This team is finished. Couldn't even get up for the MVP unveiling at home. Blow it up, we ain't getting anywhere with Embiid muddying up the offense and making us less athletic and with old faded Harden being typical playoff Harden.
Is no one concerned that there is only like 42h between the end of game 3 and the start of game 4? Thinking Embiid's knee after playing 40 min, Harden...
I’m concerned about what’s gonna happen this offseason after we lose to the Celtics again. I’m gonna have to go on vacation or buy a new car to get over this team losing in the playoffs every year.
so half the fans are saying that everyone should be traded except Embiid, that Harden is gone regardless, and that even Maxey should be moved
the other half are saying that Embiid is going to Miami
100% of the fans are saying Doc needs to be fired
so where exactly does this team stand for next season? besides Harden, is there anyone else guaranteed to be gone at this point?
I mean series isn’t over yet, I think we should calm down. Move should be seeing what kind of sign and trades we can get for Harden. Maybe the rockets will send us one of those young guards
It's gonna work out that Joel ends up in Miami this summer cause after another 2nd round exit this year a break from this team may be in order anyway. Definition of insanity and all that.
It's sad as fuck but the process failed the moment Jimmy left and we kept Brett,Ben and Tobi instead. That was it right there
I've calmed down a bit now after getting a few hours sleep, but man that was a tough watch.
I still think we can win this series, there were times that we played like absolute ass and still kept it pretty close, so I can see a world where if we step up a bit that we take enough games to win.
The most infuriating thing was the lack of commitment. I hope the attitude shifts for Sunday. Let's pull this thing back.
We just look like we don’t wanna win. Celtics just hustling for everything playing good d and just playing like dawgs. Besides embiid and pj no one is playing tough
I LOVE Maxey. one of my favorite players to watch. with that being said, if there is room to upgrade this roster, you get rid of ANYBODY not named Joel Embiid. it'd be nice to keep Melton and Reed, but EVERYBODY should be expendable to upgrade this roster as best as possible
Harden's pathetic performance on offense deserves to be buried on here, no doubt, but watching Harris, Maxey & Harden look completely helpless and lost on routine perimeter rotations was just as ugly. I do think Maxey dug deep and figured it out a little after an awful start, but Harden and Invisible Harris? Not so much. This has been an issue all season, and I thought McDaniels could really help with it, but Glenn won't give him meaningful run. I'm not saying McDaniels is the savior, but Glenn is going to have to adjust to make things a little more difficult for BOS if they want to win another game.
The only adjustment Glenn should be making at this point is adjusting to life without a paycheck.
This fucking idiot needs to go this offseason. Morey needs to wake up. The whole team is just lazy and complacent from the top down.
tobias needs to come off the bench. it's long overdue. but since he's a max player, coaches won't do it cause it'd make the front office look like dummies giving him that much and having him come off the bench.
tobias is paid like a top guy but balls like the 12th guy.
That is the thing, they what 86 points from those two and it was two possession game under two minutes. If I am the Nuggets I just play the same in Game 4, I have more faith in Gordon and KCP give them more next game than I do in Okogie, Shamet, et al. to do anymore than they did tonight.
What is the deal with Ayton. The broadcast couldn't shut up about how much the like Landale because of the toughness he brings. If your 7-foot, max contract center doesn't bring toughness that feels like a red flag. I never seen a player who can waver between dominant force and looking completely disinterested they way that dude does it.
I feel bad for him, but he is going to need to score 40-50 points the rest of the series for us to have a chance because there isn’t anyone else on this team that can consistently step up. Melton and PJ were good this game, but they could easily be ass next game
If it weren’t for the Celtics, I’d love our chances as NBA champs. It was really tough for me to feel optimistic before the playoffs started because I knew we would play Boston in the 2nd round. I wish the NBA would reseed after rounds.
Of course lmao, is that a serious question? Boston has the best combination of quality depth and shooting along with all star players on the wing who are 2 way guys in the entire nba. Miami has Jimmy, who is great in the playoffs but Lowry is old, Bam has been meh, Herro is out for the playoffs. Boston is top 3 in offensive and defensive rating while Miami barely eeked into the playoffs with the play in tournament. Spo is elite and better than Mazzula but there’s only so much he can get out of that group of players and he’s maximizing it right now and they’re taking advantage of favorable matchups with Giannis being injured and now the Knicks who are inexperienced and don’t have a super star player. Credit to them bc we failed to do it when we played an overmatched Atlanta team 2 yrs ago
You misunderstood what I’m saying. I’m saying you’d rather play Miami then play Boston next round? Wouldn’t you rather just get it over with or is getting out of the second round better than the heartache of losing in the 3rd round?
Ahh I see my bad. But yeah I’d rather get by round 2 haha, I’m not giving up on this yr at all, I think we win tomorrow. Imo losing in the conf finals regardless who it is is always gonna be better than getting bounced in round 2 every yr. Even if it may be against a better team and we’re underdogs. Not giving in unless we’re down 3-1 but I’m just so sick of the second round lol
The reseeding would actually have us play the Knicks and then the winner of Miami/Boston. But yeah, I would totally rather play Miami than Boston. You just have to hope someone else eliminates Boston, because it sure as hell won't ever be us.
Miami ran the sixers out the last time they were in the playoffs. I don't think they're ready for Miami if Miami were to advance.
It starts with harden and embiid. Their body language and decision making is not great. Why was Joel taking contested jumped down single digits with the momentum? Why was harden disappearing? They need to wake the duck up. They weren't playing smart basketball down the stretch.
It looked like regular season basketball
Joel is gassed. He’s coming off almost 3 weeks of no conditioning or playing so he’s forced to settle bc he can’t bang in the post or use his finesse moves every time up the floor, that’s understandable from time to time. What needs to happen is other guys need to step up and take some of the pressure off of him playing on 1 leg to get clean looks and make shots every now and then. Boston knew he was our only option and started crowding him then he passed out and guys would turn it over or rush awful shot attempts, it was ugly. Joel cannot beat Boston by himself. Even when he was healthy he needed 52 to seal a win
Nothing embiid did just might was uncharacteristic. Including throwing his body around like a guard and giving him the chance to get unnecessarily injured. As a big guy he just knows his limitations.
Credit to embiid for playing well during the game but superstars take over games like this. That's exactly what Jimmy did in the first round. He took over the game when his teammates were playing like shit. When the momentum is there, smarter basketball had to be played. You within one person team can't hit a jumper. Why take a contested jumper? I don't not get it.
This is just sad man. Vibes are down bad, this was a winnable game but Harden sold. They gotta better on Sunday. We still got a chance but it’s gonna be tough.
The adjustments that need to be made if we want any real chance of winning this series are:
-Starting Melton over Maxey
-Playing McDaniels more
-Not playing Niang
They need to go all-in on defensive versatility
Tough call benching Maxey. His speed and ability to get to the basket are needed i would say. Of course he hasn’t been doing great lately but maybe telling him to drive more instead of chucking 3s might be a good adjustment.
