Boston in the 2nd round. How do the 76ers win the series?

[Eyeamok]

From what you've seen in the regular season and the playoffs how can the 76ers win this series ? I'd like nothing more than the 76ers to beat the Celtics. But honestly if I was a betting man I'd push all my chips in on the Boston side. Tell me I'm wrong.

[76ciology]

Horford attempts the most 3s against us (7.7) and shoots at 43%. But despite all that he’s just averaging 10ppg on 9 shots.

The key to beat the Celts is for your bigs to be willing to protect the rim and still making slightly contesting the stretch bigs. This takes away their 5 out offense.

The mistake with the Hawks in G1&2 is Capela is sticking too close to Al. So now, Celts does not only have a 5 out offense but they are also playing 4v3 with Trae being a liability on the floor.

Biid has challenged the most shots of Tatum and is limiting him to 34% shooting. But Tatum’s primary defenders are Melton, Tobi and Tucker, Tatum is shooting 50% on all 3.Tobi and Harden defended Jaylen Brown the most and both guys are limiting Brown to 33% shooting. So, send help or shade those drives by Tatum but do less of that for Jaylen Brown.

Al Horford is bad in defending Embiid (64FG%) and Harden (67FG%). He’s the guy we need to target if they play 5 out. But Maxey can’t shake off DWhite and he’s just shooting 31% off him.

Hunt Al Horford on offense. By punishing them if they switch or if Al plays drop on defense.
-If Al switches to Maxey, use quickness to drive at the rim.
-If Al switches to Harden, step back 3 or drive to the rim with a weak Tatum on defense providing help.
-If Al plays drop on defense then shoot over him. Al also isn’t as long as Brolo that the Biid-Harden 2 man game constantly will give Biid good looks.

We need to communicate better on their stretch bigs
- pick and pop (ball handler defender has to switch to Al popping)
- if Al at the corner and Al’s man comes to help the ball handler, the ball handler’s defender has to rotate to Al (hawks G3 4th qtr 4:20-4:00)
- cross match off transition (Sixers G2 and G3 against Celts on reg season)

Another one is attacking the Orebs which Hawks is doing a masterclass. Tatum is their powerforward. Keep that in mind. If you can pull Horford away the paint, they are naked around the rim and they’re vulnerable to get outrebounded.

[Mik317]

Devine intervention


(real answer: there shooters to go cold and ours to get/stay hot)

[76ciology]

Devine intervention


(real answer: there shooters to go cold and ours to get/stay hot)

They also need that against us. You are not stopping anyone nowadays.

We talk about having lengthy 3&D wings all season. Nets probably have the most in their inventory, and yet they can’t stop Tobias Harris.

Trae Young is averaging 27/10/4 in this series against a Celtics defense that includes Marcus Smart, Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, and Malcolm Brogdon

Celts is gonna send help. We’re gonna kick it out to shooters.

Sixers is gonna send help, we’re gonna kick it out to shooters.

Between Sixers and Celts, there is only one guy that warrants a double team. And that’s Joel Embiid.

[76ciology]

And fwiw, this Celts squad is easier for Harden to score.

In 4 games:
Harden 25.5ppg 5rpg 9apg 47.5FG%

Horford is not Claxton who can jump out of nowhere and has the length to challenge his jumpers.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[SixthStreet]

Yes, the last point is to me the salient one. The Celtics cannot really contain a healthy Harden from scoring OR playmaking. Maybe a healthy Rob Williams helps them here but I expect a pretty big series from Harden if he's ok physically.

The problem is the Celtics do have the answers for Maxey and we can't afford under performance from him and Harris. I have zero confidence that Tobias will be helpful 4 out of 7 games in this series.

They also don't seem to be able to trouble Embiid much either.

I think we win the series. I see a high scoring series where the slight advantage is that we have more answers defensively for them than they do against us and should also have an advantage on the glass.

[tk76]

Maxey levels up again and becomes the second coming of the Boston Strangler.

