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21' and 19' were both years where Embiid nearly made it to the East conference finals. Whereas in 19' Butler took the role of the leader offensively, in 21' it was Embiid. This series is notoriously remembered for this Simmons moment which is often attributed as the trigger or the beginning of his mental situation:



In retrospect, how do you analyze this series? Who's the blame for Philly not advancing? Is that mostly on Simmons? On Embiid? On Doc Rivers? On Trae Young?

Embiid had 30.4 ppg on decent percentages but nothing overwhelming (47% FG), while Simmons only scored 9.9 ppg (60% FG). Seth Curry had to take an offensive leap with 21 ppg (61.4% FG), with Tobias scoring 19.4 ppg (47.5% FG).

On the other side, Trae is the undisputed offensive engine with 29 PPG and 10.9 AST but only 39.2% FG, while there is a nice point distribution for the next guys in Collins Gallinari Bogdan Huerter Capela. Collins stands out in the efficiency department (54.7% FG), Capela as well (57.6% FG) - though the latter scores mainly at the rim.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2021-nba-eastern-conference-semifinals-hawks-vs-76ers.html

Don't remember the whole series, but did re-watch game 7 not so long ago.

Notes:
-Huerter was cooking (mostly on Curry). A lot of off the dribble work for a guy we think of as a spot up guy.
-The looks Capela was finishing were very easy off nice work from Trae.
-All in all not a great game for Trae, just couldn't hit shots.
-For having big minutes/decent box-score I didn't notice Collins much.
-Gallo impressed me off the bench, good iso work on O, always a shooting presence and even some decent D - iced the game with a turnover forced on Embiid in isolation late.

-Embiids passes were terrible most of the night, 8 TOs and plenty of passes that pulled guys way out of position to prevent turnovers. Scored well both off-ball and in isolation (TOs a bit of an issue there too).
-Embiid was not as active on D as I would've liked. Trae seemed to find him stuck in no man's land often.
-Simmons not much use without the ball on offense, didn't pair well with the way Embiid was playing that night. Good defensive work, and a decent portion of Trae's offensive struggles.
-Harris played with the most force of the main Sixers down the stretch.
-George Hill was cooked, which was a bummer, I really enjoyed his play when he was younger.

We all talk about game 7 but their choke in game 4 and 5 were all-time bad.Just brutal.They were up by 26 in game 5...