talking about who they are playing, you know J.R. [Smith] and those guys found a role. [Timofey] Mozgov found a role. They really pieced together quite a special team."