On the plus side, Embiid seems to have figured out Boston while Tatum hasn't figured out the Sixers.

[76ciology]

Yes, the last point is to me the salient one. The Celtics cannot really contain a healthy Harden from scoring OR playmaking. Maybe a healthy Rob Williams helps them here but I expect a pretty big series from Harden if he's ok physically.

The problem is the Celtics do have the answers for Maxey and we can't afford under performance from him and Harris. I have zero confidence that Tobias will be helpful 4 out of 7 games in this series.

They also don't seem to be able to trouble Embiid much either.

I think we win the series. I see a high scoring series where the slight advantage is that we have more answers defensively for them than they do against us and should also have an advantage on the glass.

Maxey is in a bad position. Because he’s at the weakside with Tobias. And Celts has a group of guys who can deny Maxey and Tobias for their drives there. Similar thing we saw in G4 v Nets.

The thing about Bos defense is they are heavy in switch and less helping on defense. Thats why you see Biid dropping 40-50 pts. And if Celts defense isn’t sending that help often, it wont create the gravity for Maxey for his drives.

And we knew this, and thats why we spend the entire season for ISO offense. And entire season running a defensive scheme of helps, shades, doubles and zone to go up against the Celts.

Where Maxey can maybe thrive is if he’s paired with Biid in the 2nd unit where he can hunt Al on switches or when Al drops on defense.

If Nets series was more about the other guys, this series will mostly be about Harden and Embiid. Because Nets is heavy on their doubles while Celts is heavy on switch and single coverage.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I don't think it matters without a fully healthy Embiid. Unless Harden puts on a masterclass on the offensive end.
I'm not ready to call it quits because I believe anything can happen, but the sprained ACL has sealed our fate in the same fashion that the torn ligament in the thumb did last season. We're dead men walking and summer starts in May.
I apologize for the negativity, but barring miracle HOF performances out of Harden, Maxey, and Harris we're done.

[76ciology]

I don't think it matters without a fully healthy Embiid. Unless Harden puts on a masterclass on the offensive end.
I'm not ready to call it quits because I believe anything can happen, but the sprained ACL has sealed our fate in the same fashion that the torn ligament in the thumb did last season. We're dead men walking and summer starts in May.
I apologize for the negativity, but barring miracle HOF performances out of Harden, Maxey, and Harris we're done.

Im no medical expert but is sprained knee same with sprained ACL?

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I don't think it matters without a fully healthy Embiid. Unless Harden puts on a masterclass on the offensive end.
I'm not ready to call it quits because I believe anything can happen, but the sprained ACL has sealed our fate in the same fashion that the torn ligament in the thumb did last season. We're dead men walking and summer starts in May.
I apologize for the negativity, but barring miracle HOF performances out of Harden, Maxey, and Harris we're done.

Im no medical expert but is sprained knee same with sprained ACL?

There are different ligaments in the knee. The ACL is only part of the knee. That's what he sprained. Realistically it'll take about two weeks to fully heal from a sprain. If he does play, he won't be 100%. Maybe he can focus on defense the whole time. We could possibly be without him for at least the first two games.

[Mik317]

They dont have many guys we can hide Maxey and to a lesser extent Harden on. Tobias does a good job on Tatum but then Brown has free reign as we need PJ to stand near Horford. Derrick White becomes Steph Curry against us lol. IDK man ideally the extra effort that our defense has shown does make a difference but the 3-1 season series feels like it tells the whole story and with an hobbled Biid...i think it gets worse.

but to play devils advocate against my own negativity...I think Boston is going to NOT triple Biid so he can probably get to his jumper more which allows the offense to not be as reliant on 3s. The aforementioned better effort on defense has shown the ability to better contest 3s so far and our rebounding has been much better. Doc also has shown that he won't die by Niang minutes too. So 3 of the big flaws (allowing 3s, bad rebounding, terrible bench lineups) should ideally be gone or lessened.

but then again that came against the only team to be swept this playoffs and a team that probably was closer to play in territory than their seeding sooooooo....

