Bum Adebayo wrote:Embiid didn't play at a B level at all.
You see, for starters, he gets quick points in 1st quarters, I suspect it is part of Celtics strategy, to tire him more quickly, to make him work more in 1st quarters on offense. But late in the game he is just not good at all if you need a bucket. So on offense strictly, yeah maybe B is fair because high scoring and high efficiency is still there after all, and while context is needed as I said, it is still very valuable to keep up with the opponent in 1st quarters.
However, his defense was just terrible, he was a traffic cone out there.
The game is played at both sides of the floor, so he played at a C level probably.
Agree. Defense is all about effort. In game 3. Embiid stepped up and cut off the pick and roll. It impacted the Celtics offensive flown problem is sixers shot 30% and you cannot win nba playoff games shooting 30%. No one has. And that fact that the sixers even had the lead with 90 seconds left plus the ball says something about their defensive effort.
But a lot of it has to do with coaching philosophy. Teams do not attack the paint with embiid in their. But the pull up 8 footer is always open. Is that on Brett brown? Or embiid? Notice horford is as asked to drop a lot into the paint as well when he was playing the center position.
Every other playoff team switches. Sixers do not switch well. Meaning if embiid steps up to cut off the pick and roll. Harris or someone has to slide over to the baseline to cover the dunker slot.
Harris and Milton are not good defenders. Especially Milton.
So you got embiid on floor with Milton Harris jrich and one of thybulle or Kork or Burks. You can guarantee to have 2 poor sometimes 3 below average defenders on the floor with embiid.
If you watch the Miami Heat games. Herro is a very bad defender. But Miami hides him well with their switches. Boston has not been able to exploit it. Dragic is below average. But they got savvy 3 other defenders who can slide over to help.
It’s all about help defense these days. Boston is getting dribble penetration all game long but miami is switching and cutting off or causing a lot of bad shots.