Hill Downed: Sixers Lose Game Five Heartbreaker on Last-Second Three

This might be too much to come back from.

[Photo: Dylan Buell/Getty Images]

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NBA Playoffs Round Two: Bucks Lead Sixers 3-2

Well... at least it went straight through the net this time. No quadruple doinks, no time for emotional bargaining with our lord and maker, no OK that's off followed by how is that still bouncing? followed uh-oh followed by fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Just in, through, and down. One chop. Clean, unmistakable, brutal. 

The Sixers were in position to get the biggest road victory in the history of road victories (at least by their own putrid standards), as well as their second straight pivotal game five win. Joel Embiid had just hit two enormous free throws at the other end to give the Sixers a 113-112 lead with eight seconds to go. Everyone in the Badger State knew the ball was gonna go to Giannis Antetokounmpo on the next possession, and while he drove for the potential game-winner (or to get to the line himself, as he'd done all game), the Sixers converged, with Embiid ultimately swatting the ball away from him with 3.5 seconds to go. No whistle. Should've been ball game. 

Except Jo might've gotten the block a little too cleanly, a little too emphatically, a little too early. As the ball was sent in the other direction, it bounced right to Bucks sharpshooter George Hill, an executioner all series (sorry again everyone!!), still perched just beyond the arc on the wing -- with absolutely no one else from either team in his general vicinity. Ben Simmons, ten feet away but superhuman, made his best effort at a lunged contest, and at least got in the same airspace with Hill as he raised, but didn't affect much except the eventual freeze-frame. The shot went up -- and if you've watched this team through the years of Tony Parker, Devin Harris, Harrison Barnes, Emmanuel Mudiay, Eric Gordon, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, you probably knew it wasn't gonna be off. Bucks 115, Sixers 113. 

The shot did leave 0.8 seconds left on the clock, which did give the Sixers an opportunity for a final timeout and an attempt at another Kork-Popping miracle. But Horford's screen failed to properly spring Furkan free this time on the in-bounds, Joel's roll to the net for a potential lob was handily covered by Brook Lopez, and the best Ben could do on the in-bounds was find Tobias Harris as the release valve some 30 feet from the basket. His hurl went wide right off the backboard as time expired, and the Bucks celebrated a stolen Game Five victory in front of a euphoric Fiserv.tv.uk.Forum home crowd. 

Most heartbreakingly, George Hill's Robert Horry moment largely undercuts what should have been a Joel Embiid performance for the Sixers' ages. The Process was in full effect last night, tangoing his way around the Brothers Lopez in the post and pulling up over Antetokounmpo on the perimeter, getting to the line at a consistent clip (11-12 on the night) and even hitting 2-4 from downtown, for a total of 38 in 38 minutes, on just 24 shots. He paired that with a Big Mo showing on the boards, grabbing 17 in all, and playing some of his best defense of the series on Giannis, including that final block. It was exactly the defining effort you want and expect from your superstar player in the most important games of the year. 

But while Embiid slowed Giannis, he couldn't exactly stop him. The Bucks superstar needed 30 shots this time, but he still found his way to 36 points -- much of it at the line, where a little home whistling allowed him a total of 17 trips, hitting 12 of them. Combined with solid supporting efforts from Khris Middleton (23 points), Eric Bledsoe (18 points) and our old friend Ersan Ilyasova (a series-high 15 off the bench, including the putback with 29 seconds left to give the Bucks a last-minute lead), it was enough to keep Milwaukee in the game every time the Sixers -- who led for most of the second half -- threatened to pull free with the lead. 

The Sixers also got mostly strong efforts in support of their man in the middle. Tobias pitched in another 21 and 10, Shake Milton had an efficient 18, Matisse Thybulle had a playoff-high five steals, and Simmons followed up his best game of the series with another strong performance -- 22 points on 9-15 shooting, with seven rebounds and nine assists -- though you'd maybe like to have seen him get to the line a little more than his five attempts. (He did attempt a three in the early third, which bounced off, but still marks a momentous occasion as the first time in the playoffs he's attempted threes in multiple games.) 

The problem is most of the rest of the team wasn't much more productive from deep than Ben was. Embiid's 2-4 made him the lone Sixer to hit at least half of his threes last night; beyond him, it was Shake 2-5, Tobias 2-6, Josh Richardson and Matisse Thybulle 1-4, Furkan Korkmaz 1-5, and of course Al Horford 1-7. The Sixers were getting their looks -- the Bucks will give them those threes, for the most part, especially with Embiid and Simmons terrorizing villagers closer to the basket, but they have to cash them. Last night, it just wasn't happening, and that's probably the biggest reason the Sixers weren't able to run away and hide with this thing. 

