2023-2024 Sixers Season

[phillychuck]

Having worked as a ref for almost 30 years, I can tell you it doesn't have to be a direct "charge" to the officials for calls to be biased. A few well-placed interview comments let the officials know that their bosses would prefer certain outcomes. I don't think it leads to overt cheating, just the kind of bias that swings games. I remember a regional head of officials for a large regional basketball league for traveling teams saying in a group meeting that he was tired of seeing a certain coach get away with crap on the sidelines and with his players diving and trying to bait the refs. That team went a decade after that without winning a title after winning multiple championships in four of the prior six years. Might have been coincidence, but maybe not. I never officiated any of that team's games, so I don't have direct evidence. My close friend who was a much higher level official said they really didn't get the calls after that.

The NBA is blind enough to have missed blatant point shaving and cheating by refs for years. I'm pretty sure they could tilt the Sixers' calls, too.

[bkeich]

I guess there is still hope, but it is getting thin. 2 must win games now.

[bkox]

Sixers starter Kelly Oubre reportedly crashed Lamborghini after Game 2 loss

[xogfog]

Let’s see if the Sixers can hold on to a 9 point lead with 37 seconds left

[xogfog]

Sixers win, Embiid drops 50!

[bkeich]

Sixers win, Embiid drops 50!

On 19 shots.

[xogfog]

I think he shot more foul shots than the whole Knicks team.

[bkox]

76ers All-Star center Joel Embiid says he's suffering from Bell's palsy

[bkeich]

Poor guy is just a train wreck in April of every year.

[xogfog]

I had Bell's palsy once, what sucks as you can't really close your eyes, makes showering difficult, but otherwise it shouldn't affect his play.

[bkeich]

Nurse made a huge mistake in Gane 4. He left Embiid on the court for the entire 4th quarter. He was walking the last 5 minute. Couldn’t help on D. Couldn’t participate in the offense. Just exhausted.

I guess he forgot the Embiid can’t play that much, and he proved he can’t by basically not playing. Nothing Embiid could do, all on Nurse.

He finally drew a foul with 54 seconds left, but it was too late. He was so tired he actually missed a FT. 43 minutes played. He can’t do that.

[phillychuck]

Knicks are too tough. Can't beat them and the refs, too. Should be a 2-2 series.

[dicemen99]

Yup, blame it on Nurse for expecting Embiid to do what every star player is expected to do. Play extra minutes with the season on the line, marshall a little extra something and persevere through the pain.

You're not going to get a lot of positive outcomes when you start to focus on the negatives. Just look at the body language almost the entire 4th quarter. He was basically begging Nurse to take him out.

Yes, I guess you can accept the limitations and try to figure out how to win in the playoffs with him giving you whatever he can muster. Unfortunately, the Sixers have built their team around him and need more.

Sometimes you've got to put your guys in adverse conditions and let them sink or swim. It's how you get growth. Or not if you always sink. I guess that's where we are.

[bkeich]

If he was healthy I would agree with you. We know he is not, he just missed 2 months and he clearly is not in “playoff” conditioning. He needed to be used more conservatively.

Now, maybe taking him out for 3 minutes in the 4th quarter would have dug such a whole we couldn’t get out of it. But what they did clearly would not work, playing him 43 minutes when he is still not on solid legs and not in top conditioning is just too much, and yea, he was walking in the 2nd part of the 4th. He tried to muster the energy is few times, but it just wasn’t in the tank.

[zambonir]

It kind of doesn't matter that the refs may have swung a game (though i'm sure the Knicks would say they swung Game 3) or if Nurse rode Joel too hard today. It all goes back to Joel's injury, dropping to the play-in and not having home court in the first round. Some were chomping at the bit to get the Knicks as a #2 but it would have been better to face the Magic as a #4. What they needed more than anything was an easy first round to ease Joel back in. If he doesn't have to play an extra game before this round the Sixers probably even win one in NY, refs or not.

It is kind of sadly ironic that Nurse is going to get blamed for this one though, especially given Doc was famously bad at playing/managing the bench.

And let's face it, Morey didn't get it done at the deadline, or, arguably, didn't actually want to. In the end the wasted season we expected due to the Harden situation and Joel's injuries still wound up being that.

[dicemen99]

He's never been in "playoff" condition in his career.

He's healthy. As healthy as thousands of players have been that have taken the court. And healthier than many of the great ones have been when they willed their team to victory. That's why we call them great.

This is who he is. He can be dominant but not through the extended effort that is required in the long NBA postseason. He is fool's gold if you're trying to win a championship building a team around him.

He'll be fine in a few years when he goes somewhere without the expectations and with someone to carry the water for him. He'll roll in like Walton with the Celtics and get a ring.

Nurse just saw first hand what he's dealing with. I'd expect there will be big changes this off-season. He's a smart guy.

[schillingfan]

Knicks are too tough. Can't beat them and the refs, too. Should be a 2-2 series.

The Knicks are tough and physical. The game in the paint showed that. Maxey wasn’t able to get is mind bending laying because they was blocked and hot Joel is still cautious blocking out rebounds or shooting his fade away jumper and the way the Knicks rebound offensively is insane. The officials let their be a scrum in the paint and the Sixers were never going to win that.

[zambonir]

He really isn't healthy though. Reaggravated the knee already before the playoffs, has the Bell's Palsy too. That's fine if you think he isn't tough enough or great enough to play hurt and play great, but the failure to build a championship team around him has had as much do with the "around" as the "him." That has been the common thread every year as much as his own shortcomings (physically or otherwise). Giannis and Jokic aren't that much better than him, their teams were.

I really don't know what the Sixers should be building in the next couple of years, be it with Joel or without. The "three star" model no longer seems to be the template but I also don't see any evidence that Morey or Nurse have any other answers (Morey has failed year after year with the former while Nurse's coaching smarts and less-star driven approach still didn't produce a championship, whereas the one year he had stars did).

[dicemen99]

He dropped 50 last game but he "really isn't healthy" and the Bells Palsy's a thing?

Yes, he's not tough or great enough to play with max effort every game - which is what is required in the playoffs.

Are you telling me his body language and antics in the 4th today don't have an effect on his teammates? He was practically begging Nurse to take him out - with each each minute that passed it got worse.

Nurse plays Lowery sparingly through the game so he has him in the 4th. Too much wear on his body to not wear down due to the intensity of the effort needed in the playoffs.

Can we acknowledge that this is where Embiid is - and always has been - in his career? It's not just injury "bad luck."

[zambonir]

I mean there's nothing untrue in your post, I just don't think it's really a reflection on him. Or that he isn't making "max effort." We already know what a player not doing that looks like from the other failed stars this team has had since Butler left.

At the end of the day with his injury history and his body he could just as easily be Sam Bowie or Greg Oden. The fact that he's just healthy enough and just great enough to tease us with elite possibilities is the cruel part.

Embiid finally looked mortal down the stretch last night, in large part b/c team has been 100% incapable of surviving 4 minutes without him and he thus played entire second half, and we're going to spend the whole summer saying "he came up small" again.

He's averaging 38/9/5 lol

— Derek Bodner ( @DerekBodnerNBA ) April 29, 2024

And this comes back to the seed too. If the team was any good without Embiid this year they wouldn't be playing the Knicks right now. Some of that was also injuries and some of that was Morey not choosing to spend all his capital at this deadline. Heck, some of it is still the Tobias Harris contract (or the fateful choice of Simmons over Butler as well as Harris over Butler).