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Sixers expecting Nets to ratchet up physicality

“It doesn’t take much to predict that this will be a physical game. And so be it. It’s the NBA playoffs.”

Sixers guard JJ Redick defending Nets forward Joe Harris in Game 2.
Sixers guard JJ Redick defending Nets forward Joe Harris in Game 2.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

NEW YORK — The 76ers expect the Brooklyn Nets to elevate their physicality in Game 3.

“I think they have to,” Ben Simmons said of Thursday night’s opening-round playoff game at the Barclays Center. “I think they absolutely have to, and that is what we expect.”

But can the Nets match the Sixers physically?

“Physically, I don’t think they can,” Simmons said. “We have guys who are able to be physical down low in the paint, but time will tell.”

That was obvious in Game 2 when Joel Embiid decked Nets center Jarrett Allen with an elbow to the mouth. The Sixers’ two-time All-Star received a flagrant foul 1 for his actions.

Embiid said it wasn’t intentional, and chuckled over the incident during his postgame press conference. The Nets felt disrespected by the laughter.

One can assume that Brooklyn would at least try to send a message that Embiid’s laughter was uncalled for.

“You sort of just pay attention to the rhetoric,” Brett Brown said of expecting the Nets to be physical. “You just feel just like what you expect their adjustments maybe will be in Game 3. We, like, all try to predict the future.

“It doesn’t take much to predict that this will be a physical game. And so be it. It’s the NBA playoffs.”

However, Brown spoke to his players about the importance of not getting baited into an altercation.

He bought up his experience as a San Antonio Spurs assistant during the 2007 NBA playoffs. With 20 seconds left in Game 4, Spurs forward Robert Horry nudged Phoenix point guard Steve Nash into the scorer’s table at midcourt. Horry was ejected. The Suns held on to win, 104-98, to even the series.

Horry was suspended for the next two games, and Phoenix’s Amar’e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were also suspended a game for leaving the bench during the altercation.

The Spurs defeated the undermanned Suns in Game 5 and closed out the series in Game 6.

“That is 12 years ago,” Brown said, “but there’s a professional discipline and poise you still need as you navigate what will be a physical game tonight.”

Jimmy Butler hopes the Nets are more physical.

“I am all for physicality,” he said. "I think a lot of the guys on our team are.”

He said the Sixers are expecting everything from the Nets.

"We know we are going to get their best punch,” Butler said. “We are coming back to their crib. First time in a long time, they want this one just as bad as we want.”