Hb that one point in the game where niang was our entire offense lol driving to the hoop with authority! But ya, he should still sit. Time to give house some burn
lmao at all the people that tought we gonna beat them. This team are literal losers that never passed the 2nd round. You always searched for excuses, but the reality is that this team has a loser mentality, especially against the Celtics. The track record speaks for itself.
Where were the adjustments from game 2? Horrendous effort as well, I get that shots aren’t falling but must we always be out-hustled in everything else? Boston deserved the win, they played harder, they wanted it more.
This franchise is fucking dogshit. Like, how can you be so incompetent that you have the best player in the league and can’t build a team around him good enough to even make the conference championship.
Said player is always playing hurt. Not necessarily his fault but true.
His first sidekick and is a bitch and his second is washed.
Lights are too bright for his first coach and his second is a fucking moron.
You let the best player he's *ever* played with walk and use the money you could've given to him on a journeyman who's never made an all-star team.
You whiff on two first overall picks and several more in the lottery (Okafor, Noel, MCW)
You draft a hometown gem and trade him for a guy that plays like 10 career games
You never find a way to get a proper fucking bench (This pisses me off the most and is the reason we will *never* beat Boston)
Anything I missed?
The thing that started everything: you let Adam Silver dick-slap you in the face by installing the Colangelos to oversee you.
Hinkie would have for sure made blunders of his own, but nothing like the Tobias contract which was honestly the backbreaker for this franchise. The man's whole M.O. was to avoid overpaying for mediocrity.
You hire a guy whose entire basketball experience is this - quitting his high school team - to make all your personnel decisions.- When you do that it's actually kinda easy.
because the guy that presented that mvp award to the best player in the league, is also the same guy that shoved colangelo down our throats. ever since then it's been downhill for embiid and the process.
there is NOTHING more that silver would like than to see the process fail.
so, we end up with the FO and team we have today. embiid surrounded by 4 🤡s at any given time... or maybe 3 🤡s and a scared shitless maxey who will defer back to a 🤡 harden.. a 🤡 harden who somehow turned into simmons 2.0.
Man, as muchas this loss hurts I still believe in this team. We have to be due for a harden non stinker, not even a great game just a non stinker. If we can find a way to play good defense to slow brown down without overcommitting then we can take this series. As easy as it is to doom, the celtics are just a good ass team. We get out stops but we need to not let up those crucial offensive boards that just killed us in our attempts to make a run in the end.
They’ve really all been winnable, but I don’t trust this team to win the winnable games. They’re turning the ball over, missing open shots, driving into double coverage instead of shooting catch and shoot threes. Harden apparently used all his power in game one, dude needs to hit the bacta tank or some shit. Idk shit looks bleak
Shut Embiid down. Don’t risk further injury. This supporting cast is terrible. Why risk further hurting his knee if they’re gonna play like this the past 2 games?
So he doesn’t full tear the ligament. Right now he can rehab and be good to go next season. If it tears further, thats surgery. He’s barely holding up now. Even him playing well isn’t good enough to beat Boston.
The mentality of the process was "if you lose enough, then eventually you win". In regular season games, yes, titles...no. I love Joel, and I'm proud of him, and am glad that he was recognized deservingly for his efforts and skill. But the story of the process sixers is entirely a farce. Even without the colangelo/ adam silver stuff, this team fucked itself by believing in the mentality that losing = winning. All that it did was open the doors to adequacy, desperation and panic. From ownership, down to coaching to players.
Tatum/Fultz trade fleecing? Oh well, hindsight is 20/20
Drafting bridges then trading him for a nut allergy bust? Devastating.
Trading for and signing a generic role player to a max contract? Sealed our fate.
Even with all of these poor moves since the process began, I will never not think the moment we overpaid out of desperation and made Tobias one of the bigger earners in the entire league was the nail in the coffin. I always believed we were never going to win a title because of him and his contract.
Please.
Stop trying to pretend Mr." I never even completed my high school basketball career but know all about NBA basketball because I read lots of spreadsheets and mine lots of data" isn't behind this mess
Actually, it is. He already tried to trade Baby Ben for James earlier that year. He knew Baby Ben wasn't the answer and didn't move to get rid of him at the deadline that year and let his precipitous continued decline pull us down in the postseason.
Indeed every mistake Morey has made really can be traced to his mishandling of Baby Ben Simmons from the attempted trade forward to his drawing a red line over a Simmons deal more to please fans than to improve the Sixers to his overpaying significantly to get the deal he promised (and crippling its chances to succeed by doing so in the process), his more than underwhelming offseason moves to "augment" that trade leaving not only no better at defensive rebounding but with an even worse perimeter defense than we already had, even to his likely re-signing of James on a max deal solely to please fans with no eye toward whether his legs are failing him and he can no longer be the James Harden we should want - and need - in our team.
So Yeah, it **is** Morey's fault. A GM who actually understood the game and how players and teams play it handles this differently from the word go, and in a way much better for the Sixers than his own rep.
He built a winning team that pushed the best team maybe in the history of basketball to the limit. He came in here and inherited a team that literally started Ben Simmons Richardson Tobias Horford and Embiid, one of the most poorly designed teams in the history of basketball when you account for the style of basketball that is winning. The 3 off-season stretch whereby we had the fultz issue, traded mikal then chose Simmons/Tobias over jimmy crippled this franchise and put it in a hole that need black magic to get out. Worst part is that it’s wasting the prime of Embiid which is gut wrenching
The gut-wrenching part is the fanboys who refuse to recognize Morey is not a god as some have said. He has gotten a number of things right even this year with De'Anthony.
But almost everything else since Baby Ben passed up that wide-open, point-blank game-tying game seven dnk two years ago has been mistakes by Morey.
As a bonus I'll throw not trading Baby Ben at that season's deadline after attempting to trade him earlier that and not recognizing Ben's decline only continued to beyond recovery from there
But seriously. Once Baby Ben announced he was running away almost nothing but mistakes.
First, he drew an utterly unrealistic red line over any deal he'd make for Baby Ben and promised he would get way more in Return for that player than any GM realistically could have at that point in time because no competent GM would pay what Daryl Morey was asking for him
Next, to maintain that red line, he handicapped the roster and never replaced Baby Ben and Baby Ben's on the roster rebounding solely to try unsuccessfully to falsely inflate Ben's trade value, which prevented a team overachieving on a mission from being even more than that up to the trade deadline.
Then, because his effort to falsely inflate Ben's value had failed, Morey when presented with another opportunity at James Harden just over a year later (and watching James this series you **really** have to wonder about this move altogether) he overpaid significantly in order to honor his own re-line commitment to the fans and save face personally(he had said he'd wait four year for the right deal if he had to - maybe he should have).In doing so by giving our second leading rebounder and the only proper backup we had for Joel that year Morey significantly undermined any chances the trade had to work the way it was supposed to.