The Biid injury and the fact that I just don't think we match up well w/ their roster has me kinda resigned to this be a 5-6 game series either way. We got a sweep, Biid should get his MVP, and ideally we can start to build a more modern and complete roster.......but then again I think Doc might have saved his job, probably bring Harden back, and our big move will be getting off Tobias' contract for another washed role player. Meh....hope I am wrong like normal tho.

[M2J]

The thing with Boston is that they basically play all 2 way players. Offensively they're going to start a 5 out, and I think if Joel establishes himself they'll help on Joel. Defensively, Maxey is likely going to have to work for it.

The essential key is to stop their penetration. They don't have amazing shooters, but they all shoot well, but essentially they can call drive the ball as well, even Al to some degree. That's why it is possible for them to generate great shots without Tatum or Brown in the action. Philly has the ability to slow option 1 and 2, it's 3 and 4 that are the problem. Then they bomb away. Try to help less and trust Joel's defense.

[76ciology]

I don't think it matters without a fully healthy Embiid. Unless Harden puts on a masterclass on the offensive end.
I'm not ready to call it quits because I believe anything can happen, but the sprained ACL has sealed our fate in the same fashion that the torn ligament in the thumb did last season. We're dead men walking and summer starts in May.
I apologize for the negativity, but barring miracle HOF performances out of Harden, Maxey, and Harris we're done.

Im no medical expert but is sprained knee same with sprained ACL?

There are different ligaments in the knee. The ACL is only part of the knee. That's what he sprained. Realistically it'll take about two weeks to fully heal from a sprain. If he does play, he won't be 100%. Maybe he can focus on defense the whole time. We could possibly be without him for at least the first two games.

This thing is so much of a downer. I dont even know how he can sprain his knee when his knee pretty much just rests on offense in the Nets series.

[eyeatoma]

Maxey levels up again and becomes the second coming of the Boston Strangler.

On the plus side, Embiid seems to have figured out Boston while Tatum hasn't figured out the Sixers.

Yo long time man!!!

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

[eyeatoma]

I don't think it matters without a fully healthy Embiid. Unless Harden puts on a masterclass on the offensive end.
I'm not ready to call it quits because I believe anything can happen, but the sprained ACL has sealed our fate in the same fashion that the torn ligament in the thumb did last season. We're dead men walking and summer starts in May.
I apologize for the negativity, but barring miracle HOF performances out of Harden, Maxey, and Harris we're done.

Im no medical expert but is sprained knee same with sprained ACL?

Dr. Cho video in the Embiid thread says it's probably the ACL.

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

[M2J]

In fact, The idea of helping less and preventing penetration is such a key that the pressure zone scheme... Which Philly has been practicing quite a bit, could be very important in the series.

Make their streaky shooters best you with threes, give up nothing at the rim and keep them off the line, but matchup in transition. Transition is such a key to their runs. They know it and that's in part why the can give up offensive rebounds trying to get out.

Offensively, it's about 2-4 finding matchups. Harden and Maxey need to hunt the bigs and when they do Joel needs to be near the rim to clean up. Tobias needs to hunt Ninehead. Because they're going to switch the pick and roll probably even with Reed.

[76ciology]

How to make Maxey do damage?

Watch on YouTube

His goal is to make Al Horford look like Enes Kanter out there. Keep attacking Al, tire him out or let him get into foul trouble.

[rocketsfan100]

Harris and Tucker on Tatum will be huge. Harris in particular will need to have a defensive series of his life.

[76ciology]

Harris and Tucker on Tatum will be huge. Harris in particular will need to have a defensive series of his life.

Yes, and Tucker can’t shoot 20% on 3s. He averages .8makes on 3.8 attempts per game. Tucker and Biid also have to communicate better on those trailing bigs shooting 3s