PHILADELPHIA _ Jimmy Butler couldn't have been more confident in himself and his 76ers team.
He had good reason to be confident in himself after a scoring a playoff career-high 36 points in Saturday's 111-102 loss to the visiting Brooklyn Nets in the opening of their Eastern Conference playoff series.
Confidence in his team?
That takes a little bit more convincing as the Sixers look to even the series with Monday's 8 p.m. game at the Wells Fargo Center.
After Sunday's practice, Butler had a sunny outlook following his team's gloomy Game 1 performance.
"We are fortunate, we are getting to play basketball every day, we are in the playoffs, the third seed," Butler said. "We are happy; it could be worse."
He was really taking a positive outlook.
"We could be down 0-4 and we are not," he said. "We are not worried about it. We are going into the game (Monday) thinking we can win."
It will be hard to make that a reality if the Sixers don't improve on their 3-for-25 3-point shooting in Game 1. Even 12 percent 3-point shooting couldn't get Butler down.
"I hope we get the same ones (shots on Monday) because I know they are going to go in," Butler said. "Everybody is working on their shots. We are confident, comfortable, we just have to keep playing the style of basketball we know how to play."
