Marathon Day wasn't only for runners as Sixers prepare for Game 2 in Boston

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — There was so much to dissect from the Sixers Game 1 loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday that coach Nick Nurse and his team invaded Hemenway Gymnasium at Harvard University on Monday to try and figure things out.

There was a very long and detailed film session, with so much stop and go of the video that it would make a football coach happy. There was a near two- hour workout on the floor that sounded as if it was a training camp session.

 And there were undoubtedly confidence-boosting words of encouragement after a humbling 123-91 loss. Game 2 will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday at TD Garden.

"Listen, you have to look at what's there. Obviously it was pretty painful to watch," said Nurse. "We did a lot of things not very well. A lot of things out of character. It was long. Lots to look at and lots to talk about."

Certainly, it was pointed out that Boston made 50 percent of its shots, a percentage that seemed it could have been much higher before subs took over early in the third. Nurse and the staff no doubt had thoughts on their team making just four of 23 three-point attempts, even though many of those were very good looks. And almost surely, individuals were called out for just not looking like themselves during a lethargic 48 minutes of basketball.

But it's Nurse's job, and that of his players also, to be able to try and overcome, to improve upon what was bad and to somehow be able to find a way to at least put a little bit of hesitation in the step of the Celtics.

"Take the pressure off ourselves," said center Andre Drummond, on his thought of what the team needs to do better in Game 2. "I think we were so excited to be out there that we made little mistakes that we normally wouldn't make. We were hesitant on shots that we aren't normally hesitant on taking. Not that anybody's nervous or scared, I just think we were so excited to have made it this far and be a part of something bigger than ourselves compared to what happened last year. I think jitters kind of took over. 

"I think we're going to be fine, settle into the game and we'll be ready to play. A lot of the mistakes we made, we can control. We watched film for a little while today so we understand what needs to be changed and we're ready to go."

There is always pressure in playoff basketball, and veterans like Drummond and Paul George and Tyrese Maxey know what it feels like and how to handle it. But for key players like VJ Edgecombe, Adem Bona and Justin Edwards, who are making their first playoff appearances, it's a learning process and one that needs to be figured out quickly.

"It's super, super important that you've got to get into these things," said Nurse. "You've got to get into the playoffs to get these guys the feel of it and the experience of it. It's just invaluable experience for them to have to see what it's like and they're just getting started. They've got a game under their belt now and now they see what it's like going against, over and over, the same team and the prep and the adjustments and all that stuff. You've got to get into this thing as often as you can so these guys can grow and learn and get better from it. 

"Bona has a game under his belt now, that's important. He had a couple at the rim that we would like to have gone in. But he wasn't alone there. We had a stretch where we missed six straight layups in the game. He's got that game under his belt. I'm sure he'll feel more comfortable tomorrow, more impactful. As far as Justin and VJ, I thought they played pretty good. They didn't make a ton of mistakes. They took shots they should have taken. Just have to keep them confident and just showing them other areas where they can improve or change at the defensive end or other opportunities they may have at the offensive end."

It's not easy to find positives in a game that was pretty much decided after the first quarter. But that's not the approach to have after one game. And Nurse believes that the team wasn't too far off on Sunday in making things more competitive.

"It was just we could never really turn the tide," he said. "And we had our chances. With (7:41) to go in the third, we had three chances to cut it to 12. They were uncontested plays and we could never just get one to go to give us maybe one more spark and it just kept kind of going on that way."

So that's what Monday's marathon (excuse the pun) workout was for.

"We needed that," said Drummond. "We could have come in here and walked through all our sets and tried to prepare for tomorrow. But physically watching what we did to kind of beat ourselves and things we could have done better and things we could have done more of. It was very long. It was very detailed. Stop and go, things we wrote on the board for what we need to do for tomorrow. 

"I think we're prepared. I think we're ready. I think we needed to get that first game under our belt, regardless of what the score was. We needed to feel like what that atmosphere was going to be. I believe we'll be fine."