ECSF: P1 | (2) Boston Celtics vs Philadelphia 76ers (3) | BOS 1-0

[kuclas]

Would you be better or worse without Simmons and Embiid if this is an excuse? And would it be considered an excuse or a fact if they were to miss a ton of games?

Ainge would have been aware of Kyrie's injury history and would realise that the cavs would not have given you a fully healthy Kyrie for the assets given, so an already injured player missing time due to injury is to be expected. If we get Kawhi at a discount and he ends reinjuring himself, we have nobody else to blame. If Ainge wants a healthy player, then he shouldn't be trading for one like Kyrie and then using his absence as an excuse. If Embiid went down with injury, then tough luck. He fell to us because of his injury history. I doubt Kyrie or Embiid would be on our respective teams of they were healthy.

You didn't answer my question tho, is it an excuse that you're better with Embiid and Simmons or a fact? Asking for a friend.

Btw, Horfie's shooting the 3 ball better than Embiid's overall FG %. 35 mins 58.8% from the field, 43.8% from 3, 76.5 FT, 18.1ppg, 8.7 rbs, 3.3 assists, 1.4 blocks. It will get interesting for sure.

Embiid played 3 games against Celtics this season.

First game (2nd game of season for sixers) . Embiid still clearly rusty from not having played. He didn’t have his legs under him and out since Jan 31 2017 and back to team less than 2 weeks in the preseason

Second game was London game. Weird game with sixers up big and Celtics came back. Embiid didn’t play great/celtics defensive scheme worked against him.

Third game (no kyrie) Embiid had his way against Baynes and Horford. Once baynes out with foul problems. Horford doesn’t have enough length to cover embiid.

It all comes down if embiid can recognize Stevens scheme to double team him. Limit turnovers. Pass the ball to the open shooters. It just comes down to execution on embiid’s part. If embiid recognizes the double team quickly and swings the ball aroind. Celtics are in deep trouble. Cause sixers bench is much improved since they last met. Their bench or lack of bench was responsible for them losing so many big leads.

[sixers4real]

So many overreactions.
But I will say this for Boston fans - I respect Boston and you have amazing team and coach.

But please, if you once said two years ago: sixers will never win. Don’t change your mind because of something.

And please, if you say now Celtics in 6 or 7, and if the sixers will win this series, never ever say make an excuse about Irving or Hayward.

I fully respect your team. Let the best win.

[titlebound1]

If its Boston, Embiid will feast on the Celtics.

They don't really have anyone to guard him.

You didn't watch any of the games. Horford is not a good match up for Embiid

If you think games in October are applicable to this series, you're delusional.

Two entirely different teams.

I'm talking about one specific match up. It's not delusional at all to think that one of the best defensive big men in the league is a tough match up for Embiid.

I'm sure Embiid will get his. But I'm also sure that one of the defensive teams all year will be able to game plan

[pac213up]

Given the Brown injury the Sixers should win this in 5.

[titlebound1]

I do not like or respect the 76ers as an organization. I think their blatant tanking was shameful and should not be rewarded. It's going to feel really good watching a very injured Celtics team knock them out.

That said...this is a real rivalry. Just like the Celtics vs the Lakers. This one has meaning. This is not a fake Toronto rivalry. It's a damn shame the Celtics wont have Irving or Gordon

You're going to wish the Celtics decided to Trust The Process instead of prematurely trying to win now on the backs of inferior talent, and thereby capping the upside of their rebuild. You'll see the consequences of that over the next decade, starting with this series.

Nah I'm good with the tanking. That team was essentially stealing from fans by charging even a single dollar for a ticket.

And your own team didn't trust the process. The GM got canned...

[titlebound1]

You're going to wish the Celtics decided to Trust The Process instead of prematurely trying to win now on the backs of inferior talent, and thereby capping the upside of their rebuild. You'll see the consequences of that over the next decade, starting with this series.

Right, because a series not featuring either of the Celtics stars will be indictitive of the teams prospects going forward.

Man, you can tell Sixers fans haven't had a good team in a while reading this thread. Some of y'all really believe this team is a contender lol. The C's will push the Sixers to the limit without their stars, then we'll wipe the floor with you when both teams are healthy next year.

No you won't. A team with Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward as its best 2 players has NO CHANCE to win a title.

You need top 10 and preferably top 5 players to win chips. You don't have any even if Irving and Hayward come back at 100%.

We will probably have 2 top 10 players by next year. 3 if LeBron comes.

Oh nice no facts or anything real to back up an argument. Let me try!

No team who's second best player can't make a shot from outside like 15 feet will ever win a championship.

How was that?

[pac213up]

No team who's second best player can't make a shot from outside like 15 feet will ever win a championship.

It's actually 10 feet. One of the worse shooting performances you will see from the PG position. As long as he is surrounded by shooters though, Junior Rondo will be ok.

[Ramed Nazored]

Boston in 6.

Boston wins the first two at home, and sets the tone for series.

[titlebound1]

Boston in 6.

Boston wins the first two at home, and sets the tone for series.

Yup

[titlebound1]

Is smart going to be let loose on Simmons? I don't think the kid with no jump shot is ready for that.

[Ramed Nazored]

Boston in 6.

Boston wins the first two at home, and sets the tone for series.

Yup

This depends on Brown's health though.

