Sixers Lost and Brett Brown Forgot That He Has Joel Embiid
This one really hurt tonight. We did a lot of things really well. Compared to the Celtics, we shot better from the field, we shot better from three and we out-rebounded them, but in the end, they were just the better team. They took care of the ball. They made big shots when it counted, and most importantly they trusted their stars when it mattered.
He officially took 3 shots in the final 5 minutes but one of them was a desperation three when the game was essentially over so I don't even want to count that. This can't happen. I said yesterday before the game, that the only way we're going to compete in this series is if Embiid dominates for an entire game. The entire game most definitely includes crunch time.
I get it, you can say he looked gassed, you can say that his teammates weren't looking for him, you can say a lot of things, but Brett Brown needs to be better. Call a timeout, get your guys together, and force the issue. Joel Embiid is the biggest mismatch on the court and that was so evident tonight. Yes, Tatum was dominant, but if you think that Tatum over Mattisse is a worse matchup than Embiid over Theis than you really don't have functional eyes. He dominated the paint and oh yea he can do things like this.
He needs to be a lot better at recognizing the double team, but you have to give him the opportunity because those double teams are the only way we're gonna get open shots. Harris was unbelievably pedestrian tonight. Josh Richardson showed flashes but he really should not be putting up the most shots on the team. We can't and we won't win that way. Brett Brown needs to make a fucking adjustment and make sure this offense goes through his star. It's that simple.
Tonight showed that the Sixers CAN win this series. We turned the ball over 18 times and were in the game until the very end. Alec Burks is a guy who we can rely on to score.
Mattisse Thybulle showed that he can be a big-time defender. Tatum shot 2/8 when guarded by Mattisse tonight and was 8/13 against everyone else.
Horford wasn't great but at least he showed some flashes. Ok, one single flash but it most definitely got me fired the fuck up.
I am praying that we make the neccesary adjustments on Wednesday because this team is definitely capable of making this a series. Just gotta clean some things up.
I miss Ben so much