2018-19 Sixers Season

[bkeich]

I think I would be tempted to try and talk Embiid to taking Game 4 off. If the Sixers can win it without him they should be able to hold him out.

You might also just put Embiid in a "we will use you when we need you" theory, dont start him, if you get a good lead or fall behind big give him the night off. If it is close start using him in the 2nd half. Not sure if that is a good idea or not.

Greg Monroe tried, and he is an an awful spot, he really isnt very good anymore and he is playing with guys he just met. That said, he was atrocious on the floor, just atrocious. He bodied up a few people, couldnt hit a shot (despite having one from 6 inches). He did have 9pts and 13 boards, but he was a NOTICEABLE -9 when he was on the court in a game we won by 16.

I have to think that either playing Bolden or just going small is a better idea. I appreciate the effort by Monroe, it really was awesome, but I would much rather see him play 5-8 minutes, not 25. Boban fouled out, which cost him a few minutes, but he really may be a max 20-24 minutes anyway (he played 18). Start Boban, go small when he needs a rest and mix in a shift or two with Monroe (particularly when Allen is on the court and Boban is resting).

Can Amir Johnson be activated? He might be a better choice for a few minutes.

[el-pietro]

Joel is starting.

[xogfog]

And Joel is finishing!

Sixers with a a gutty 112-108 win. Embiid played 32 minutes and had a ridiculous stat line of 31 and 16 with 2 steals, 6 blocks and 7 assists.

[el-pietro]

That game was flat out insane. Ridiculous calls by the ref to give Joel a technical, and to eject Jimmy. There should at least have been a technical on Russell who came barging in and shoved the ref into the pile.
Some end to the game, I think Brooklyn bottled it a bit, lots of turnovers late on, and what a killer three by Mike Scott to win it. People may say the bench is weak and they aren't wrong, but hes a real player.

[bigegypt0417]

Sixers destroying the nets...

76-41 half way through the 3rd

[bkeich]

Raptors are going to be very, very tough. They were the #1 seed most of the year, or at least some of it. Much more balanced team, but then again, so are the Sixers.

They need to keep Embiid under control. He is getting close to a mandatory 1 game suspension between tech's and flagrant foul count, and my fear is that the Nets showed that you can get him to do / say silly things and pick up a quick one. I would hate to lose him for a game late in this series.

Game 1 will be very telling, Brown needs to have a better gameplan going into the series than he did against the Nets. He needs to know what he needs to do before wasting a game or two to figure it out. The Sixers were lucky to win game 2 versus the Nets, they didnt defend at all but simply outplayed them on offense and got lucky the Nets were missing open shots. Can't depend on that against the Raptors, they are too good.

Steal one on the road and hold down the fort at home. Simple formula. For the Sixers to win this I think it will certainly go at least 6 games.

[el-pietro]

Technicals don't count towards a suspension as far as I'm aware. Once a player reaches four flagrant points they miss a game. So either two Flagrant 1s or a single Flagrant 2 would take Embiid out of a game.

I don't think the Nets managed to get into Embiids head at all. His second flagrant was a joke, but he didn't commit the foul because of something the Nets did, they just managed to escalate the situation and get his foul upgraded to a flagrant. Not much you can do about that. He actually handled the situation well and walked away from it.

Raptors in 5 or 6.

[bigegypt0417]

The Sixers were lucky to win game 2 versus the Nets, they didnt defend at all but simply outplayed them on offense and got lucky the Nets were missing open shots. Can't depend on that against the Raptors, they are too good.

The sixers were lucky to win game 2 in the way the nets were lucky to win game 1. I don't know how in any realm of reality winning 145-123 without your starters playing the 4th quarter would be considered "lucky".

Also in game 1 the sixers were 3 for 25 from 3 point range...how do you game plan for that?

The sixers starters would have hung 160 points in game 2 if they weren't called off.

[VoteForKalas]

Very good win for the 76ers.

Defense is very important and they finally showed the full dedication to it. If that continues, this series should be very competitive. If they go back to the ole style of defense, the Raptors will eat us alive.

Simmons, Harris, Butler and Embiid need to be very aggressive offensively also and drive it relentlessly to the rack, get them in foul trouble and hit their free throws. Free points as always make a huge difference in winning games.

[el-pietro]

FIrst quarter was not ideal. Raptors up 39-31. At that rate the game would end 156-124. But The Raptors went on something like 13 straight buckets and that can't possibly keep going.

My feed doesn't show commercials (why would they, I'm not able to purchase any of the things being shown) so I get in arena footage. I think its what is shown on the big screens. I hate the time out and between quarter entertainment in Toronto.

