2024 NBA Playoffs - East 1st Round: #2 New York Knicks vs. #7 Philadelphia 76ers (NYK WINS 4-2)

[Exp0sed]

[/b]

Knicks in 6, imo

Sure first 10 minutes of the game, how about the last 3 minutes when the Sixers are down by 3 points then Embiid scored 8 straight points and a clutch assist to Oubre that basically won them the game?

Embiid beat a lot of great teams this season like the Nuggets, Celtics, Wolves, Suns, Lakers, Pacers, Bulls and beat the Thunder, Rockets, Magic and Heat twice but of course, his haters will just said he's just beating Wizards, Pistons and Hornets. He even scored 70 points on Wemby. Embiid didn't rest for 2 months, he had a surgery and work hard to be cleared to play and help his team make the playoffs and they did as the Sixers never lose a game once he's back.

he had a horrible game..a few great mins in the clutch don't change that
it's about his mentality, here's what I mean:

this dude spent all of last season with huge usage, jacking up shots left and right (mostly against weaker and hapless teams)
he got his fraud MVP, in the middle of that campaign he called himself: "the best scorer ever" and procedeed to lower his usage significantly in the playoffs (that's unheard of btw, for an MVP caliber player) and obviously a huge drop in efficiency and posted the largest drop off in scoring from RS to playoffs for an mvp, ever (!) and he followed that with....going right back to jacking a ton of shots and basically league leading usage (along with Luka etc.), he was on pace to score like 35 ppg before he got injured, again mostly by jacking up shots vs. weaker teams at home while convientently load-managing most away games

last night in the play-in game, Joel took 17 FGA in 38 mins
this entire season there were only 4 games where Joel took 17 FGA or less:

the first was a loss to the Celtics in which he took 16 FGA in 34 mins
secnd was in a 40+ PTS win over the Lakers he took 15 FGA in 31 mins (blowout game)

the last two games came in this stretch after returning from injury and playing on mins restriction
he took 14 FGA in 29 mins vs OKC (without their stars) and 13 in just 23 mins vs the Grizz
for reference, his season average is almost 22 FGA in 33 mpg
if we calculate his FGA per min, it's easy to see that the Boston game was an outlier (it was a big game of sorts, after all haha) and the one that stands out is the play-in game. the dude is MVP and called himself best scorer...have u ever heard of a best scorer ever picking the biggest stages to defer to the likes of Lowry, Oubre and Nic Batum?

I also saw they way he plays when he meets resistance, the Heat did a good job denying him the ball, stripping and crowding him
whenever he didn't get the ball after a battle for positioning - he just did nothing except bark at his teammates and flail his arms to indicate he's open - you don't win championships like that and you don't beat good, cohesive, high motor, consistent teams playing like that

so that's what I saw
I also saw him get abused on the perimeter with him not even bothering stepping up not even putting a hand up on proven and capable 3 pt shooters like Jovic and Love

Butler was limited and the Heat lost their heart,they were also missing a starter or two and their star was hobbled. a couple of mins of hitting a few open jumpers or an open 3 from the top of the key, don't really change any of it

dude ain't him

wake me up when he drains in MSG three straight 3's from the top of the key in one minute, like he loves to do vs. the Charlottes of the NBA, until that happens, colour me unimpressed and extremely skeptical

[Raps in 4]

Knicks in 7. I don't see Chokebiid being able to close out a series against a tough team, even though he is technically the best player in the series.

LOL at you talking about Embiid when the Raps are going nowhere at this point. Have fun with your bought chip from the renegade known as Kawhi, because you guys won't sniff another chip for the next 20 years.

Meanwhile Philly has a clear path to the ECF.

Clear path to the ECF? Chokebiid has never been past the second round. It would be a monumental achievement for him to get there. If I'm Jontay Porter, I'm certainly not putting money on it happening.

[One Last Shot]

Sure first 10 minutes of the game, how about the last 3 minutes when the Sixers are down by 3 points then Embiid scored 8 straight points and a clutch assist to Oubre that basically won them the game?

