Danny Green knows championship teams when he sees them. The Sixers might just have that look. | Mike Sielski

One day last week, after the 76ers had finished a practice and before his ability to dunk a basketball was no longer in doubt, Danny Green tried to answer a chicken-or-egg question: He has won three NBA championships with three different franchises, one with the Spurs, one with the Raptors, one with the Lakers. Why? An accident of history? Good timing and circumstances? Have he and other “winners” like him — solid, role-player types like Robert Horry, Rick Fox, B.J. Armstrong, Steve Kerr — simply ridden the coattails of MJ, Shaq, Kobe, and other superstars? Or do they share certain characteristics that contributed directly to those teams’ greatness? Are they gamers? Are they leaders? Are they clutch?

“It’s probably 50/50,” Green said. In San Antonio, he played with a lineup full of current and future Hall of Famers: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard. In Toronto, he and Leonard arrived at the same time. “There was a great team before I got there,” he said, “but we had to show them what it takes.” In Los Angeles, there was LeBron James, and there was Anthony Davis, and there was an experienced roster.

The deeper question, of course — the question that’s relevant to the Sixers, now that they’re up two games on the Raptors — is how much that championship experience matters and how it manifests itself. In the Sixers’ 112-97 victory Monday, it manifested itself in Green scoring 11 points, hitting three three-pointers, chipping in three assists and two blocked shots, and throwing down a dunk that the condition of his 34-year-old knees suggested he could not throw down. In the 50/50 breakdown that he used to describe his importance to a championship team, Green held up his end in Game 2.

» READ MORE: Danny Green’s dunk in Game 2 could echo deep into the playoffs for the Sixers

If anything, though, it’s the other half of that equation that should be cause for optimism around the Sixers. Watch them over these two games against the Raptors, and it has been easy to pick up on the difference between how they’re playing now and how they played in last year’s postseason. Is that difference a talent thing? To a large extent, sure. Joel Embiid has never performed better or been in better shape. James Harden has looked less like a ball-dominant scorer than a pure point guard. Tyrese Maxey has been a revelation to anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to him all season. Tobias Harris has done exactly what he had to do to thrive in an offense centered on Embiid and Harden; he has knocked down open shots.

But there’s more to it than just the skills of the players. There’s an intangible quality to these Sixers that wasn’t present in last year’s. Go back to the fourth quarter Monday, when they slipped into a funk and Toronto cut a 29-point deficit to 11. It was Maxey who scooped up a loose ball and drilled a three-pointer to boost the lead back to 14 and allow everyone in the Wells Fargo Center to exhale. He and Harden so far have provided a new, fresh, freer vibe, a looseness and confidence that had been lacking. The Sixers don’t seem afraid to make a mistake.

That’s a quality any team that aspires to be great must have, and that quality is a sharp contrast to the nervousness and hesitation that a certain 6-foot-10 point guard too often displayed and inflicted on everyone around him. The Sixers aren’t playing four-on-five on offense anymore, and they don’t have a guy who treats the basketball like it’s a hand grenade with the pin pulled, and it shows.

“It’s not just on the court,” Green said. “It’s how you get certain guys to take certain details seriously, getting them the sense of urgency that every possession matters and how you carry yourself matters, making the plays, making the winning plays, doing the dirty work, rebounding, boxing out, finding guys, making the extra pass, making it contagious to find the open man, doing those little things, letting them know that execution has a huge part to play in every possession of every series.”

Green wasn’t referring specifically to Ben Simmons there. But other than Embiid, no Sixers player has been more forthright about Simmons’ weaknesses and shortcomings than Green. So it’s difficult to disconnect his general critiques and insights from his on-the-record criticism of Simmons. Let’s just say that when Green addresses his teammates about what championship basketball looks like, he doesn’t have to worry as much that all of them will understand his message and respond to it positively.

“Depends on who you’re playing with,” he said. “Depends on who’s listening. Depends on who cares, what they care about, their motivations. I think most guys respect it. At the end of the day, some guys are going to do what they do because they’re special and they’re superstars, and they’ll figure it out in their own way. Sometimes your voice is unnecessary. But you give your two cents when it’s needed, when you think it’s needed, and if they listen, cool.”

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid and the Sixers refuse to get ‘punked’ by the Raptors in Game 2 of the playoffs

If it has been needed at all so far in these playoffs, it hasn’t been needed much. The circumstances around Green and the Sixers are pretty good at the moment, and he’s quite familiar with what tends to happen when he’s in such situations.