It also seems oddly quiet in the arena, but that might be to do with the broadcast.

[phillychuck]

Sixers made a run to start Q2 but the Raps spaced it out again. We need to D-up better on them; don't know if we can.

[phillychuck]

Made another run in Q3 but just can't defend. Gotta change it up somehow if we hope to win any games. This one is pretty much done.

[el-pietro]

Vlad Jr is at the game, they just showed him on the big screen and introduced him. Best celebrity they have had so far.

[el-pietro]

I don't have much faith in the Sixers to get anything out of this game but for as bad as they have been tonight, the Raptors don't have an insurmountable lead. A crazy Joel quarter or Jimmy Butler taking over and hitting threes, or even a few consecutive JJ threes could close this gap in very little time.

[VoteForKalas]

Poor game by the 76ers and Brown.

Embiid was shut down, Simmons was passive and Butler deferred, but this game was lost on defense. The Raptors got any shot from any spot they wanted all game long. If the 76ers have any chance in this series, that needs to change big time.

Usual metrics:

Turnover %:
76ers - 14
Raptors - 10

3 pt %:
76ers - 34%
Raptors - 33%

Free Throw %:
76ers - 66%
Raptors - 70%

+/- Stat:
76ers -13
Raptors +13

76ers lost 3 of the 4 metrics which usually lead to a loss. I guess the silver lining is, outside of the +/- stat, 2 of those were at least close.

[phillychuck]

Don't you always lose if you lose the +/- stat? Serious question. Or maybe I'm thinking of a different +/- metric than you are...

Tonight is almost a must-win if they are planning to win the series. I don't think they can sweep in Philly if they come home down 0-2.

[el-pietro]

+/- at team level is just the winning/losing margin? Thats not instructive of why a team won or lost, its literally the score. Its like saying, they lost because they scored less points.

I don't think you've captured the metric that shows the real difference though. Nothing fancy, just FG%.
Sixers, 39.3% on 89 attempts. Raptors 51.9% on 79 attempts. The Raptors completely outshot the Sixers.

In the regular season the Sixers averaged 47.1% on 88.2 attempts. Raptors 47.4% on 89.1 attempts.
For the playoffs as a whole the Sixers have averaged 44.2% on 92.5 attempts. Raptors 48.5 on 83.5 attempts.

Take out Game one and its 49.3% Sixers, 47.86% Raptors.

The question is, did the Raptors do something special to cause the Sixers to miss so many attempts or is it luck based, and vice versa, did the Sixers allow easy buckets, or did the Raptors get a huge slice of luck?

After the Nets game 1 there was a lot of hand-wringing among sixers fans even though the Nets had huge a crazy game from 3 and the Sixers couldn't make a shot. Once that returned to normal the Sixers dealt with the Nets (relatively) easily.

I'm not suggesting the Sixers will rebound easily in the rest of this series. I don't know enough about basketball to say that and I definitely don't understand defence enough, and it looked to me in game one that the Raptors were much better on defence than the Sixers. Regardless of how the series ends I think the FG% will end up closer to season averages by the time it ends.

[el-pietro]

Just to follow this up - with some really basic calculations. Not accounting for free throws cos I'm lazy and I'm killing time while waiting for something to finish so I can go back to work. The Sixers scored 2.72 points per field goal made. Raptors 2.63. If both teams kept those rates up but shot at season average levels the score would have been 114-99 in favour of the Sixers. Meaningless because both teams took out their starters and Raptors were probably happy to slow the game down to maintain their lead, but the difference between these two teams was Shooting. I look forward to Game two.

[VoteForKalas]

Yes, +/- represents the score, I was using it along with the other metrics to give insight into some issues the 76ers need to improve on to win. If you look at individual players like Butler (-23), Harris (-23), Boban (-18) and Ennis (-17), one can see who needs to step up more.

FG% is another good one. You're right the Raptors shot well, but when you have wide open looks and drive to the basket with ease i.e. the 76ers played poor defense, it is easier to shoot well. On the other end, the Raptors played much better defense by keeping the 76ers in half court, focusing on Embiid and forcing the 76ers to shoot from the outside.

Again, this is not just one game. The 76ers have struggled with the Raptors in every game and I do not believe they have beaten them with Leonard on the floor yet. I thought Brown would have had a new game plan to attack and defend them, but it looked a lot like the other losses.

[bigegypt0417]

I thought Brown would have had a new game plan to attack and defend them, but it looked a lot like the other losses.

You can't build a game plan to combat a team if you don't have the parts to implement it successfully. I don't really know if I want Brett Brown back but this Raptors team is a hard match-up for the sixers.

This could be over quickly.