Embiid beat a lot of great teams this season like the Nuggets, Celtics, Wolves, Suns, Lakers, Pacers, Bulls and beat the Thunder, Rockets, Magic and Heat twice but of course, his haters will just said he's just beating Wizards, Pistons and Hornets. He even scored 70 points on Wemby. Embiid didn't rest for 2 months, he had a surgery and work hard to be cleared to play and help his team make the playoffs and they did as the Sixers never lose a game once he's back.

he had a horrible game..a few great mins in the clutch don't change that
it's about his mentality, here's what I mean:

this dude spent all of last season with huge usage, jacking up shots left and right (mostly against weaker and hapless teams)
he got his fraud MVP, in the middle of that campaign he called himself: "the best scorer ever" and procedeed to lower his usage significantly in the playoffs (that's unheard of btw, for an MVP caliber player) and obviously a huge drop in efficiency and posted the largest drop off in scoring from RS to playoffs for an mvp, ever (!) and he followed that with....going right back to jacking a ton of shots and basically league leading usage (along with Luka etc.), he was on pace to score like 35 ppg before he got injured, again mostly by jacking up shots vs. weaker teams at home while convientently load-managing most away games

last night in the play-in game, Joel took 17 FGA in 38 mins
this entire season there were only 4 games where Joel took 17 FGA or less:

the first was a loss to the Celtics in which he took 16 FGA in 34 mins
secnd was in a 40+ PTS win over the Lakers he took 15 FGA in 31 mins (blowout game)

the last two games came in this stretch after returning from injury and playing on mins restriction
he took 14 FGA in 29 mins vs OKC (without their stars) and 13 in just 23 mins vs the Grizz
for reference, his season average is almost 22 FGA in 33 mpg
if we calculate his FGA per min, it's easy to see that the Boston game was an outlier (it was a big game of sorts, after all haha) and the one that stands out is the play-in game. the dude is MVP and called himself best scorer...have u ever heard of the best scorer ever picking the biggest stages to defers to the likes of Lowry, Oubre and Nic Batum?

I also saw they way he plays when he meets resistance, the Heat did a good job denying him the ball, stripping and crowding him
whenever he didn't get the ball after a battle for positioning - he just did nothing except bark at his teammates and flail his arms to indicate he's open - you don't win championships like that and you don't beat good, cohesive, high motor, consistent teams playing like that

so that's what I saw
I also saw him get abused on the perimeter with him not even bothering stepping up not even putting a hand up on proven and capable 3 pt shooters like Jovic and Love

Butler was limited and the Heat lost their heart, a couple of mins of hitting a few open jumpers or an open 3 from the top of the key, don't really change any of it

dude ain't him

He made clutch plays after clutch plays when his team was down with 3 minutes to play to win the game that's what matter most. Are you aware that he just had a surgery few months ago and tweaked his knee few days ago?

Read on Twitter

Don't you think that also makes him limited in all the games you mentioned(last years playoffs after he injured his knee against Nets and post injury this season) the way Butler was last night or that excuse only works for Jimmy?

[Bum Adebayo]

he had a horrible game..a few great mins in the clutch don't change that
it's about his mentality, here's what I mean:

this dude spent all of last season with huge usage, jacking up shots left and right (mostly against weaker and hapless teams)
he got his fraud MVP, in the middle of that campaign he called himself: "the best scorer ever" and procedeed to lower his usage significantly in the playoffs (that's unheard of btw, for an MVP caliber player) and obviously a huge drop in efficiency and posted the largest drop off in scoring from RS to playoffs for an mvp, ever (!) and he followed that with....going right back to jacking a ton of shots and basically league leading usage (along with Luka etc.), he was on pace to score like 35 ppg before he got injured, again mostly by jacking up shots vs. weaker teams at home while convientently load-managing most away games

last night in the play-in game, Joel took 17 FGA in 38 mins
this entire season there were only 4 games where Joel took 17 FGA or less:

the first was a loss to the Celtics in which he took 16 FGA in 34 mins
secnd was in a 40+ PTS win over the Lakers he took 15 FGA in 31 mins (blowout game)

the last two games came in this stretch after returning from injury and playing on mins restriction
he took 14 FGA in 29 mins vs OKC (without their stars) and 13 in just 23 mins vs the Grizz
for reference, his season average is almost 22 FGA in 33 mpg
if we calculate his FGA per min, it's easy to see that the Boston game was an outlier (it was a big game of sorts, after all haha) and the one that stands out is the play-in game. the dude is MVP and called himself best scorer...have u ever heard of the best scorer ever picking the biggest stages to defers to the likes of Lowry, Oubre and Nic Batum?