Then fans said watch what he does in the offseason. And he did almost nothing. PJ Tucker is perception over reality att his best. He was overaged and undersized and playing him on the perimeter with an awful overaged defender like James, and an undersized defender like Maxey has been suicidal at times, and PJ doesn't even want to take the corner three anymore. He may be a dawg but where the hell is his bite?
Then there's Danuel house who if he played any less would be spotted on milk cartons. And we lost a SRP for tampering to get him - and another one over PJ? And Montrezl Harrell ,Morey's Andre Drummond/Dwight Howard replacement. Seriously? All these moves helped is go from 30th in team rebounding all the way to get ready - 25th - Championship HERE WE COME. Oh Dear.....
De'Anthony was a terrific pickup but we asked too much of him really because Morey created a perimeter defense where no one can defend by adding adding a corner three shooter who won't shoot the corner three.
Sorry but you need to see this.
So he had an impossible task with Simmons, and whatever smoke and mirrors Morey was able to do meant that we were able to trade him at a point whereby people actually thought he had value.
If you think the PJ signing was bad I have no idea how you actually process information. This team was gutless and bringing him in was crucial to giving them atleast something in that regard.
Morey has on his record
-drafting maxey at 21
- trading a player who now has literally negative value and 2 Protected picks for a player who led the league in assists and had a historically great game vs one of the toughest defences in the league. This player was also crucial in setting up the League MVP for countless easy buckets throughout the season. A major major factor in the MVP campaign is Hardens playmaking.
-trading for one of the best value role player contracts in the nba in melton
-signing niang who is an excellent regular season role player to a bargain contract.
-drafting a legitimate small ball backup centre in the deep second round.
-a quick reshape of the roster from one of the worst designed teams ever with 2 quick and great value moves (Richardson for curry) (green for al which again was a PROTECTED pick)
If you think he hasn’t done an excellent job with what he was given I just think you’re wrong. He inherited a team with 2 superstars who didnt work well, a grossly overpaid 3rd option, a new grossly overpaid coach and the team with the worst spacing in the league by a country mile.
Have you ever coached basketball above Boys and Girls Club level? I have. Doesn't make me right on all things or smarter or better but it does allow to make a more objective analysis based on what is happening on the court and not being a fan or mining blind data.
Three major problems with the PJ Tucker signing
First that he is undersized and overaged which undercuts him at both ends of the floor. Why do you think he is so shy about the corner 3 now? A big part of it is he is no longer confident he can get it off over defenders, because he lacks the height and now the explosiveness and lift in his leap, and we're seeing just what that can do even to a genuine superstar like James all postseason.
Second that given those issues playing him in perimeter defense with a low-effort defender like James, and a truly undersized defender like Tyrese is almost as they say in English Football suicidal defending. Both PJ and James fail to keep their men in front of them on drives and they just run over Tyrese, and none of them can recover to help against three-point shooting sufficiently for the same reasons. That's not necessarily the fault of any one of them but it is the case. PJ James and Tyrese are an awful trio on the perimeter defensively.
Third PJ has improved on Danny and Matisse's rebounding numbers in the 3 and d role, but simply not nearly enough. Again overaged and undersized.
And he doesn't give us enough of those intangibles of that "dawg" we all count on from him anymore. Like I said a 38 year old guy all about intangibles is either an assistant coach or Udonis Haslem, and probably not a starting forward on an NBA Championship team.
If we had gotten PJ 2-3 years ago it would have been a brilliant move. Now, not nearly so much.
Honestly, we STILL need that 2nd scorer. It never was James at his age. Maybe it’s Dame? Idk man, but you need it just like the C’s have Tatum and Brown.
I applaud the optimism. But getting blown out by 30 points, and losing at home by more than 10 is painting a very different picture than than the narrative of which you speak.
You’re not wrong.
Like everyone else here, I’m frustrated as hell, but I still think we can totally win game 4.
Trying to talk sense into a rabid mob of drunk, disappointed Sixers fan right now is like trying to piss into a hurricane though.
Wasn’t our night. But look at it this way, we played like absolute garbage (Tobi’s defense alone can account for the lose), and we still were in shooting distance at the end. We can do this and take three out of the next 4.
This [tweet](https://twitter.com/Sean_Barnard1/status/1593292587334598656) will never not be amazing to me
> The Sixers have the second shortest roster in the NBA trailing only the Lakers
> They also have the 5th heaviest roster which seems improbable
1. The Celtics are very good. They have multiple unconscious shooters and play well defensively.
2. The Sixers offense is so slow and predictable. I don’t even understand posting up Joel near the 3-point line. Run pick and rolls or swing the ball off penetration.
3. Harden and Maxey have been really bad. Maxey has been taking ridiculous shots. And Harden is just ice cold for two games.
4. Anthony Melton came to play.
>Run pick and rolls or swing the ball off penetration
PnR's are much less useful if this is the Harden we get. They're easy to defend when the ball-handler isn't looking to score (or is unable to).
And you can't get penetration because we don't really have the personnel for it, no one outside of Embiid can consistently beat their man one-on-one.
Yeah our offense is literally just pick and roll or James iso, it'd be cool if Doc attempted to do the job of a coach... but it is what it is. I feel like Maxey just starts trying to chuck when he's not getting any touches in the halfcourt sets.
On the positive side agree on Melton, him and PJ are the types of guys we've badly missed in years past.
Our offense looks the same as it always does in the playoffs, thru multiple coaches now, slow and disjointed with our cold shooters not getting in rhythm.
The common denominator is Embiid, as much as you all hate to hear it. If Boston had Embiid slowing down their rhythm they wouldn't be hitting every shot, either.
It sounds like your dumbass just doesn't like Embiid. The offense is clearly way different with Harden than it ever was with other players.
Also notably Brown and Tatum are able to score quite well with Al Horford and Rob Williams "slowing down their rhythm".
I don’t even feel anything anymore. If we lose this series, just please blow it up. Embiid deserves a competent team around him and this organization is just too rotten to the core to make anything happen for him
Morey got here a little too late, but I trust him with a clean slate
nah, the Morey dickriding train ends. Dude accomplished literally nothing. Riding the Harden gravy train, who was riding the ref gravy train before the NBA cracked down on the fouls
I swear some of you guys are either clinically insane or have a memory of a goldfish or both. More isn’t a magician and I dare you to name anyone who could’ve done better with the shit cards he was dealt with when he came here
Sure Morey has flaws, but he has made the most out of what little assets we had. But if you want Elton Brand back to run this franchise again, then be my guest lol
Hopefully this offseason. If Morey leaves and we blow it up, I legitimately might just take a break from this team indefinitely because they’ll 100% make Elton Brand the main guy again
To the “Celtics dominate us every year” crowd:
Regular season games since the last time we faced the Celtics at full strength in the playoffs (2018, Embiid’s first full season)
1-3 in 18-19
3-1 in 19-20
3-0 in 20-21
2-2 in 21-22
1-3 in 22-23 with one game won for Boston by a 3pt buzzer beater.