[Lebr0nJames]

76ers in 6, Stevens system will keep them in winnable situations

[DBA]

My gut feel is Brad would take his chances by setting a stage of cancelling out Sixers’ vets with their top guys (horford, jaylen and Tatum’s scoring vs JJ, Beli and Dario). Then he’d take his chances of letting Biid take his jumpers and pressuring Ben and forcing him to drive to the hole. Wins should be when his top guys more than outscore Sixers vets, Biid’s jumpers and Ben’s drives.

Why would you pressure Simmons? He can't shoot a basketball. Sag off him and go under every screen there is

[KHRICH]

Boston has the bodies and wings to throw at Simmons, ill say Boston in 7.

[Madhouse]

Is smart going to be let loose on Simmons? I don't think the kid with no jump shot is ready for that.

not going to matter. Simmons will get to the basket regardless and set up shooters.

[Arsenal]

Yeah Stevens is a great regular season coach but his playoff record is nothing special.

2015: 8th seed Celtics (40-42) get swept 4-0 by 1st seed Cavaliers (57-25)

2016: 5th seed Celtics (48-34) lose 4-2 to 4th seed Hawks (48-34)

2017: 1st seed Celtics (53-29) win 4-2 vs 8th seed Bulls (41-41)
1st seed Celtics win 4-3 vs 4th seed Wizards (49-33)
1st seed Celtics lose 4-1 vs 2nd seed Cavaliers (51-31)

2018: 2nd seed Celtics (55-27) win 4-3 vs 7th seed Bucks (44-38)

There's nothing impressive about his playoff results. His strength is getting mediocre teams to overachieve in the regular season, but that doesn't work in the playoffs against better teams.

Based upon their relative seeding they've been unimpressive in the playoffs, which is to be expected if they're overachieving in the regular season.

Then you say his playoff results are nothing impressive. Yeah you just countered yourself. Maybe give Brad some real talent to work in the playoffs before you bring out his playoff record. You can't make this kind of stupid up. Those 2015 series against Cavs coudn't be more irrelevant.

His regular season results are very impressive because he wins more games than he should with the given talent.

Then they end up losing every time they play a good team in the playoffs, which is not impressive.

Getting hammered and swept in 2015 is NOT IMPRESSIVE. Losing 4-2 as a 48 win team against another 48 win team in 2016 is NOT IMPRESSIVE. Getting hammered 4-1 as the #1 seed in 2017 is NOT IMPRESSIVE.

An impressive showing in the playoffs would be actually beating a higher ranked team at least once. It would be not struggling to beat inferior teams like the Wizards and Bulls last year, and the Bucks this year.

You can't make up the kind of stupid that doesn't understand such simple logic.

[michaelm]

Would you be better or worse without Simmons and Embiid if this is an excuse? And would it be considered an excuse or a fact if they were to miss a ton of games?

Ainge would have been aware of Kyrie's injury history and would realise that the cavs would not have given you a fully healthy Kyrie for the assets given, so an already injured player missing time due to injury is to be expected. If we get Kawhi at a discount and he ends reinjuring himself, we have nobody else to blame. If Ainge wants a healthy player, then he shouldn't be trading for one like Kyrie and then using his absence as an excuse. If Embiid went down with injury, then tough luck. He fell to us because of his injury history. I doubt Kyrie or Embiid would be on our respective teams of they were healthy.

You didn't answer my question tho, is it an excuse that you're better with Embiid and Simmons or a fact? Asking for a friend.

Btw, Horfie's shooting the 3 ball better than Embiid's overall FG %. 35 mins 58.8% from the field, 43.8% from 3, 76.5 FT, 18.1ppg, 8.7 rbs, 3.3 assists, 1.4 blocks. It will get interesting for sure.

It is unfortunate, but it is what it is.

The Sixers might not win anyway, but if they do they will have beaten everyone who turned up to play them, and no more can any team do. It is up to the Celtics to put the best team they can on the court, nothing to do with the Sixers, and in Kyrie's case they partly got him in the first place because he threatened to have surgery straight away if the Cavs didn't trade him, so he was a risk the Celtics took.

Next year will be a new thing, which can be looked at then.

[Arsenal]

My gut feel is Brad would take his chances by setting a stage of cancelling out Sixers’ vets with their top guys (horford, jaylen and Tatum’s scoring vs JJ, Beli and Dario). Then he’d take his chances of letting Biid take his jumpers and pressuring Ben and forcing him to drive to the hole. Wins should be when his top guys more than outscore Sixers vets, Biid’s jumpers and Ben’s drives.

Why would you pressure Simmons? He can't shoot a basketball. Sag off him and go under every screen there is

Yeah just sag off him and you'll win easily. Funny how that hasn't worked very well against him all year. When you sag off you give him a free lane to the basket. Or wide open passing lanes to hit guys for open shots. Or an easy DHO for an open shot by one of our sharpshooters.

[76ciology]

My gut feel is Brad would take his chances by setting a stage of cancelling out Sixers’ vets with their top guys (horford, jaylen and Tatum’s scoring vs JJ, Beli and Dario). Then he’d take his chances of letting Biid take his jumpers and pressuring Ben and forcing him to drive to the hole. Wins should be when his top guys more than outscore Sixers vets, Biid’s jumpers and Ben’s drives.

Why would you pressure Simmons? He can't shoot a basketball. Sag off him and go under every screen there is

That’s the conventional way to defend him. But you see our team’s offense is built to counter that. You’ll understand it once you play against us. Spo realized this from G2 onwards

[Hipster Doofus]

Boston has the bodies and wings to throw at Simmons, ill say Boston in 7.

So did Miami. And Simmons averaged a triple double for the series.