Quote:
Originally Posted by Valuist
Game one of the Sixers/Celtics was simply about the variance in 3 point shooting. The Celtics hit 17, the Sixers only 5. That's a 36 point differential right there.
I did notice when Philly did get the ball inside to Embiid, there was nothing Boston could do to stop him. The guy is scary good, with finesse to go with his power.
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Generally agree re 3-pt. variance -- no way Celts shoot 50% in the rest of this series and Rozier's 7-9 was a Halley's Comet event. But it was also obvious from the jump that not only were the Sixers rusty from the time off, but that they weren't taking Boston's offense seriously -- very often no rotation to shooters open after the fourth or fifth pass, and they were caught napping a few times in transition -- that Celt score off the dead ball made me laugh. Brown, who's a good coach, should take some of the blame for having Reddeck on Tatum so much of time -- don't think we'll see that in the next game -- and as Haralbob (who, as always, had the best take on the game) said, for playing two matador defenders like Belinelli and Reddeck at the same time. Still, all the Sixer starters except Reddeck are young guys who've never been in the playoffs before, and haven't yet completely grasped how much more intense and difficult the games are, round by round. As Jordan said, it's two different seasons.
Give these young guys credit though -- I thought they'd win ca. 45 games -- now they're throught the first round of the playoffs, after ending their season with a 16-game win streak -- the longest in the league this year. Embiid (with 31/13/5 last night) and Simmons are unstoppable players who should take the Sixers past the injury-depleted Celtics in this series. Looks like a match-up w/Lebron after that. Should be fun.