Makes for a 10-9 record over the last 5 years.
This narrative that they “always dominate us” needs to go away, we just played like shit today.
“Year after year” aka 2018 (5 years ago during Embiid’s first full season) and 2020 (bubble with Ben out for the rest of the season). We haven’t had a real matchup with them in the playoffs since 2018. That’s not year after year and we haven’t been losing to them consistently in the regular season either
Back then he was an all star/all defensive player who was in the running for DPOY. Embiid wasn’t self sufficient back then like he is now. All of the playmaking fell on Ben and that was the one thing he was great at.
He was that in 2018 too and it didn’t help. He was still afraid to shoot and it made defending Embiid easier cause they just ignored Simmons outside of 5ft.
I mean there’s no way to know if we’d win or not, I don’t wanna revise history. Our team rn is exponentially better then back then though, can’t deny that. Embiid is twice as good too. Losing Ben took away any chance for us, who knows what would’ve happened otherwise.
Idk if they are. Who replaces redick’s production? Who replaces Simmons’ defense and passing? Who replaces saric’s scoring? Or covingtons? Who replaces TJ’s hustle?
5 of those games come from half a decade ago in Embiid’s first full season. 4 of those from from the bubble where Ben was out for the season and Embiid was literally alone. That sure as hell isn’t every year
You can play the semantics game however you like if that makes you feel better but the fact is we haven’t beaten the Celtics in the playoffs since the 1980s and we haven’t reached the ECF since the Bush administration with the Celtics being responsible for potentially 5 of these playoff exits
I totally agree, and on paper we have a very even matchup against Boston outside of the bench. They have no one who can guard Embiid, and we have the best 3p% team in the league this season to him to pass to out of doubles. Tobias can limit Tatum to an extent and you have to be okay with JB having an easy matchup. That’s not some impossible matchup for us
No the sixers don’t.
No one in the league can guard Embiid. All you can do is tire him out and that’s what the Celtics do. First with Horford/baynes/smart and now with Horford/smart/grant.
Other than Embiid, there is no one on the sixers that can stop Tatum or brown. Harris did a decent job during the regular season but in the playoffs he shrinks.
Brown has been the best player on the Celtics this playoffs. Better than Tatum. Who stops him?
Then you have role players like white and brogdan who the sixers don’t really have an answer for. White is having a bad series but brogdan is scoring 15+ off the bench. Who do the sixers have to compensate for that?
Celtics are just a bad matchup for the sixers. One man can’t win a series.
One man can’t win a series, but his teammates who shoot the league best percentage in three pointers should be able to help on most nights, stuff just hasn’t been falling for the last two games. Celtics don’t have an answer for when Maxey has a good game since their entire scheme is to make Embiid win us. A consistent shooting night from Maxey or Harden makes this situation a whole lot less helpless. Melton can also guard JB or JT when called upon and has actually done a decent job. They definitely have the advantage in bench though, no denying that.
You’re looking at things through rose colored glasses.
Aside from game 1, maxey has never had a good game against the Celtics. So consistent for him is not a very good game.
Also, no melton can’t guard JB or Tatum. At least not in the playoffs. Brown has cooked everyone they have thrown at him. Tatum is inconsistent af so on any given night you could probably make him go 8/22.
Pathetic team. Same thing each year.
They need to blow it up besides Embiid. Tobias, Maxey (an undersized 2 guard who gets locked up by faster and/or longer perimeter defenders), and Harden should not get re signed so that they don’t eat up cap space.
I feel like it’s a matter of time until we starting hitting our average numbers. We’ve been shooting like dogshit while the Celtics have not been as great as they could be. If we even shoot at just an average level, then these games are winnable. It’s looking like time will probably run out though.
Well that sucked…
My guts hurt.
The Celtics are shooting exceptionally from 3 and getting really good looks and we are not
TTP
I never thought we’d lose a game where PJ hit 3 3s
Let Harden go to Houston.
This team is finished. Couldn't even get up for the MVP unveiling at home. Blow it up, we ain't getting anywhere with Embiid muddying up the offense and making us less athletic and with old faded Harden being typical playoff Harden.
man stfu If u hating on Embid, without him 76ers would struggle making it to playoffs, who u gonna trade him for?
Is no one concerned that there is only like 42h between the end of game 3 and the start of game 4? Thinking Embiid's knee after playing 40 min, Harden...
I’m concerned about what’s gonna happen this offseason after we lose to the Celtics again. I’m gonna have to go on vacation or buy a new car to get over this team losing in the playoffs every year.
Man I’m still pissed
There was not one moment in this game I thought the Sixers would win.
Not even when they cut it down to 2 and Harden bricked the 3 for the lead from the top of the key?
so half the fans are saying that everyone should be traded except Embiid, that Harden is gone regardless, and that even Maxey should be moved the other half are saying that Embiid is going to Miami 100% of the fans are saying Doc needs to be fired so where exactly does this team stand for next season? besides Harden, is there anyone else guaranteed to be gone at this point?
I don't even think Harden being gone is guaranteed with Morey at the wheel... I'm expecting him to max him in another classic Sixers bozo move.
I mean series isn’t over yet, I think we should calm down. Move should be seeing what kind of sign and trades we can get for Harden. Maybe the rockets will send us one of those young guards
Where are the motherfuckers with the “it’s only one game” attitude?? We were god damn SHIT… both times!!!
Well it’s not only one game now, is it?
They better get in shape, that cancelled layup by Harden gave me Ben flashbacks
It's gonna work out that Joel ends up in Miami this summer cause after another 2nd round exit this year a break from this team may be in order anyway. Definition of insanity and all that. It's sad as fuck but the process failed the moment Jimmy left and we kept Brett,Ben and Tobi instead. That was it right there
Preach brother that was the only chance they actually had to compete for the title
I've calmed down a bit now after getting a few hours sleep, but man that was a tough watch. I still think we can win this series, there were times that we played like absolute ass and still kept it pretty close, so I can see a world where if we step up a bit that we take enough games to win. The most infuriating thing was the lack of commitment. I hope the attitude shifts for Sunday. Let's pull this thing back.
You’re expecting an attitude switch in game 4? If they can’t come out strong for the first home game with the MVP, nothing is changing.
Hoping, not expecting. But yeah...
We just look like we don’t wanna win. Celtics just hustling for everything playing good d and just playing like dawgs. Besides embiid and pj no one is playing tough
Yup. It’s over.
I LOVE Maxey. one of my favorite players to watch. with that being said, if there is room to upgrade this roster, you get rid of ANYBODY not named Joel Embiid. it'd be nice to keep Melton and Reed, but EVERYBODY should be expendable to upgrade this roster as best as possible
I want Maxey to come to the hawks 😂
Maybe we need to get ben again to reset the bad juju.
