R2G4 - 76ers vs Celtics - May 7 3:30pm ET ESPN

[76ciology]

Need to address those miscommunications on defensive rotations.

Need to address how to defend if they choose to attack Maxey.

Need to coach Tobi and Tucker, the biases of Brown and Tatum for them to do a better job in defending them.

[mjkvol]

So, after sleeping on this game, here are my thoughts with a cooler head.

Negatives:
- this is the difference between us and Boston. Last game they were in a situation where they were leading up to 10-12 points the whole game, but whenever we made it close, they would pull away and closed the game
- we had leads of up to 16, and completely shrunk in the 4th to basically give the game away.
- nobody else besides Embiid and Harden isn't contributing, and I'm not sure how long this can continue (probably not for too long)

Positives:
- truth be told, James Harden won us 2 games in this series (last night with the help of Embiid)
- we did eventually win, even if it was stressful, but the W is a W and we showed that we can come back and win. Especially considering the fact that the officiating was brutal for us. In the OT there were 3 consecutive calls that were ridiculous (flop by Smart, and one on Embiid, offensive push on Tatum). All those resulted directly in 8 points for Celtics. And we still managed to pull out a win after all that.

What next:
- I don't know if we can beat them. They are still heavy favorites. But maybe, just maybe we have a bit of a momentum with this W going into G5. We need to play absolutely a perfect game to give ourselves a chance. And we need other contributors.
- I almost think that for this series we need to establish Harden as our 1st option, and Joel as 2nd option. It works better against Celtics.

Positives:
- They’re already hitting us with their best shot. There’s literally no one who’s struggling on their team now.
- We’re getting used to defending them, eventually this dribble drive offense becomes predictable. Our offense is more predictable but its harder to stop
- In the first half, we showed we can be better than them if we just played sharp with energy and aggressiveness

Negatives:
- Biid and Harden might be tired for next game

Wow, I see it much differently than you. The Celtics played like garbage for three quarters and we let them back in a game that by all rights should have been a blowout, or at least a solid double digit win. Rivers had to bring Embiid back 2-3 minutes earlier than usual because the bench was hemorrhaging points. We've needed two off the charts Harden performances to win games that could have gone either way.

I don't think the Celtics are a great team, especially given how deep their roster is on paper. They live and die with 3-pointers, and without guys like White and Brogdon would be a decidedly mediocre team, - but they are deep and can get huge contributions from a number of players.

The Sixers are unimaginatively coached and rely 100% on Embiid and/or Harden going off to win, which is an incredibly difficult way to win a playoff series. If I'm Mazzulla, I sell out to limit Harden and Embiid and make sure it is anyone else beating me. We'll see what happens, but it would be a major red flag on this Celtics team if they can't win this series with two home games.

[Sixercise]

Honest to goodness, Im so pissed rn - shouldn't been this close.

SMH how are you pissed over a WIN? It doesn’t matter how you fkn win in the playoffs aslong as you win! It’s better to go watch the tape and get better from it after a win than doing the same **** after a loss! You people need to get over yourselves

I'ma just put this out there for all to see (your own words from the Nets series):

This place has the most dumbest so called sixers fans ever.

90% of sixers (fans) here are dumb.

I have a right to be pissed over yesterday because it shouldn't have been that close, especially in front of the home crowd. Our team still has some miles to go before I feel comfortable saying that they have a mental edge in this series. Ofc, we'll see how games 5 & 6 pan out. Also, who are you to tell me how to feel, Dad? This isn't the first time you've attempted lambasting this community over a freaking basketball game.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

A win is a win. Golden State won a similar game 4 against the Kings in the first round. Sacramento should have been up 3-1.

[Mik317]

Tatum is better than brown, it’s just that both does not possess HOF level talent. You can say A is better than B or B is better than A, because the talent gap is small and both changes every game.

Problem with this team is we have two HOF level talent but it’s only this game when both of them clicks at the same time.

If Biid and Harden can just be consistent. We’d win this series with the headline being that we have the best players to lead this team.

But what is the impression out there? Biid is playing hurt and Harden is bipolar.

both guys probably make the hof barring injury tho

[Iverson Armband]

Tatum is definitely a HOF talent.

[mjkvol]

Both Tatum and Brown are excellent second bananas. Combine their strengths and you have the best player in the game today.

[Negrodamus]

Tatum is better than brown, it’s just that both does not possess HOF level talent. You can say A is better than B or B is better than A, because the talent gap is small and both changes every game.