I also saw they way he plays when he meets resistance, the Heat did a good job denying him the ball, stripping and crowding him
whenever he didn't get the ball after a battle for positioning - he just did nothing except bark at his teammates and flail his arms to indicate he's open - you don't win championships like that and you don't beat good, cohesive, high motor, consistent teams playing like that

so that's what I saw
I also saw him get abused on the perimeter with him not even bothering stepping up not even putting a hand up on proven and capable 3 pt shooters like Jovic and Love

Butler was limited and the Heat lost their heart, a couple of mins of hitting a few open jumpers or an open 3 from the top of the key, don't really change any of it

dude ain't him

He made clutch plays after clutch plays when his team was down with 3 minutes to play to win the game that's what matter most. Are you aware that he just had a surgery few months ago and tweaked his knee few days ago?

Read on Twitter

Don't you think that also makes him limited in all the games you mentioned(last years playoffs after he injured his knee against Nets and post injury this season) the way Butler was last night or that excuse only works for Jimmy?

At some point reason doesn't matter, if he always gets injured in the post season, then it makes no sense to count on him.

[bronxknicksfan1]

that embiid is anything but a lock to finish this series intact

So why is Vegas picking the Sixers? If they believed Embiid won't make it through the series, they would be favoring the Knicks - right?

You may think that embiid might not make it through the series, but it seems that Vegas doesn't agree with you.

I think Vegas is picking the Sixers - despite not having homecourt - because 1) they have two of the three best players in the series; and 2) they have the better coach.

The Sixers are the better team. They are 31-8 when Embiid plays, that's a 65 win pace and they're one of the hottest teams right now winning 9 games in a row.

The Miami defense played a major role in the way Embiid looked (and the Sixers) looked in the first half. I give them credit, they really pressured the Sixers. I'm even more impressed with Philly for figuring the zone out, it's something that wouldn't have happened under their previous coaching.

The Knicks in 2024 are not the same team they were to start the season. Since the OG trade, they’ve been one of the best teams in the league. They’re 20-3 with OG and were 8-1 with a 5 game winning streak to end the season once OG came back. So to say the Sixers are a better team rn is a stretch. The Sixers may have 2 of the top 3 players in the series, but after that…the Knicks depth is stronger.

Divo/Hart/OG/iHart/Robinson/McBride/Bojan

vs

Tobias/Oubre/Lowry/Buddy/Batum/Payne/Reed

[Lemmie_live]

put og/deuce on maxey at all times
have ihart/robinson rough up embiid
knicks role players >>>>>>>>>>> sixers role players

This should 100% should be the strategy whether Joel is healthy or not. But not gonna lie I’m worried about where the offense is gonna generate points outside of Brunson and DVo

[RookieStar]

Knicks in 5.

Although if Lowry is gonna injure someone from the Knicks like what he usually does then depends on who he injures lol

[stuporman]

Knicks are 20-3 with OG playing
Knicks are 12-1 against playoff/play-in teams with OG and Brunson playing
Knicks are 6-0 against the top 11 net rating teams, they are 5th, with OG and Brunson playing

Carry the he11 on...

[KnixtapeH20]

Sixers have better personnel to handle Brunson than the Knicks do to handle Embiid.

You think? We can throw Robinson, Hartenstein, Anunoby, and Achiuwa at Joel.

Him being healthy enough to play his usual game is the big if, but I think that Robinson and Hartenstein don't have the mass. To me, the recipe to stop Embiid is having a big strong body like Brook Lopez, Marc Gasol, Robin Lopez, or even Aron Baynes. They hold their weight and don't let him push them around or fall for the foul baiting.