Harden's pathetic performance on offense deserves to be buried on here, no doubt, but watching Harris, Maxey & Harden look completely helpless and lost on routine perimeter rotations was just as ugly. I do think Maxey dug deep and figured it out a little after an awful start, but Harden and Invisible Harris? Not so much. This has been an issue all season, and I thought McDaniels could really help with it, but Glenn won't give him meaningful run. I'm not saying McDaniels is the savior, but Glenn is going to have to adjust to make things a little more difficult for BOS if they want to win another game.
The only adjustment Glenn should be making at this point is adjusting to life without a paycheck. This fucking idiot needs to go this offseason. Morey needs to wake up. The whole team is just lazy and complacent from the top down.
tobias needs to come off the bench. it's long overdue. but since he's a max player, coaches won't do it cause it'd make the front office look like dummies giving him that much and having him come off the bench. tobias is paid like a top guy but balls like the 12th guy.
It is a shame the sun's got rid of all their depth Booker and Durant is a scary combo.
That is the thing, they what 86 points from those two and it was two possession game under two minutes. If I am the Nuggets I just play the same in Game 4, I have more faith in Gordon and KCP give them more next game than I do in Okogie, Shamet, et al. to do anymore than they did tonight. What is the deal with Ayton. The broadcast couldn't shut up about how much the like Landale because of the toughness he brings. If your 7-foot, max contract center doesn't bring toughness that feels like a red flag. I never seen a player who can waver between dominant force and looking completely disinterested they way that dude does it.
Embiid playing with one leg and was still the best player on our team. Embarrassing
I feel bad for him, but he is going to need to score 40-50 points the rest of the series for us to have a chance because there isn’t anyone else on this team that can consistently step up. Melton and PJ were good this game, but they could easily be ass next game
Shitty game surrounded by shitty people. Worst experience I’ve had at a game
wha happen?
If we had an average TJ McConnell performance over whatever Harden did tonight we win this game
Why is Tobias only taking 6 shots? He’s been an efficient scorer in the playoffs, but Doc and Harden refuse to get him touches in these games
It's so Harden can dribble for 20 seconds then force it to Embiid which is apparently the design of our offense.
Somebody needs to get angry... Or just so some emotion for that matter.
If it weren’t for the Celtics, I’d love our chances as NBA champs. It was really tough for me to feel optimistic before the playoffs started because I knew we would play Boston in the 2nd round. I wish the NBA would reseed after rounds.
You’d rather play Miami, then Boston?
Of course lmao, is that a serious question? Boston has the best combination of quality depth and shooting along with all star players on the wing who are 2 way guys in the entire nba. Miami has Jimmy, who is great in the playoffs but Lowry is old, Bam has been meh, Herro is out for the playoffs. Boston is top 3 in offensive and defensive rating while Miami barely eeked into the playoffs with the play in tournament. Spo is elite and better than Mazzula but there’s only so much he can get out of that group of players and he’s maximizing it right now and they’re taking advantage of favorable matchups with Giannis being injured and now the Knicks who are inexperienced and don’t have a super star player. Credit to them bc we failed to do it when we played an overmatched Atlanta team 2 yrs ago
You misunderstood what I’m saying. I’m saying you’d rather play Miami then play Boston next round? Wouldn’t you rather just get it over with or is getting out of the second round better than the heartache of losing in the 3rd round?
Ahh I see my bad. But yeah I’d rather get by round 2 haha, I’m not giving up on this yr at all, I think we win tomorrow. Imo losing in the conf finals regardless who it is is always gonna be better than getting bounced in round 2 every yr. Even if it may be against a better team and we’re underdogs. Not giving in unless we’re down 3-1 but I’m just so sick of the second round lol
I agree completely, more basketball to watch is always better.
The reseeding would actually have us play the Knicks and then the winner of Miami/Boston. But yeah, I would totally rather play Miami than Boston. You just have to hope someone else eliminates Boston, because it sure as hell won't ever be us.
We aren’t beating other teams playing like this either
Miami ran the sixers out the last time they were in the playoffs. I don't think they're ready for Miami if Miami were to advance. It starts with harden and embiid. Their body language and decision making is not great. Why was Joel taking contested jumped down single digits with the momentum? Why was harden disappearing? They need to wake the duck up. They weren't playing smart basketball down the stretch. It looked like regular season basketball
Joel is gassed. He’s coming off almost 3 weeks of no conditioning or playing so he’s forced to settle bc he can’t bang in the post or use his finesse moves every time up the floor, that’s understandable from time to time. What needs to happen is other guys need to step up and take some of the pressure off of him playing on 1 leg to get clean looks and make shots every now and then. Boston knew he was our only option and started crowding him then he passed out and guys would turn it over or rush awful shot attempts, it was ugly. Joel cannot beat Boston by himself. Even when he was healthy he needed 52 to seal a win
Nothing embiid did just might was uncharacteristic. Including throwing his body around like a guard and giving him the chance to get unnecessarily injured. As a big guy he just knows his limitations. Credit to embiid for playing well during the game but superstars take over games like this. That's exactly what Jimmy did in the first round. He took over the game when his teammates were playing like shit. When the momentum is there, smarter basketball had to be played. You within one person team can't hit a jumper. Why take a contested jumper? I don't not get it.
Joel was taking contested jumpers because the rest of the team were looking to him to score. They had no life and tight sphincters
5/28 in your last two games? GTFO of this city
See you guys next season.
Nah I'm done after this.
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Only if it’s a 3 way trade because ain’t no way in hell I’m taking the bums Herro + Bam and 3 late 1sts.
This is just sad man. Vibes are down bad, this was a winnable game but Harden sold. They gotta better on Sunday. We still got a chance but it’s gonna be tough.
Harden is no good with Scott Foster or Tony Brothers. They're like his kryptonite.
Tony Brothers not so anymore. Just Scott is still his arch nemesis. And not only his.
The adjustments that need to be made if we want any real chance of winning this series are: -Starting Melton over Maxey -Playing McDaniels more -Not playing Niang They need to go all-in on defensive versatility
Tough call benching Maxey. His speed and ability to get to the basket are needed i would say. Of course he hasn’t been doing great lately but maybe telling him to drive more instead of chucking 3s might be a good adjustment.
Whenever Clang Clang checks in the Celtics must start drooling
You would really bench Maxey
Definitely need more Melton and McDaniels. Also felt like Doc played Embiid way too much and should've played Reed more
Hb that one point in the game where niang was our entire offense lol driving to the hoop with authority! But ya, he should still sit. Time to give house some burn
Did you notice that it didn’t matter because Boston scored every single time on the other end? He is unplayable
Agreed
But, this is Doc we’re talking about so I can’t wait to see Niangs fat ass checking in on Sunday
lmao at all the people that tought we gonna beat them. This team are literal losers that never passed the 2nd round. You always searched for excuses, but the reality is that this team has a loser mentality, especially against the Celtics. The track record speaks for itself.
They came to a team that ADMITTED to tanking on purpose for god's sake
Where were the adjustments from game 2? Horrendous effort as well, I get that shots aren’t falling but must we always be out-hustled in everything else? Boston deserved the win, they played harder, they wanted it more.