Problem with this team is we have two HOF level talent but it’s only this game when both of them clicks at the same time.

If Biid and Harden can just be consistent. We’d win this series with the headline being that we have the best players to lead this team.

But what is the impression out there? Biid is playing hurt and Harden is bipolar.

Wait, Tatum isn't HOF level talent? If he maintains this course, he's 100% first ballot HOF.

[HotelVitale]

Morey did a poor job at the trade deadline. We needed another shot creator or playmaker especially against this Boston team. Tobi and Maxey are not shotcreators they are more of the 3 level scorer ilk.

Not the worlds biggest Morey fan but why would you expect anyone to turn bad players and some 2nd rounders into a high level creator who can play enough defense etc to stay on the court in the PO?

Who expected that? I know we wasn't going to get a high level role player with the pieces we have. The celtics and lakers only seem capable of doing that.

Celitcs gave up players and 1st rounders for White and Brogdon, good trades but we couldn't make them this year. Lakers also gave up a nice unprotected 1st this year to get their role players. Sucks we don't have 1st rounders to trade soon but if you enjoy having James Harden instead of Ben Simmons this series, it comes with the turf.

[76ciology]

Tobi has go to the corner here.

[Jailblazers7]

Tobi flat out sucked that game. Bad defensive rotations, indecisive offense, and couldn’t guard a soul out there. He absolutely needs to be better if we are gonna win this series.

[76ciology]

- why Tobi has high +/-? Because Niang was a big reason for the collapse in the fourth.
- Embiid was so gassed out to end the fourth
- That foul call on Tucker when Marcus Smart flopped to set a screen was huge, we could have won the game without it
- Celts drove to the paint at will. As if we intentionally want them to funnel them to Biid and hopefully force them into TOs

[76ciology]

Tobi flat out sucked that game. Bad defensive rotations, indecisive offense, and couldn’t guard a soul out there. He absolutely needs to be better if we are gonna win this series.

Yes. If he’s not gonna score efficiently, then he better lock it up on defense or grab boards.

[76ciology]

Tatum and Smart are both shooting 31-33% on 3s this series.

[Snotbubbles]

So, after sleeping on this game, here are my thoughts with a cooler head.

Negatives:
- this is the difference between us and Boston. Last game they were in a situation where they were leading up to 10-12 points the whole game, but whenever we made it close, they would pull away and closed the game
- we had leads of up to 16, and completely shrunk in the 4th to basically give the game away.
- nobody else besides Embiid and Harden isn't contributing, and I'm not sure how long this can continue (probably not for too long)

Positives:
- truth be told, James Harden won us 2 games in this series (last night with the help of Embiid)
- we did eventually win, even if it was stressful, but the W is a W and we showed that we can come back and win. Especially considering the fact that the officiating was brutal for us. In the OT there were 3 consecutive calls that were ridiculous (flop by Smart, and one on Embiid, offensive push on Tatum). All those resulted directly in 8 points for Celtics. And we still managed to pull out a win after all that.

What next:
- I don't know if we can beat them. They are still heavy favorites. But maybe, just maybe we have a bit of a momentum with this W going into G5. We need to play absolutely a perfect game to give ourselves a chance. And we need other contributors.
- I almost think that for this series we need to establish Harden as our 1st option, and Joel as 2nd option. It works better against Celtics.

Positives:
- They’re already hitting us with their best shot. There’s literally no one who’s struggling on their team now.
- We’re getting used to defending them, eventually this dribble drive offense becomes predictable. Our offense is more predictable but its harder to stop
- In the first half, we showed we can be better than them if we just played sharp with energy and aggressiveness

Negatives:
- Biid and Harden might be tired for next game

Wow, I see it much differently than you. The Celtics played like garbage for three quarters and we let them back in a game that by all rights should have been a blowout, or at least a solid double digit win. Rivers had to bring Embiid back 2-3 minutes earlier than usual because the bench was hemorrhaging points. We've needed two off the charts Harden performances to win games that could have gone either way.

I don't think the Celtics are a great team, especially given how deep their roster is on paper. They live and die with 3-pointers, and without guys like White and Brogdon would be a decidedly mediocre team, - but they are deep and can get huge contributions from a number of players.

The Sixers are unimaginatively coached and rely 100% on Embiid and/or Harden going off to win, which is an incredibly difficult way to win a playoff series. If I'm Mazzulla, I sell out to limit Harden and Embiid and make sure it is anyone else beating me. We'll see what happens, but it would be a major red flag on this Celtics team if they can't win this series with two home games.

