Nick Nurse on 76ers facing elimination, talking points in film session

CAMDEN, N.J. -- As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare to stave off elimination and begin the climb from an 0-3 deficit against the New York Knicks with Game 4 set for Sunday afternoon, coach Nick Nurse and his team convened on Saturday at the team's training facility for a film session.

Nurse has seen a ton of elimination games in his career as coach of both the Sixers and the Toronto Raptors. He knows what has to be done in these situations as he did just guide Philadelphia from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Boston Celtics in Round 1.

"I always just try to treat it like one game, and can we play better or not, right?" said Nurse. "Like, can we play better or not? You can't really listen to 3-1, 3-0, 3-2, you can't really listen to any of that, and let that form any type of whatever around your on your back. Can't carry that around. You got to really just zero in on, can we play better? And that's what I'm challenging the guys with today."

To Nurse's point, the Sixers just need to play better. They had their chances against this New York team on plenty of occasions, but they haven't been able to convert on the open looks they generate.

"You're sitting here, and you're going through the film, and you stop it at 80-76, and you show three wide open 3s," Nurse added. "And you say, ‘Guys, we weren't playing very well last night. We didn't play good enough. And here we are with one minute to go (in the third quarter) and we're right here. Like, look at all these.’ I've already put down all things we can do better. That's what you're trying to show them. Like, we just got to play better. Can we play better? And we got to do, and if we do it, we'll be going back to New York."

Now, what did Nurse see on the film? It all starts on offense where the Sixers have struggled mightily in this series compared to Round 1.