The other recipe is having many long perimeter defenders and a defensive concept to swarm Embiid with double teams like the role players on the toughest Celtics and Raptors teams that shut him down. Knicks have a couple of strong perimeter defenders, but I don't think they have the consistent length and activity across the whole lineup nor the heavy big men to try to slow him down adequately.

I don't think that's necessarily the worst thing. Sometimes Embiid can be the detriment of his own team, especially if he is hobbled like now. But I do think he has the potential to eat in terms of individual production, which sometimes is what you need in scrappy playoffs games.

Left off Al Horford who is his ultimate kryptonite, who has a strong base in his own right, but honestly is just a savvy defender and Embiid's father so kind of a different situation.

Lol sorry but I stopped at the first sentence? Mitch doesn't have the mass? He's one of the strongest centers in the league, he's prolly THE best in his positioning bc of his strength & understanding where to be which is why he's the best offensive rebounder in the NBA

[cgf]

put og/deuce on maxey at all times
have ihart/robinson rough up embiid
knicks role players >>>>>>>>>>> sixers role players

This should 100% should be the strategy whether Joel is healthy or not. But not gonna lie I’m worried about where the offense is gonna generate points outside of Brunson and DVo

Gunna have to win the 2nd-chance & transition battle.

[SkyHookFTW]

Healthy Embiid=Sixers win
Broken Embiid=Knicks win

[durden_tyler]

i know for a fact that Miami is one of the teams that employed a zone defense for majority of the time in the NBA and that has proven effective (at least the last game) against the Sixers (the Heat actually had a real shot of upsetting Philly if they only made some key shots late).

That said, how much of a zone defense does New York does? Is Thibs too old school and won't even use any type of zone defense? Miami lost but they pretty much set the table on how to defend a team with Embiid and if you don't make adjustments (Sixers did) they can struggle for a good stretch during the game.

Will New York zone up Embiid? Even as a surprise defense, not really the entire quarter but a play or two or in key stretches? i think this would be key in this series.

[cgf]

i know for a fact that Miami is one of the teams that employed a zone defense for majority of the time in the NBA and that has proven effective (at least the last game) against the Sixers (the Heat actually had a real shot of upsetting Philly if they only made some key shots late).

That said, how much of a zone defense does New York does? Is Thibs too old school and won't even use any type of zone defense? Miami lost but they pretty much set the table on how to defend a team with Embiid and if you don't make adjustments (Sixers did) they can struggle for a good stretch during the game.

Will New York zone up Embiid? Even as a surprise defense, not really the entire quarter but a play or two or in key stretches? i think this would be key in this series.

We play almost no true zone...we do have guys ignore their assignments (if Thibs doesn't respect them) to help / roam, but no team wide zones. That said, unlike Miami we have Centers that can put a body on him, and the rest of our team are very active helpers as well.

So I don't think zoning him up will be the only way for Thibs to make Embiid less impactful. But Thibs is very pragmatic, if it turns out that the only way to stop Joel from dominating is to throw zones at him with Achiuwa at the 5 guarding him on the perimeter, then that's what Thibs will do.

[cgf]

So why is Vegas picking the Sixers? If they believed Embiid won't make it through the series, they would be favoring the Knicks - right?

You may think that embiid might not make it through the series, but it seems that Vegas doesn't agree with you.

I think Vegas is picking the Sixers - despite not having homecourt - because 1) they have two of the three best players in the series; and 2) they have the better coach.

The Sixers are the better team. They are 31-8 when Embiid plays, that's a 65 win pace and they're one of the hottest teams right now winning 9 games in a row.

The Miami defense played a major role in the way Embiid looked (and the Sixers) looked in the first half. I give them credit, they really pressured the Sixers. I'm even more impressed with Philly for figuring the zone out, it's something that wouldn't have happened under their previous coaching.

