Game 33: Sixers @ Wizards

[ankle420breaker]

It would be helpful if the coaching staff routinely reminded Joel that he needs to jump to get rebounds.

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[Bum Adebayo]

LOL people somehow blaming Embiid after scoring 48 points? give me a break, the best thing is Jokic fans masquerading as Sixers fans "he plays like Westbrook" yeah no.

[Bum Adebayo]

48 points Embiid has been amazing MVP MVP MVP!

[mjkvol]

Watched the second half tonight once I heard it was McGinnis doing the broadcast. Really good effort in what was clearly a trap game between the big Christmas spot and going to NO, and a game that could (should?) have been won. 3-point shooting was the primary culprit, but awful possessions in the last couple of minutes sealed the deal.

I'll just never understand why the Sixers, with James Harden on the floor, are initiating big possessions down the stretch with Embiid at the 3 pt. line. They were running some great plays out of TO's earlier in the game, the Harden-Embiid P&R had worked beautifully earlier, so why go to these Embiid iso's with the game on the line?

Doc Rivers. As Doc Said in the preseason to harden the ball must be in Embiid hands and this is not a democracy

Oh, I know the answer to my question, but I've beaten that horse so much lately that I just asked a rhetorical question instead.

With all the talk of the roster and whether or not we have the right talent mix to win a chip, it's the guy making the play calls and deciding on rotations and minutes played who is the one who will inevitably hold us back IMO. The talent to win is here with a coach from this century who understands that the playoffs are the thing and isn't hell bent on winning midseason games to the point of leaving 30+ yr. old players you will need fresh in May and June on the court for 38-40 minutes. Not to mention predictable, low percentage end of game play calls.

[mjkvol]

LOL people somehow blaming Embiid after scoring 48 points? give me a break, the best thing is Jokic fans masquerading as Sixers fans "he plays like Westbrook" yeah no.

No one here is blaming Embiid, but more so the end of game plays initiating with him in iso on the 3 pt. line.

The Westbrook thing is ridiculous.

[ankle420breaker]

Embiid scored a thousand points, but was disastrous on the glass all game and extremely weak with the ball down the stretch resulting in multiple crucial turnovers. We all know he's great, but there are still legitimate holes in his game that could hurt us come playoff time.

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[mjkvol]

Embiid scored a thousand points, but was disastrous on the glass all game and extremely weak with the ball down the stretch resulting in multiple crucial turnovers. We all know he's great, but there are still legitimate holes in his game that could hurt us come playoff time.

Those holes could be greatly mitigated by a coach using creative end of game strategies and lessening Embiid's minutes to insure he is fresh in crunch time. Sadly, we don't and won't have that here.

[Bum Adebayo]

Embiid scored a thousand points, but was disastrous on the glass all game and extremely weak with the ball down the stretch resulting in multiple crucial turnovers. We all know he's great, but there are still legitimate holes in his game that could hurt us come playoff time.

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48 points on 63% TS, only in the minds of Sixers fans this is "disastrous" and "extremely weak".

[Bum Adebayo]

It's not about our bench being trash, or Tucker scoring 0 points, or 3pt% being terrible. No, it's about our best player scoring 48 pts on 63% TS being bad on the glass and weak with the ball.

[Negrodamus]

The sad thing about this team is that Harden and Embiid could get us across the finish line but Morey has surrounded them with mediocre role players. This off-season was the time to bolster the role players and we just got worse version of the Rockets and Melton (who is admittedly very good).

[Jailblazers7]

Yeah, this pas offseason was a massive missed opportunity. Finally having some cap flexibility and it ending up becoming Tucker, House, and Trez is terrible. I get that Harden & Embiid were likely making their preferences known that they wanted Tucker but it’s a GM’s job to manage personalities and make the right moves.

[mjkvol]

I haven't watched a whole lot this year so far, but Tucker appears to be cooked (hopefully different in the playoffs), Harrell shouldn't ever see the court, and House is a total zero. I mean, if he hit on even one of those, but to go 0-3 just can't happen.

[mksp]

First game I've watched in a while and it ends with Joel turning the ball over in crunch time multiple times.

Amazing player, but that's exactly how another 2nd round exit looks like.

