sixers hoops wrote:76ciology wrote:3 big moments of the game
1.)2nd quarter when jimmy and tobias were leading the charge
2.) when Jimmy got ejected then Biid had this “locked” look
3.) last 4 minutes of the game when Biid took over then Jj&mike scott made big shots
Mike scott is a combination of Robert Horry and JR Smith.
I give Brett credit for identifying certain mismatches, but he still left a lot to be desired. His use of Boban and Embiid is generally horrible, although he figured out how to use Embiid at the end of the game.
Boban is an extremely limited player. He struggles with most players defensively, especially when the other team goes small. Boban’s one advantage is that he is a giant who can abuse smaller players under the basket and get rebounds.
So what do Brett do? He uses him exclusively as a screener 25 feet from the basket, so his height becomes useless and he can’t get rebounds. The two plays Boban went down low, he scored and got fouled. Sometimes it seems like Brett lost a bet with the other coach and as a result the other coach gets to coach our team.
Same with Embiid. When they set Embiid up 25 feet from the basket, he often makes bad, telegraphed passes, turns it over trying to dribble, or takes a lazy three. Last five minutes they had him play inside, like a big man, and he looked like he was in a session against the practice coaches.
It’s like Brett didn’t want to do it, but with the game on the line, he was reluctantly forced to play smart basketball. Other teams abuse JJ routinely, but when other teams put in a lineup with no guy over 6’7, we send our center out to the three point line to make it fair. I thought I must be missing something, but no, the minute we started using our big men inside, they Nets were screwed.
I don't think it's as simple as camping our big guys down low and dumping the ball down to them every single time. First off, we saw this in game 1, it's physically taxing for these guys to establish post position, get swarmed by 2-3 guys, and bang down low. It's just not feasible. Second off, we have elite perimeter players who operate well in the PNR. Our fanbase has been clamoring for the PNR all season. Boban is an effective screener who is creating a ton of space for guys like Jimmy to operate.
I'm with you though, Boban and Embiid are obviously better off down low, and I get frustrated during the games at time, particularly with Boban not just going down there any bullying these guys, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized its simply not in the cards. I don't think it's a coincidence that Embiid went down low every time in the last 5 minutes because he was probably saving himself up for that stretch. Pretty smart IMO.
