PHILADELPHIA _ Things are about to be telling for the 76ers.
They punched their tickets to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second consecutive season with a convincing 122-100 win over the Brooklyn Nets in Game 5 of their conference quarterfinals Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center.
Joel Embiid finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds in just 20 minutes, 22 seconds of action. The two-time All-Star and the Sixers entire starting lineup sat out the fourth quarter on the lopsided game.
Things got testy with 1 minute, 50 seconds remaining. Jonah Bolden and Rodions Kurucs got tangled. The Nets forward shoved Bolden before separating and running down court. Bolden then went after Kurucs. Meanwhile, Sixers reserve Greg Monroe and Nets post player Dzanan Musa also got into it on the court. All four players were ejected.
Winning an opening-round playoff series 4-1 is a solid accomplishment. But that's not how this season will be defined for the Sixers. The expectation of many is for the team to reach at least the Eastern Conference Finals.
With several in-season roster upgrades, duplicating last season's conference semifinals loss to the Boston Celtics would be unacceptable.
So while there was some excitement with advancing, the Sixers realize the pressure is on to defeat the Toronto Raptors.
The Raptors closed out their opening-round series against the Orlando Magic with a 115-96 Game 5 victory Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena.
The Sixers-Raptors series will most likely start on Saturday in Toronto.
The second-seeded Raptors will have home-court advantage in what won't be an easy series for the third-seeded Sixers.
The Sixers have lost 13 straight games in Toronto since a 93-83 win there on Nov. 10, 2012. The Raptors have also won 21 of 24 series meetings dating back to the start of the 2013-14 season. That includes winning three of this season's four regular-season meetings. Their lone victory was a 126-101 win on Dec. 22 when Toronto was without two-time defensive player of the year Kawhi Leonard, Serge Ibaka and former Raptor Jonas Valanciunas.
But the Sixers are a different team since then thanks to several roster-altering trades.
Half of their normal eight-man playoff rotation was acquired on Feb. 7 before the trade deadline. Tobias Harris, the headliner of that day's acquisitions, finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists on Tuesday. Reserves James Ennis III (11 points) and Boban Marjanovic (seven points, seven rebounds, four assists) _ two other trade-deadline additions _ also had solid games.
However, reserve power forward Mike Scott (two points), the fourth newcomer in the regular rotation, left in the second quarter with what the team called "right heel contusion" and did not return.
The Sixers went into Tuesday's matchup expecting the referees to take control of the series. That's because the Atlantic Division rivals have engaged in trash talk, physical play, and an on-court melee.
Saturday, during the Sixers' Game 4 victory, Jimmy Butler and the Nets' Jared Dudley were ejected. On Sunday, the NBA fined Dudley $25,000 and Butler $15,000 for their actions on Saturday. Nets general manager Sean Marks was also suspended one game without pay and fined $25,000 for entering the referees' locker room after Saturday's matchup. And on Monday, Nets alternate governor Joe Tsai was fined $35,000 for making public statement detrimental to the NBA.
"The noise surrounding the series is head-scratching to me," said coach Brett Brown, a former long-time assistant with the San Antonio Spurs. "I've been in a lot of series. There is nothing that beats this in relation to the volume of discussion about many different things. That's not good or bad. That's just the way it is."
He didn't want his players to get distracted by what he called "noise" or baited into doing anything.
But Brown didn't really have to worry about this being a prize fight until the closing minutes. But if it were a real fight, the Nets would have thrown in the towel in the first quarter.
The Sixers came out like a team determined to close out the series. Meanwhile, the Nets looked like the moment was too big for them.
They missed their first eight shot attempts and had four early turnovers. Taking advantage, the Sixers jumped out to an early 14-0 advantage while making 6 of their first 12 shots. The Nets didn't make their first shot until Jarrett Allen's basket with 5 minutes, 52 seconds into the game. But the Sixers responded with a 9-0 run to take a 23-2 lead. The Sixers went on to lead 32-15 after one quarter. Brooklyn made just 6 of 23 shots (26.1 percent) in the quarter.
The Sixers built a 60-31 halftime lead.