[youngcrev]

First game I've watched in a while and it ends with Joel turning the ball over in crunch time multiple times.

Amazing player, but that's exactly how another 2nd round exit looks like.

That's the nightmare, but to be fair, that mostly hasn't been the case this year.

[Wilfried]

I haven't watched a whole lot this year so far, but Tucker appears to be cooked (hopefully different in the playoffs), Harrell shouldn't ever see the court, and House is a total zero. I mean, if he hit on even one of those, but to go 0-3 just can't happen.

Seriously, what other options did we have with the ‘cap space’. House came through MLE if I’m correct, what other possibilities were there?

[Embiid P]

First game I've watched in a while and it ends with Joel turning the ball over in crunch time multiple times.

Amazing player, but that's exactly how another 2nd round exit looks like.

Hopefully it doesn't come to that. Guys weren't hitting their outside shots last night like they normally do. Also rebounding killed us again per usual. Finally we were still missing another shot creator in Maxey to get to the paint when the outside shots aren't falling. Fortunately that will change come Friday.

[Jailblazers7]

I haven't watched a whole lot this year so far, but Tucker appears to be cooked (hopefully different in the playoffs), Harrell shouldn't ever see the court, and House is a total zero. I mean, if he hit on even one of those, but to go 0-3 just can't happen.

Seriously, what other options did we have with the ‘cap space’. House came through MLE if I’m correct, what other possibilities were there?

Tucker got the full MLE. Kyle Anderson got less money and fewer years from Minnesota using the MLE. Same goes for Bruce Brown in Denver.

House got the biannual exception. TJ Warren got half that and looks awesome in Brooklyn.

Obviously hindsight is 20/20 especially for a guy like Warren coming back from injury. But at the time, our signings were uninspiring but there was at least some hope they’d pan out for this season at a minimum.

[Bum Adebayo]

First game I've watched in a while and it ends with Joel turning the ball over in crunch time multiple times.

Amazing player, but that's exactly how another 2nd round exit looks like.

Exactly you barely watch games so you don't know how amazing Embiid has been. One or two mistakes are not going to erase the historic season he is having, so you've no idea and that's ok one needs to watch many games.
And in playoffs 2nd round exit is because he's had no help except for the year we had Butler, and we almost won against the eventual champions, and Embiid in that year was a considerably worse version compared to now.

[DCasey91]

LOL people somehow blaming Embiid after scoring 48 points? give me a break, the best thing is Jokic fans masquerading as Sixers fans "he plays like Westbrook" yeah no.

It’s funny people don’t admit that but that’s literally how prime Westbrook played. In the crunch particularly

Embiid isn’t without flaws, I just don’t buy that centrism when push comes to shove especially if he starts the iso from the friggin 3pt line that’s silly now.

[DCasey91]

Putting two and two together it isn’t a great look.

Remember when Doc said it’s priority number one to give Embiid more of the ball preseason, that isn’t the solution it’s part of the problem imo. It’s an enabler effect

The effectiveness in playoff situations isn’t good it should be Harden as the steering wheel, pnr play but Doc is the coach so it’s on him to learn because Embiid at 36+min of game his decision making skills aren’t up to par and it’ll be the same again in the playoffs.

It’s like giving a drug addict his drugs whenever he wants it. It’s basically the opposite of how to fix it to make it better lol

But more of a problem is Tucker. These last 5 games or so he’s been found out as basically useless. Poor rebounder just adds to already the issue of been a below average rebounding team on the whole. He isn’t a young player so you can’t chop and change at the trade deadline. I still don’t understand the list makeup at all. The Harrell acquisition is also as much of a head scratcher but gets hidden because he’s on the bench. It’s limiting Reed’s playing opportunities when he already has more upside.

Honestly we aren’t championship quality so no use crying over split milk but to me it’s just Groundhog Day each year. We still haven’t solved the wing position, backup C, primary guard (once Harden goes old man syndrome lol). It’s the same problems as it was when Embiid started his career. It’s truely unfortunate because I believe this will be the first time fingers crossed that Embiid will be fit and ready to go when the real thing starts.

Anyway rant over, just fleece the Blazers for Hart and make a go of it.