One year since the Kawhi Leonard quadruple doink, why it still hurts, and what would have happened in overtime. We discuss the NBAPA conference call with seven people who we can’t imagine on one conference call talking about restarting the NBA. And Matt from Mt. Joy joins us to talk about whether we’ll remember the Sixers season better if they never play again, the artistic merit of Here They Come, the creative process during Quarantine, if Kevin O’Connor is a liar, and more. Matt also performs his cover of a Tony T. classic, and “Death” from Mt. Joy’s new album. Follow Mt. Joy on Twitter, on Instagram, get merchandise from them, and check them out on Spotify.

You might've expected a somewhat shellshocked Brett Brown in his post-game comments, but instead we got was the shrugging whaddya gonna do demeanor of a man who simply refuses to let himself still be surprised by the worst-case scenario. "I thought we played well enough to win tonight, I really did," said Brett, leaning back in his chair like it was the first night of Passover. "Joel was fantastic of course, and I thought Ben had a great two-way game as well. A couple of our younger guys stepped up. our defense was sound. It's just that the wrong shots went in. If you're around this game long enough, you'll see that happen -- more than a few times, probably. That's just the nature of this thing of ours. I would've preferred to be going back home with a chance to close this series out, but we're still alive, and in the meantime, our guys have nothing to be ashamed of. That's what I told them in the locker room just now."

Unsurprisingly, Embiid wasn't quite so zen about it, though he was also a little more stoic than his famously emotional outpouring following last year's semifinals devastation. "I mean it sucks, you know?" he told reporters. "I hit the two free-throws to put us in the position to win, then we got the block on Giannis on that next possession... I thought it was over. So it hurts that we still lost. But it's just one game, and we've played well all series, especially at home. So we can't beat ourselves up too much, can't feel sorry for ourselves. We got to lock in and go home and get this win on Sunday. We all know we can do it." (The follow-up Q was if he knew that the shot was going in as soon as it left Hill's hands, in response to which Joel just glared silently for a couple seconds, before answering with a Philly classic: "Next question.")

So, the two biggest questions. One -- did this hurt worse than the quadruple-doink? Maybe in the moment, just because it really did seem for a full second like the Sixers had this thing won while you were celebrating the Embiid block, before your brain registered wait where it that ball going to and oh right. With the Raptors, the Sixers never actually led in the final minute, and Kawhi had done it to 'em all series -- plus, I'm with Spike that they would've lost in overtime anyway. (When do the Sixers ever win in OT?) Still, in the end, the Kawhi shot will probably endure as more traumatic to the fanbase, simply because it was so final -- game over, series over, Jimmy Butler era over -- while this one still left us time, both in the game and in the series, to respond. 

But of course, the final legacy of this shot might be determined by how things go in Game Six on Sunday. And how do we expect things to go? Well, as Jo himself alluded to, we have reason to be optimistic: The Sixers have indeed played well basically all series -- they've still yet to lose a game by double digits -- and have been awesome at home the whole playoffs and the whole season, with the obvious exception of that Game One no-show against Miami without Ben. The not-WFC crowd will be fully cheesesteaked and Yuenglinged and ready to roar. This series certainly isn't anywhere near over yet. 

Still, I think you'd know I'd be lying if I said I was feeling particularly good on the whole about our chances of getting past Milwaukee at this point. We went into Game Five knowing pretty well that it was going to be our best chance of swinging this series -- coming off two big wins at home, with the Bucks feeling their mortality for the first time since last year's playoffs, where they also looked a juggernaut through two games against Toronto, before losing a tough Game Three and never winning again. Now, not only do we have to take care of business at home, but we've got to then come back to Central Time and win a Game Seven in a building where we're now 0-5 this season. Tall order. 

That's where we're at though, and probably better here than we were at this point last year, when the Sixers had just gotten blown out in Canada and everyone was calling for Brett Brown's head and Joel Embiid's stomach. (Still plenty of folks bullhorning about the former, naturally -- the phrase "loser mentality" was thrown around rather liberally in discussion of Brett's press conference -- but even the call-in listeners seem to like Joel pretty OK these days.) The Sixers are locking in now, and so should we: No distractions, no outsiders, and no potential disruptions of our karmic balance between now and Sunday afternoon at 3:30. Trust the Process, and let's Do a Game Six 180??