PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers are moving on to a second-round matchup with the Toronto Raptors after defeating the Brooklyn Nets 122-100 on Tuesday night to win their first-round series 4-1.
After dropping Game 1 at home, Philadelphia reeled off four straight wins. With 122 points in Game 5, the Sixers became the first team with at least 600 points in their first five playoff games since the Los Angeles Lakers (600) and Phoenix Suns (618) in the 1989 NBA playoffs, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
The Sixers ran out to a 30-6 lead in the first quarter and never looked back, leading by as many as 39 points.
Emblematic of the rest of the series, Game 5 didn’t go quietly into the night without some chippiness.
With Philadelphia leading 118-91 with less than two minutes to go, Jonah Bolden fouled Rodions Kurucs. The Nets forward took exception to the contact and shoved Bolden. Then Greg Monroe of the Sixers and Dzanan Musa of the Nets got some pushes in. After an officials review, all four players were ejected.
The Sixers have now validated their first set of back-to-back 50-win seasons since the mid-1980s with their first set of back-to-back trips to the second round of the playoffs since they did it three years in a row from 1999 to 2001.