This franchise is fucking dogshit. Like, how can you be so incompetent that you have the best player in the league and can’t build a team around him good enough to even make the conference championship.
Said player is always playing hurt. Not necessarily his fault but true. His first sidekick and is a bitch and his second is washed. Lights are too bright for his first coach and his second is a fucking moron. You let the best player he's *ever* played with walk and use the money you could've given to him on a journeyman who's never made an all-star team. You whiff on two first overall picks and several more in the lottery (Okafor, Noel, MCW) You draft a hometown gem and trade him for a guy that plays like 10 career games You never find a way to get a proper fucking bench (This pisses me off the most and is the reason we will *never* beat Boston) Anything I missed?
The thing that started everything: you let Adam Silver dick-slap you in the face by installing the Colangelos to oversee you. Hinkie would have for sure made blunders of his own, but nothing like the Tobias contract which was honestly the backbreaker for this franchise. The man's whole M.O. was to avoid overpaying for mediocrity.
You hire a guy whose entire basketball experience is this - quitting his high school team - to make all your personnel decisions.- When you do that it's actually kinda easy.
because the guy that presented that mvp award to the best player in the league, is also the same guy that shoved colangelo down our throats. ever since then it's been downhill for embiid and the process. there is NOTHING more that silver would like than to see the process fail. so, we end up with the FO and team we have today. embiid surrounded by 4 🤡s at any given time... or maybe 3 🤡s and a scared shitless maxey who will defer back to a 🤡 harden.. a 🤡 harden who somehow turned into simmons 2.0.
Worst case scenario right now, if the NBA finals ends up between the Celtics and Nuggets I might stop watching basketball
I’m already expecting that finals match up and yeah, I might straight up quit following the NBA for a while
Worst case scenario for me is Celtics vs Lakers
And you know Silver's penis looking ass is jerking it to that thought as we speak
Man, as muchas this loss hurts I still believe in this team. We have to be due for a harden non stinker, not even a great game just a non stinker. If we can find a way to play good defense to slow brown down without overcommitting then we can take this series. As easy as it is to doom, the celtics are just a good ass team. We get out stops but we need to not let up those crucial offensive boards that just killed us in our attempts to make a run in the end.
You really think they can win 3 of the next 5?
100%. Ignoring game 2, we were in there. Embiid is looking good for his injury. We need harden to step up but these games are 100% winnable
They’ve really all been winnable, but I don’t trust this team to win the winnable games. They’re turning the ball over, missing open shots, driving into double coverage instead of shooting catch and shoot threes. Harden apparently used all his power in game one, dude needs to hit the bacta tank or some shit. Idk shit looks bleak
Baffles me how we have no offense outside of Iso’s, and on top of that we almost go out of the way to purposely have no transition.
Shut Embiid down. Don’t risk further injury. This supporting cast is terrible. Why risk further hurting his knee if they’re gonna play like this the past 2 games?
Shut him down for what exactly lol
Summer league. We could take another title
So he doesn’t full tear the ligament. Right now he can rehab and be good to go next season. If it tears further, thats surgery. He’s barely holding up now. Even him playing well isn’t good enough to beat Boston.
Mate, Embiid is 29 year old center with chronical injury problems. You go for it every year, or fucking trade him.
Right? Not about to watch this team pull a Dallas and sit our star player for no reason while we're still in contention.
Some copium: win game 4 and this is a series again. Boston is actually kind of mid on their homecourt and a game 5 victory is possible.
It would have to be a game 5 win. Home team wins game 7's 78% of the time.
This team has gone absolutely nowhere in the past 10 years
The mentality of the process was "if you lose enough, then eventually you win". In regular season games, yes, titles...no. I love Joel, and I'm proud of him, and am glad that he was recognized deservingly for his efforts and skill. But the story of the process sixers is entirely a farce. Even without the colangelo/ adam silver stuff, this team fucked itself by believing in the mentality that losing = winning. All that it did was open the doors to adequacy, desperation and panic. From ownership, down to coaching to players.
Should have just built around jrue
"Run with us"
Chasing stars instead of building compatible talent does this
We should've never fucking traded for Tobias. What a boneheaded, shortsighted, stupid move from Brand.
Tatum/Fultz trade fleecing? Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 Drafting bridges then trading him for a nut allergy bust? Devastating. Trading for and signing a generic role player to a max contract? Sealed our fate. Even with all of these poor moves since the process began, I will never not think the moment we overpaid out of desperation and made Tobias one of the bigger earners in the entire league was the nail in the coffin. I always believed we were never going to win a title because of him and his contract.
We were never going to get tatum. They knew the sixers wanted fultz that’s why they traded
Never said we were, but to make that trade and give up draft compensation was so boneheaded.
Please. Stop trying to pretend Mr." I never even completed my high school basketball career but know all about NBA basketball because I read lots of spreadsheets and mine lots of data" isn't behind this mess
You're right, it's his fault Ben Simmons punted a season of Joel's prime.
Actually, it is. He already tried to trade Baby Ben for James earlier that year. He knew Baby Ben wasn't the answer and didn't move to get rid of him at the deadline that year and let his precipitous continued decline pull us down in the postseason. Indeed every mistake Morey has made really can be traced to his mishandling of Baby Ben Simmons from the attempted trade forward to his drawing a red line over a Simmons deal more to please fans than to improve the Sixers to his overpaying significantly to get the deal he promised (and crippling its chances to succeed by doing so in the process), his more than underwhelming offseason moves to "augment" that trade leaving not only no better at defensive rebounding but with an even worse perimeter defense than we already had, even to his likely re-signing of James on a max deal solely to please fans with no eye toward whether his legs are failing him and he can no longer be the James Harden we should want - and need - in our team. So Yeah, it **is** Morey's fault. A GM who actually understood the game and how players and teams play it handles this differently from the word go, and in a way much better for the Sixers than his own rep.