Quite frankly, if you sell out to stop Harden and Embiid and leave Maxey wide open for spot up 3s, the Celtics might not win another game. The Sixers literally just have to break even on the Paul Reed minutes and they got this. Problem is, Williams is killing Reed on the glass.

I feel like the Sixers didn't think they could beat the Celtics going into this series. You could see it after the game 1 win. Everyone but Harden acted like they just won the NBA title. Yesterday was huge for this team showing that they can play with Boston. Hopefully, that will translate into the "other guys" picking their game up.

[Ferry Avenue]

Positives:
- They’re already hitting us with their best shot. There’s literally no one who’s struggling on their team now.
- We’re getting used to defending them, eventually this dribble drive offense becomes predictable. Our offense is more predictable but its harder to stop
- In the first half, we showed we can be better than them if we just played sharp with energy and aggressiveness

Negatives:
- Biid and Harden might be tired for next game

Wow, I see it much differently than you. The Celtics played like garbage for three quarters and we let them back in a game that by all rights should have been a blowout, or at least a solid double digit win. Rivers had to bring Embiid back 2-3 minutes earlier than usual because the bench was hemorrhaging points. We've needed two off the charts Harden performances to win games that could have gone either way.

I don't think the Celtics are a great team, especially given how deep their roster is on paper. They live and die with 3-pointers, and without guys like White and Brogdon would be a decidedly mediocre team, - but they are deep and can get huge contributions from a number of players.

The Sixers are unimaginatively coached and rely 100% on Embiid and/or Harden going off to win, which is an incredibly difficult way to win a playoff series. If I'm Mazzulla, I sell out to limit Harden and Embiid and make sure it is anyone else beating me. We'll see what happens, but it would be a major red flag on this Celtics team if they can't win this series with two home games.

Quite frankly, if you sell out to stop Harden and Embiid and leave Maxey wide open for spot up 3s, the Celtics might not win another game. The Sixers literally just have to break even on the Paul Reed minutes and they got this. Problem is, Williams is killing Reed on the glass.

I feel like the Sixers didn't think they could beat the Celtics going into this series. You could see it after the game 1 win. Everyone but Harden acted like they just won the NBA title. Yesterday was huge for this team showing that they can play with Boston. Hopefully, that will translate into the "other guys" picking their game up.

I don't agree entirely with the bolded portion above. Obviously the win was huge and absolutely necessary in giving this team any shot of winning the series, but the nature of the win was similar to the game 1 win in that it was "fluky." Boston's 4th-quarter surge, in a road game in which the home team was in a must-win situation, was actually more impressive than the Sixers' win, in my opinion.

We have two sound Boston wins here and two "fluky" Sixers wins. Boston is clearly in the driver's seat, and it'll take something of monumental proportions to dislodge them from that in game 5 in Boston.

The fact that the Sixers had to galvanize each other mentally and emotionally prior to and during yesterday's game is not a good sign. Everybody should've been locked in for that one, without much need for inspiration from anybody else. Boston has been able to flip a switch and demonstrate that throughout the series, whereas the Sixers appear to be swimming upstream in accomplishing it.

[76ciology]

I think this team believes they can beat boston

We celebrated in G1, because that game was an upset. For we dont have Biid

[Mik317]

Tatum and Smart are both shooting 31-33% on 3s this series.

does not feel like it...especially Smart lol

[Eyeamok]

The stress of this series is wearing me out. I DVR all the games. Then I watch them. as I zip through the commercials, and all is good. I start watching the game it's going well, then they are up by 10 now 14 points. Chit this can't be good. I know this team. And the Celtics are good. It's at that point I bail. I yell out Alexa "what was the final score in the 76ers game!" Overtime.....frigging OT. How does that happen? I watch the game and learn how it happens. I tell you if I had watched that game live or watched it not knowing the final outcome I would have aged 10 years. WOW.

The Celtics are a good team and they are on a mission. Brown is an absolute monster. Props to James for coming through. It's amazing to me that the 76ers have so much trouble finishing fast breaks. Also Maxey is giving me flashbacks of Evan Turner, always getting his shot blocked, as he goes to the rim. Hopefully he can fix this...like by tomorrow.

[Hipster Doofus]

Tatum and Smart are both shooting 31-33% on 3s this series.

Except in clutch moments or last second shots - then it's 100%.

It boggles my mind how that happens. Including 40 year old Al ***ing Horford.