2023-2024 Sixers Season

[bkeich]

I almost wish that the Sixers would rest Embiid again, because all they need to do is "hold serve" from here (win home games). That said, the chance to go up 2-0 is just too tempting to not play him.

Hopefully he plays 20-28 minutes, no more, but I doubt it.

[zambonir]

They were never resting him though. He played hurt in Game 3 and has been hurt since. Obviously you don't want him to be rushing back but I'm not sure any approach reduces the odds of him getting reinjured (or hurt in a whole other way).

If the Sixers were the higher seed maybe he would have sat but you have to do everything to try and keep home court now.

[VoteForKalas]

A poor performance across the board by the 76ers unfortunately. Everyone deferred to Embiid and he did the best he could, but was clearly rusty and not used to playing at full tilt yet. Harden, Maxey and Harris have got to be more aggressive when Embiid is in the game and not always run the offense through him. Hopefully Doc makes this clear and drives it home. I really like what Reed is showing and Melton too.

[phillychuck]

Home teams always win game 2 after they have lost game 1 -- 15 consecutive now in the NBA.

That being said, there was really nothing good about last night's game, and nothing to give Sixers' fans confidence they can hold serve at home.

[zambonir]

It is a paradox about the Sixers that may also be match-up/team dependent - they have the most valuable player, but their Joel-less offense was harder for Boston to handle. Maybe that wouldn't have lasted through the series but I'm also not sure they and Doc are capable of doing what VFK suggests.

I always figured Celtics in 7 and lots of people thought Celtics in 6 but for now the split still gives them a chance to win the series at home in 6 (or on the road in 5, but...)

[bkeich]

Must win game for Sixers today. Harden needs to be less terrible, they can't win against the Celtics with him missing shots at such a high rate given his complete lack of defensive intensity.

If the lose today it could be the end of this team as I suspect Doc will be gone, Harden and Harris will certainly be gone and maybe Embiid will want out.

[zambonir]

If the lose today it could be the end of this team as I suspect Doc will be gone, Harden and Harris will certainly be gone and maybe Embiid will want out.

That's a little melodramatic. Joel's not going anywhere, and Harden and Harris may both be gone even if they make a finals run. Agree on Doc, and Morey hasn't exactly covered himself in glory either.

Of course great as he is, and MVP aside, you can also make the case that it would be okay to move on from Joel. But no. He and Morey will get one more chance to assemble the right team around him. And this is certainly not a bad team.

(And, so far so good anyway...)

[bkeich]

I don't know, I could have seen Joel requesting a trade if they had lost in 5.

Crazy in that we have 4 games and all we're decided by Harden. 2 great games, wins, 2 atrocious games, losses. Someone get Harden some Wheateys for the next game.

Sixers would have had a huge complaint if they had lost this one. Tatum with an incredibly obvious offensive foul on Maxey before hitting a 3 in the last 30 seconds of OT. Really obvious and no call.

[zambonir]

Maybe Joel should personally be the best player in one game of this series before he requests a trade. I am not knocking him per se but his health is always as big an issue as everything else, and the only way he wins a ring somewhere else is if he's not the best (or at least not the biggest star) player on his team.

And yet I can't help but wonder - do you really go all out with him and try and win Game 5 and close the series when the Celtics are probably going to win one of the next two games regardless? Right now I still see this ending the same way it always seemed like it would, the Celtics just a little better (in most every way) with home court being the final tilt. Best-case we get Toronto 2.0 with a different result. Joel needs to be ready for a Game 7.

[bkeich]

Yea, the sad part is that with the Bucks eliminated the path to the finals is actually easier than winning this series. The winner of this series will be prohibitive favorites in the next round, even with Jimmy Butler out there making people think otherwise.

The chance is (was?) there. I think the game 3 loss is the k ok be we are really going to look back at and say, "if only"

[zambonir]

I think the Sixers probably matched up better with the Bucks than the Celtics too tho. So the chance was always there. But hey, it's still happening.

[zambonir]

Granted it was an OT game but pretty insane Jo played 46 minutes.

[bkeich]

Yes, Reed only played 5 minutes. I guess this is what you have to do in a must game, but Embiid won't last long by doing that. In theory there could be 2 series after that, if by some miracle that happens they will be carrying around a pile of Embiid-shaped-goo.

Hopefully we can get a blowout win in one of the next two games (presumably game 6) so that Embiid is at least somewhat able to be Superman for Game 7

[phillychuck]

Embiid said he wanted to play long minutes as a way of playing himself back into shape or working the rust off. maybe he drops 50 on Tuesday...

[bkeich]

Let's hope so. As long as it results in a win at least.

[zambonir]

Well, he seemed to shake the rust.

[BostonRoss]

Doesn't look like they needed 50 out of Joel.

[bkeich]

This series is going to put me in the Hospital. Every game is completely unpredictable, home team is now 2-3 in a series that seems fairly evenly matched, I would have thought it would have been normal for the home team to have won every game at the start of this series because that is often the deciding factor in close matchups in the NBA.

[zambonir]

Still impossible to know. By this time Thursday we could be looking at a clear path to the NBA Finals (at least on paper) or a terrifying Game 7 against a team that couldn't possibly play that badly at home three times.

[jimbomill]

This series is going to put me in the Hospital. Every game is completely unpredictable, home team is now 2-3

It has been hard on the ticker, surely!
Let's hope the Sixers don't fall to 2-3