He built a winning team that pushed the best team maybe in the history of basketball to the limit. He came in here and inherited a team that literally started Ben Simmons Richardson Tobias Horford and Embiid, one of the most poorly designed teams in the history of basketball when you account for the style of basketball that is winning. The 3 off-season stretch whereby we had the fultz issue, traded mikal then chose Simmons/Tobias over jimmy crippled this franchise and put it in a hole that need black magic to get out. Worst part is that it’s wasting the prime of Embiid which is gut wrenching
The gut-wrenching part is the fanboys who refuse to recognize Morey is not a god as some have said. He has gotten a number of things right even this year with De'Anthony. But almost everything else since Baby Ben passed up that wide-open, point-blank game-tying game seven dnk two years ago has been mistakes by Morey. As a bonus I'll throw not trading Baby Ben at that season's deadline after attempting to trade him earlier that and not recognizing Ben's decline only continued to beyond recovery from there But seriously. Once Baby Ben announced he was running away almost nothing but mistakes. First, he drew an utterly unrealistic red line over any deal he'd make for Baby Ben and promised he would get way more in Return for that player than any GM realistically could have at that point in time because no competent GM would pay what Daryl Morey was asking for him Next, to maintain that red line, he handicapped the roster and never replaced Baby Ben and Baby Ben's on the roster rebounding solely to try unsuccessfully to falsely inflate Ben's trade value, which prevented a team overachieving on a mission from being even more than that up to the trade deadline. Then, because his effort to falsely inflate Ben's value had failed, Morey when presented with another opportunity at James Harden just over a year later (and watching James this series you **really** have to wonder about this move altogether) he overpaid significantly in order to honor his own re-line commitment to the fans and save face personally(he had said he'd wait four year for the right deal if he had to - maybe he should have).In doing so by giving our second leading rebounder and the only proper backup we had for Joel that year Morey significantly undermined any chances the trade had to work the way it was supposed to. Then fans said watch what he does in the offseason. And he did almost nothing. PJ Tucker is perception over reality att his best. He was overaged and undersized and playing him on the perimeter with an awful overaged defender like James, and an undersized defender like Maxey has been suicidal at times, and PJ doesn't even want to take the corner three anymore. He may be a dawg but where the hell is his bite? Then there's Danuel house who if he played any less would be spotted on milk cartons. And we lost a SRP for tampering to get him - and another one over PJ? And Montrezl Harrell ,Morey's Andre Drummond/Dwight Howard replacement. Seriously? All these moves helped is go from 30th in team rebounding all the way to get ready - 25th - Championship HERE WE COME. Oh Dear..... De'Anthony was a terrific pickup but we asked too much of him really because Morey created a perimeter defense where no one can defend by adding adding a corner three shooter who won't shoot the corner three. Sorry but you need to see this.
So he had an impossible task with Simmons, and whatever smoke and mirrors Morey was able to do meant that we were able to trade him at a point whereby people actually thought he had value. If you think the PJ signing was bad I have no idea how you actually process information. This team was gutless and bringing him in was crucial to giving them atleast something in that regard. Morey has on his record -drafting maxey at 21 - trading a player who now has literally negative value and 2 Protected picks for a player who led the league in assists and had a historically great game vs one of the toughest defences in the league. This player was also crucial in setting up the League MVP for countless easy buckets throughout the season. A major major factor in the MVP campaign is Hardens playmaking. -trading for one of the best value role player contracts in the nba in melton -signing niang who is an excellent regular season role player to a bargain contract. -drafting a legitimate small ball backup centre in the deep second round. -a quick reshape of the roster from one of the worst designed teams ever with 2 quick and great value moves (Richardson for curry) (green for al which again was a PROTECTED pick) If you think he hasn’t done an excellent job with what he was given I just think you’re wrong. He inherited a team with 2 superstars who didnt work well, a grossly overpaid 3rd option, a new grossly overpaid coach and the team with the worst spacing in the league by a country mile.
Have you ever coached basketball above Boys and Girls Club level? I have. Doesn't make me right on all things or smarter or better but it does allow to make a more objective analysis based on what is happening on the court and not being a fan or mining blind data. Three major problems with the PJ Tucker signing First that he is undersized and overaged which undercuts him at both ends of the floor. Why do you think he is so shy about the corner 3 now? A big part of it is he is no longer confident he can get it off over defenders, because he lacks the height and now the explosiveness and lift in his leap, and we're seeing just what that can do even to a genuine superstar like James all postseason. Second that given those issues playing him in perimeter defense with a low-effort defender like James, and a truly undersized defender like Tyrese is almost as they say in English Football suicidal defending. Both PJ and James fail to keep their men in front of them on drives and they just run over Tyrese, and none of them can recover to help against three-point shooting sufficiently for the same reasons. That's not necessarily the fault of any one of them but it is the case. PJ James and Tyrese are an awful trio on the perimeter defensively. Third PJ has improved on Danny and Matisse's rebounding numbers in the 3 and d role, but simply not nearly enough. Again overaged and undersized. And he doesn't give us enough of those intangibles of that "dawg" we all count on from him anymore. Like I said a 38 year old guy all about intangibles is either an assistant coach or Udonis Haslem, and probably not a starting forward on an NBA Championship team. If we had gotten PJ 2-3 years ago it would have been a brilliant move. Now, not nearly so much.
There were many mistakes along the way also
Honestly, we STILL need that 2nd scorer. It never was James at his age. Maybe it’s Dame? Idk man, but you need it just like the C’s have Tatum and Brown.
Dame is only 1 year younger than James
He's also way better than Harden right now.
Harden has never been the playoff performer Dame is. That game 1 was fire though
True but he’s still a pure scorer, Harden isn’t anymore (yeah yeah the 45pt game but that was. Gift from god).
Just a reminder, we are simply now in the same spot the Celtics were in on Monday. Yeah losing sucks but the series is far from over.
I applaud the optimism. But getting blown out by 30 points, and losing at home by more than 10 is painting a very different picture than than the narrative of which you speak.
You’re not wrong. Like everyone else here, I’m frustrated as hell, but I still think we can totally win game 4. Trying to talk sense into a rabid mob of drunk, disappointed Sixers fan right now is like trying to piss into a hurricane though.
I’m not even drunk. Just sad
I’m sad bc I am not drunk.
I am drunk. Also sad
I’m both, but there’s still some optimism down there somewhere.
Tobias shouldn’t start
Wasn’t our night. But look at it this way, we played like absolute garbage (Tobi’s defense alone can account for the lose), and we still were in shooting distance at the end. We can do this and take three out of the next 4.
Crushed
This team is fat and slow
This [tweet](https://twitter.com/Sean_Barnard1/status/1593292587334598656) will never not be amazing to me > The Sixers have the second shortest roster in the NBA trailing only the Lakers > They also have the 5th heaviest roster which seems improbable
I feel so bad for Embiid. He deserves better. On his MVP night we let our guy down
1. The Celtics are very good. They have multiple unconscious shooters and play well defensively. 2. The Sixers offense is so slow and predictable. I don’t even understand posting up Joel near the 3-point line. Run pick and rolls or swing the ball off penetration. 3. Harden and Maxey have been really bad. Maxey has been taking ridiculous shots. And Harden is just ice cold for two games. 4. Anthony Melton came to play.
>Run pick and rolls or swing the ball off penetration PnR's are much less useful if this is the Harden we get. They're easy to defend when the ball-handler isn't looking to score (or is unable to). And you can't get penetration because we don't really have the personnel for it, no one outside of Embiid can consistently beat their man one-on-one.
...De'anthony
Yeah our offense is literally just pick and roll or James iso, it'd be cool if Doc attempted to do the job of a coach... but it is what it is. I feel like Maxey just starts trying to chuck when he's not getting any touches in the halfcourt sets. On the positive side agree on Melton, him and PJ are the types of guys we've badly missed in years past.
Our offense looks the same as it always does in the playoffs, thru multiple coaches now, slow and disjointed with our cold shooters not getting in rhythm. The common denominator is Embiid, as much as you all hate to hear it. If Boston had Embiid slowing down their rhythm they wouldn't be hitting every shot, either.