The Knicks in 2024 are not the same team they were to start the season. Since the OG trade, they’ve been one of the best teams in the league. They’re 20-3 with OG and were 8-1 with a 5 game winning streak to end the season once OG came back. So to say the Sixers are a better team rn is a stretch. The Sixers may have 2 of the top 3 players in the series, but after that…the Knicks depth is stronger.

Divo/Hart/OG/iHart/Robinson/McBride/Bojan

vs

Tobias/Oubre/Lowry/Buddy/Batum/Payne/Reed

I forget about Payne even though he hit that big 3. He could be a solid matchup against Jalen...Jalen will still torch him, but I can definitely see him doing better than Lowry, Hield, or Maxey, if they don't just keep Oubre/Batum on him all series.

[stuporman]

Sixers should win this, it would be very disappointing if they didn’t. But if embiid can carry over his 4th quarter play from tonight into this series the sixers shouldn’t lose more than 2 games. With embiid this season the sixers are 32-8 .800 win% equivalent to a 66 win season. Even a hobbled Embiid is still comfortably the best player in this series. Not to mention Maxey is every bit as good as Brunson. Sixers in 6.

LOL


holy ****

Jalen Brunson exploded because he's one of the biggest floppers in the league. He's a great guard, but the only reason he's thriving is what Hussein said. The team is built around him. The Sixers are not built around Maxey.

Maxey is younger, a better shooter, faster, and an incredible finisher. He also has the most 50 point games this year tied with Embiid and someone else I forgot. Brunson is no slouch don't get me wrong. But the two are far closer than you think. It's okay though you guys are finally having some success after 15+ years of ineptitude I like the passion.

I'd say it was you who lost all credibility with that comment but I'm not sure if you had any before you made it.

Even if you believe what you say how is it he makes all the shots he does at his size, speed and athletic ability to the tune of 48/40/85? All the flopping you suggest he does makes the ball go in the hoop?

He's 4th in the league in PPG with the first 3 on the list also being the first 3 in FTA so Brunson must be 4th in them, right? No, he's 9th...I guess all the 'flopping' you imagine doesn't get the same calls.

He's 2nd in the league for FGA but again still only 9th in FTA...b-b-but all the flopping! He's 3rd in drives to the basket but yep, still only 9th in FTA...so floppy.

Not totally ironic in the least is you calling someone else a flopper when Embiid who is one of the largest players in the league in height and weight is constantly flailing around after contact he creates to get calls.

You don't have to reply, I won't believe you anyway...not sure if you had any credibility to begin with...the most flopping I see is going on in this thread by someone who can't accept reality, just imo.

I expect a great series from two really good teams, I don't know what you are expecting...

[theFireBlanket]

Going to be Bucks at ECSF for round 2 game 1. How many games this goes, not sure.

[stuporman]

Brunson was carrying a team to the 2nd seed when 4 of the starters from the beginning of the season were either hurt or traded away so it was him and the back ups.

Sure the Knicks got some help when other teams around them floundered but they had to win enough games, 50 of them to be precise, to take advantage of it.

[cgf]

Brunson was carrying a team to the 2nd seed when 4 of the starters from the beginning of the season were either hurt or traded away so it was him and the back ups.

Sure the Knicks got some help when other teams around them floundered but they had to win enough games, 50 of them to be precise, to take advantage of it.

TBF one of those starters was traded away because Donte took the starting job amidst this career year he's having...but we were missing our starting frontcourt a big chunk of the season. And Jalen had a number of different knocks throughout the season that he played through or missed minimal time for.

[stuporman]

Brunson was carrying a team to the 2nd seed when 4 of the starters from the beginning of the season were either hurt or traded away so it was him and the back ups.

Sure the Knicks got some help when other teams around them floundered but they had to win enough games, 50 of them to be precise, to take advantage of it.

TBF one of those starters was traded away because Donte took the starting job amidst this career year he's having...but we were missing our starting frontcourt a big chunk of the season. And Jalen had a number of different knocks throughout the season that he played through or missed minimal time for.

I think I mentioned that but I appreciate the heads up.

[Wolfgang630]

It’s sad this is the talking point for an opponent on Embiid.

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