Game 58: 76ers @ Boston

[Covi_Marsh]

This Maxey undersized Murray talk is wild. Did he not just drop 30 on Boston where he was literally the only offensive player that could create his own shot outside of Council wild drives to the basket lol. Is Jamal Murray not an undersized guard? Or because his head is long we ignore his small wingspan? Maxey is an all star that can possibly make a 3rd team All NBA at some point. We have cap space and draft picks to star hunt still this summer. Some of yall takes is wild. Probably same people who said Giannis or Jokic would never win a championship. No one can win one until they win one then the narrative changes and people pretend they didn’t downplay that player.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

Nurse is starting to annoy me like Doc.

Doc is better than Nurse

And I never thought I would say that ...

I don't know man. Take a look at Doc's resume over his career. It's pretty bad. Now Doc always had an uncanny way of being able to win ball games when his best players were down or injured. It's really weird how he's been able to do that. Minus two star players and he'll find a way to steal a game on the road in the playoffs against a far superior team. Yet, you give him a team full of star players and depth and he'll choke it away in a pivotal game 6/7 with home court advantage. I don't see that with Nick Nurse. It's probably the only aspect that I can think of where Doc might be a better coach and that's not really saying a whole lot. I think Nurse is dealing with a bad roster right now that was able to be covered up due to the brilliance of Joel Embiid. I can only imagine what Denver would look like if you shelved Jokic for three months. How many games would they win?

Now I don't know how long you've actually felt this way, but surely you're not just basing this off of last night? A road game against the clear-cut favorite to win it all this year and shorthanded at that. Boston is going to win 65 games this year if they don't suffer any injuries. They are far and away the best team in the league and it would be beyond awesome and ridiculous if they don't win it all this year. I hate that team! But they are the unbeatables right now and we damn sure weren't going to do it shorthanded last night. Doesn't matter who the coach is. From what I saw, Nurse had us in a position to take that game down to the wire. Tobias Harris turned into his usual deer in headlights and that was all she wrote.

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

Nurse is starting to annoy me like Doc.

Doc is better than Nurse

And I never thought I would say that ...

This is an awful take. Nurse is brilliant. He only has a shelf life of about 3-4 years before players get annoyed with him, but in terms of Xs and Os, he’s top 5. His strategy to take away the Celtics favorite weapon (3 point shots!) last night was pretty impressive. The last time the Celtics won a game where they only hit 5 3s was back in 2018. Employ that same strategy with Embiid back, and that game is probably an L for the Celtics.

[Murray_17]

Also, doc probably would have Council cleaning other players rooms or something instead of playing

[NYSixersFan]

I'd still take Nurse over Doc, but he's overplaying Oubre instead of playing Council more.

[Stanford]

Some of you need help.

[Bum Adebayo]

This Maxey undersized Murray talk is wild. Did he not just drop 30 on Boston where he was literally the only offensive player that could create his own shot outside of Council wild drives to the basket lol. Is Jamal Murray not an undersized guard? Or because his head is long we ignore his small wingspan? Maxey is an all star that can possibly make a 3rd team All NBA at some point. We have cap space and draft picks to star hunt still this summer. Some of yall takes is wild. Probably same people who said Giannis or Jokic would never win a championship. No one can win one until they win one then the narrative changes and people pretend they didn’t downplay that player.

Maxey cannot create his shot in a playoff setting like Murray can, he is, like Embiid, more of a Regular Season player, that can perform decently too in playoffs but will not elevate your team per se.
Main issue is how overrated he got at the start of the season, he got hot and shot higher percentages than what he can sustain. But he is still a good player of course, and can still improve, especially because it seems he works hard unlike many other good players we have or have had.

[Bum Adebayo]

I'd still take Nurse over Doc, but he's overplaying Oubre instead of playing Council more.

Obviously, because Oubre is a much better player. Last season it was Paul Reed, now that he kind of sucks, people want to jump on the Ricky Council hype train, always the shiny new toy. If Council is truly a good player, he will have to prove it, won't get handed to him.

[Bum Adebayo]

Funny the thing about Maxey though, he is worst at almost everything than Trae Young, from Scoring to playmaking, yet you would think he is better or something the way people talk about him, even in the GB sometimes.

[NYSixersFan]

I'd still take Nurse over Doc, but he's overplaying Oubre instead of playing Council more.

Obviously, because Oubre is a much better player. Last season it was Paul Reed, now that he kind of sucks, people want to jump on the Ricky Council hype train, always the shiny new toy. If Council is truly a good player, he will have to prove it, won't get handed to him.

Oubre is terrible. Ricky Council has proven he deserves more minutes to see what he can do.

[phifans]

I'd still take Nurse over Doc, but he's overplaying Oubre instead of playing Council more.

Obviously, because Oubre is a much better player. Last season it was Paul Reed, now that he kind of sucks, people want to jump on the Ricky Council hype train, always the shiny new toy. If Council is truly a good player, he will have to prove it, won't get handed to him.

Meanwhile your poor Oubre has proved so much only to get a vet min contract ...

[phifans]

And for all those who think I called out Nic Nurse just because we lose to Celtics ...