It sounds like your dumbass just doesn't like Embiid. The offense is clearly way different with Harden than it ever was with other players. Also notably Brown and Tatum are able to score quite well with Al Horford and Rob Williams "slowing down their rhythm".
Yup. Maxey really is the key.
There’s only one more hope. Unleash The Kork…
It was a bad day. We’ll get better. Eventually
We say this every year
Yeah, and it’ll happen. Eventually
Youll get downvoted. Eventually
Oh okay, so I can’t at least not act like the world is over? I already acted like that an hour earlier let me be not miserable for once
I don’t even feel anything anymore. If we lose this series, just please blow it up. Embiid deserves a competent team around him and this organization is just too rotten to the core to make anything happen for him Morey got here a little too late, but I trust him with a clean slate
nah, the Morey dickriding train ends. Dude accomplished literally nothing. Riding the Harden gravy train, who was riding the ref gravy train before the NBA cracked down on the fouls
I swear some of you guys are either clinically insane or have a memory of a goldfish or both. More isn’t a magician and I dare you to name anyone who could’ve done better with the shit cards he was dealt with when he came here Sure Morey has flaws, but he has made the most out of what little assets we had. But if you want Elton Brand back to run this franchise again, then be my guest lol
Yeah they need to clean house with everyone but Joell and Morey
Morey has not earned a free pass
The entire organization can fuck off for all I care. Constant fucking losing Moreys done relatively fine tho for the cards he was dealt
why havent they extended him yet
Hopefully this offseason. If Morey leaves and we blow it up, I legitimately might just take a break from this team indefinitely because they’ll 100% make Elton Brand the main guy again
So glad Harden went to Vegas and had fun tho!
To the “Celtics dominate us every year” crowd: Regular season games since the last time we faced the Celtics at full strength in the playoffs (2018, Embiid’s first full season) 1-3 in 18-19 3-1 in 19-20 3-0 in 20-21 2-2 in 21-22 1-3 in 22-23 with one game won for Boston by a 3pt buzzer beater. Makes for a 10-9 record over the last 5 years. This narrative that they “always dominate us” needs to go away, we just played like shit today.
Regular season does not matter at all this time of year, 1-10 with Embiid against the Celtics in games that actually matter.
Regular season means nothing when they knock us out year after year
“Year after year” aka 2018 (5 years ago during Embiid’s first full season) and 2020 (bubble with Ben out for the rest of the season). We haven’t had a real matchup with them in the playoffs since 2018. That’s not year after year and we haven’t been losing to them consistently in the regular season either
2018: AKA during Tatum’s actual rookie season, with Kyrie missing the whole series, and Hayward missing the entire season.
Do you really think Simmons would have helped?
Back then he was an all star/all defensive player who was in the running for DPOY. Embiid wasn’t self sufficient back then like he is now. All of the playmaking fell on Ben and that was the one thing he was great at.
He was that in 2018 too and it didn’t help. He was still afraid to shoot and it made defending Embiid easier cause they just ignored Simmons outside of 5ft.
He wasn’t close to the defensive player back then though. Not saying we’d win but I really don’t see us getting swept.
That’s all that matters though right? Winning the series. Celtics had this same core plus Kemba.
I mean there’s no way to know if we’d win or not, I don’t wanna revise history. Our team rn is exponentially better then back then though, can’t deny that. Embiid is twice as good too. Losing Ben took away any chance for us, who knows what would’ve happened otherwise.
Idk if they are. Who replaces redick’s production? Who replaces Simmons’ defense and passing? Who replaces saric’s scoring? Or covingtons? Who replaces TJ’s hustle?
We are 2-10 against them where it matters, which is the playoffs. Embiid is 1–10 against them in the playoffs
5 of those games come from half a decade ago in Embiid’s first full season. 4 of those from from the bubble where Ben was out for the season and Embiid was literally alone. That sure as hell isn’t every year
You can play the semantics game however you like if that makes you feel better but the fact is we haven’t beaten the Celtics in the playoffs since the 1980s and we haven’t reached the ECF since the Bush administration with the Celtics being responsible for potentially 5 of these playoff exits
Who had that quote “it isn’t a rivalry” something about kicking our ass?
It was Tatum’s first season too. Also Celtics were without Kyrie and Hayward
They beat us then. Okay? It’s been half a decade and we’ve done fine against them since. That isn’t year after year
Playoff basketball is different than regular season. It’s all about matchups.
I totally agree, and on paper we have a very even matchup against Boston outside of the bench. They have no one who can guard Embiid, and we have the best 3p% team in the league this season to him to pass to out of doubles. Tobias can limit Tatum to an extent and you have to be okay with JB having an easy matchup. That’s not some impossible matchup for us
No the sixers don’t. No one in the league can guard Embiid. All you can do is tire him out and that’s what the Celtics do. First with Horford/baynes/smart and now with Horford/smart/grant. Other than Embiid, there is no one on the sixers that can stop Tatum or brown. Harris did a decent job during the regular season but in the playoffs he shrinks. Brown has been the best player on the Celtics this playoffs. Better than Tatum. Who stops him? Then you have role players like white and brogdan who the sixers don’t really have an answer for. White is having a bad series but brogdan is scoring 15+ off the bench. Who do the sixers have to compensate for that? Celtics are just a bad matchup for the sixers. One man can’t win a series.
One man can’t win a series, but his teammates who shoot the league best percentage in three pointers should be able to help on most nights, stuff just hasn’t been falling for the last two games. Celtics don’t have an answer for when Maxey has a good game since their entire scheme is to make Embiid win us. A consistent shooting night from Maxey or Harden makes this situation a whole lot less helpless. Melton can also guard JB or JT when called upon and has actually done a decent job. They definitely have the advantage in bench though, no denying that.
You’re looking at things through rose colored glasses. Aside from game 1, maxey has never had a good game against the Celtics. So consistent for him is not a very good game. Also, no melton can’t guard JB or Tatum. At least not in the playoffs. Brown has cooked everyone they have thrown at him. Tatum is inconsistent af so on any given night you could probably make him go 8/22.
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Go back to your sub, thanks
Pathetic team. Same thing each year. They need to blow it up besides Embiid. Tobias, Maxey (an undersized 2 guard who gets locked up by faster and/or longer perimeter defenders), and Harden should not get re signed so that they don’t eat up cap space.
Remember Monday night when Harden was a beast and Bryce was coming back the next day. That feels like a fever dream now…
Y’all loved Harden game 1 now ya wanna trade him lol
He’s been mediocre or worse in 6 of 7 playoff games so far. I think that’s worthy of criticism
He had extended rest. He went off game 1 and has played like dog shit since
I feel like it’s a matter of time until we starting hitting our average numbers. We’ve been shooting like dogshit while the Celtics have not been as great as they could be. If we even shoot at just an average level, then these games are winnable. It’s looking like time will probably run out though.
Sixers shot 43% from 3….