[76ciology]

Offensively, much of the fault lies with Tobias Harris. We consistently ran the weave action, aiming to exploit defensive gaps created by either drawing help defense or capitalizing on mismatches. The offense found success when Maxey drove past his defender or shot over them, when we played small to utilize our quickness. However, Hield evidently didn't offer any advantage, allowing the Celtics to defend him one-on-one. And despite Tobi's skill set and size, he struggled to score in the paint or finish at the rim against players like Hauser or Derrick White. Partly shooting slump and partly his physical and athletic limitations.

Defensively, we consistently faced mismatches that the Celtics exploited throughout the game, particularly targeting Maxey or our guards, specially when we played small because we have to find holes by playing quicker on those weave actions. Even Paul Reed's help defense was insufficient, allowing wings to bypass him easily. While we executed switches effectively to deny their 3pt shooting, it forced the Celtics to attack mismatches, leading to difficulties in help defense and rotations due to our lack of length.

There were some bright spots, such as Maxey's scoring ability, better on switches and our improved wing depth. However, overall, our team was exposed as mostly average rather than borderline stars, struggling to defend or score one-on-one against the Celtics' size and skill. And last night, the size and the level of talent of our guys is exactly the type of opponent that the Celts is built to play against. We are not multi-positional defenders and lack the same level of talent as the Celtics, which means we often have to rely on help defenders while they do not. They can exploit gaps in our defense, whereas we struggle to do the same.

Certainly, having Embiid back is crucial to beating the Celtics. In non-Embiid minutes, we must heavily rely on Maxey, as players like Tobi, Hield, and Oubre struggle to score against Derrick White and company on 1v1. Additionally, whether Embiid is on the court or not, we need Tobi, Oubre, and Hield to improve their shooting, atleast from the corner 3s, that we dont have to play a lot of guards and that our forwards and centers dont have to send that much help defense significantly because of playing small at the 1-2-3 positions.

There’s more to learn on games like this than winning 50 points against “bum teams” like the Charlotte Hornets.

Hopefully, we can address these issues effectively on both ends of the floor before the playoffs.

[76ciology]

Unfavorable matchups to avoid hunting:
- Cam Payne against any opponent
- Hield against any opponent
- Oubre and Tobias against most opponents, except perhaps Pritchard or Hauser.

Favorable matchups to pursue:
- Guards against Kornet
- Potential Batum pick and pop situations
- Lowry using pace against slower bigs
- Embiid against most opponents, except possibly Al Horford
- Maxey against most opponents, except maybe Derrick White
- Ricky Council and maybe Kj Martin against Celtics bigs
- Tobias and Oubre against Pritchard and Hauser.

Additional considerations:
- Paul Reed and Tobias struggle to finish inside against their bigs. Both are not options on drop passes
- If Embiid returns, perhaps Tobias and Oubre should serve more as placeholder starters, with shooters like Melton, Roco and Batum utilized instead, saving Tobias and Oubre to exploit matchups against Pritchard or Hauser.
- For shot creation, 48 minutes of primary Embiid and Maxey attacking with some Tobias and Oubre attacking when Celts have to deploy Hauser and Pritchard.

[Jhawk03]

Nurse is starting to annoy me like Doc.

Doc is better than Nurse

And I never thought I would say that ...

This is an awful take. Nurse is brilliant. He only has a shelf life of about 3-4 years before players get annoyed with him, but in terms of Xs and Os, he’s top 5. His strategy to take away the Celtics favorite weapon (3 point shots!) last night was pretty impressive. The last time the Celtics won a game where they only hit 5 3s was back in 2018. Employ that same strategy with Embiid back, and that game is probably an L for the Celtics.

I was literally watching this game wondering about the lack of Celtic 3 point attemps and I came to the conclusion that the Celtics didn't need to shoot three's in order to win... however... that was enough to satisfy ESPN Bet.

[Zumramania]

I think if Harris didn't play, we could have won this game. He was that bad, both offensively and defensively. And the game was closer than it looks like because we were just two points down midway through the fourth quarter. Buddy Hield also sucked, I hope he is not also a player who cannot perform against good teams. Maxey finally played a great game against Boston, Cam Payne is also good. Ricky Council could get more minutes.

[Jailblazers7]

I’m actually kind of encouraged after finally watching this game. Tyrese looked awesome against a team designed to give him trouble. He’s looking way more comfortable out there mixing speeds, playing his shooting/speed off each other, and mixing in his improved playmaking. He’s demonstrating some encouraging growth during this stretch.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I’m actually kind of encouraged after finally watching this game. Tyrese looked awesome against a team designed to give him trouble. He’s looking way more comfortable out there mixing speeds, playing his shooting/speed off each other, and mixing in his improved playmaking. He’s demonstrating some encouraging growth during this stretch.

I agreed, he's turned a bit of a corner as a lead guard. The improvement is subtle, but you can see it. I feel like the change occurred between after the Nets blowout loss and now. Earlier in the year teams would simply put a bigger defender on him, trap him and he'd get locked down. It seems as though he's starting to find ways around that. He's a worker, there's no denying that. As long as he stays healthy he'll get better.