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Post by Admin on Apr 29, 2018 12:22:38 GMT -5
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Post by Admin on Apr 29, 2018 12:49:47 GMT -5
This pic (Tatum vs Simmons) may give a clue ...
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Post by kyceltic on Apr 29, 2018 13:40:23 GMT -5
There are a lot of different things we can try, when it comes to match ups! If Tatum, Rozier and Horford have a good series, I think we win!!
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Post by Admin on Apr 29, 2018 14:13:04 GMT -5
I hope we sit Brown out on Monday. The next game isn't until Thursday and that gives him extra time to completely heal if indeed he has suffered a Grade I Strain of the Hammy.
I think giving Tatum more responsibility for one more game is a good thing and as you've posted, Rozier & Horford s/b able to match up well vs Philly. We also have Baynes & Monroe to make it difficult on their inside game as long as Al can contain Embiid on the perimeter.
Meanwhile ... check the next post regarding the Sixers and keeping it together, or are they the next OKC.
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Post by Admin on Apr 29, 2018 14:19:47 GMT -5
What the Sixers Can Learn From the ThunderFor the first half of this decade, Oklahoma City built a superteam of homegrown talent that looked poised to dominate the league for years to come—and now it has all fallen apart. How can the ascendant Philly team avoid the same fate? By John Gonzalez Getty Images/Ringer illustrationThe Philadelphia 76ers have won 20 of their last 21 games. That’s including the regular season and their first-round triumph against the Miami Heat. That works out to one loss in the last month and a half and twice as many victories as they managed for the entire season just two years ago. If that’s not reason to celebrate, what is? My favorite part of that video (and there are many favorite parts, including but not limited to when Furkan Korkmaz casually catches a random sneaker thrown his way with one hand, like he’s Odell Beckham Jr., and then does it a second time) is when Brett Brown recognizes J.J. Redick for having a great Game 5 and asks him to ring the ceremonial postgame bell, the Sixers equivalent of handing out a game ball. Redick turns right around and gives the bell back to Brown for winning the first playoff series in Process history, at which point the team showers its head coach in every possible liquid. It was a bit of a moment, and I only had to watch it seven or eight times before I finally stopped getting misty. (Redick also got Ringer employee of the day for his effort. Sure. Let’s give it to the super handsome, rich professional basketball player with great hair and a successful podcast.) As recently as November, Brown was catching heat from skeptical fans about his coaching ability, and people still weren’t sure where the Sixers were in their development. Now, even the most strident anti-Process propagandists can’t deny how good the Sixers are (though the true believers are here to hold them accountable for all their old, bad takes). The Sixers are here, and they’ve arrived well ahead of schedule. “I was hired in 2013,” Brown told the media after his team sent the Heat home for the offseason, “and I sat with Josh Harris and David Blitzer and a few of the other owners and we talked about the vision, what we hoped to build and through rough times, through adversity for sure, we didn’t blink. We stayed strong in what we were trying to do and to sort of walk off that court. We’ve got more to do, we’ve got more to give.” Brown was overly kind to Harris, Blitzer, and the other owners for not blinking—they flinched so hard at one point that the guy who’s most responsible for all this is watching from Palo Alto—but he was right about the Sixers having more to give. Turns out the Sixers didn’t need to learn to walk before they could run. They went from crawling to a full sprint this season, and it’s suddenly not so crazy to look around and wonder if the rest of the pack is already falling off the pace. Wade was right. The Sixers look like the future, and they’re giving us an extended sneak preview right here in the present. The Eastern Conference is as wide open as it has been since before LeBron James left Cleveland to sun himself on South Beach for four years. Given how well Philly has played, would it really surprise anyone if the Sixers further accelerated their timeline and claimed the conference crown? “A lot of people say that we have a bright future,” Joel Embiid said. “But I think our time is now. We have a pretty good chance [to contend for a title]. We have a special team.” The old debate about whether the Process could work and if the Sixers could be any good one day is over. They’re good right now. The real question is how much better they can become—and much more importantly, how long they can sustain it. History burps up all kinds of cautionary tales, but the loudest comes courtesy of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Not even a decade ago, the Thunder were supposed to be the Sixers. Long before anyone knew what the Process was, OKC had the kind of talented young core that seemed set to be a dominant league power indefinitely. See if this sounds familiar: In 2008-09, the Thunder won 23 games. The next season, they made a massive leap and won 50 games with Kevin Durant (then in his third year), Russell Westbrook (second year), James Harden, and Serge Ibaka (both rookies). Last season, the Sixers won 28 games. This season, they made a massive leap and won 52 games with Embiid and Dario Saric (both in their second year), and Ben Simmons (the favorite for Rookie of the Year). They also have Markelle Fultz, who might even possibly be good. Perhaps. Even if he’s not, the Sixers are set up pretty well, and they’ve already gotten further than the 2009-10 Thunder, who lost in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. When the Thunder made the NBA Finals in 2012, it felt like a signal of something significant and lasting. Sure they lost to the Heat in five games, but it appeared as though OKC would remain among the handful of championship contenders for the next decade. That didn’t happen. Just six seasons later, the organization that everyone had such high hopes for looks very different indeed. After somehow keeping the series alive with a crazy Game 5 comeback, the Thunder were finally evicted from the playoffs on Friday night by a Utah Jazz team that OKC never seemed to respect and that doesn’t have nearly as many high-profile players. So what are some of the lessons the Sixers can learn from what happened to the Thunder, and how can they avoid a similar fate? For starters, and this is obvious but needs to be said yet again, they should probably not [steals away to a safe house in an undisclosed location under heavy guard where no one from Oklahoma will ever find him and also whispers so no one from Oklahoma can hear him] issue a low-ball ultimatum to one of their very best players and then inexplicably trade him for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, and a host of picks that became Steven Adams, Alex Abrines, and Mitch McGary. That would be a bad idea. Maybe it wasn’t obvious to everyone at the time that Harden would become this special, but Chris Bosh recently told Bill Simmons that the Heat were scared enough of Harden in the 2012 Finals to specifically game plan against him. Besides, when you have a player on your team that’s so good he might one day be a future MVP—much less three players who fit the same description—you should treat them well and figure out a way to pay and keep them. That also didn’t happen. Not only did the Thunder trade Harden, but they failed to retain the services of Durant—who is still passive-aggressively sniping at the only Musketeer who stayed behind in Oklahoma City (even though Durant claimed the recent Russ shade was “a total accident”). The Thunder had three future top-10 players in the league on their team at the same time, and somehow ended up tethered to the worst one. That created a cascading effect whereby the Thunder keep chasing replacement superstars to diminishing returns. Paul George was supposed to be a big get, but Playoff P wasn’t able to help push the Thunder into the second round, and he arguably had a worse season than the guy OKC traded for him. Meanwhile, Carmelo Anthony wore a hoodie which was fun(ish), I guess. So much for Sam Presti assembling a new OKC Big Three. Not only might George flee in free agency this offseason—possibly to Los Angeles, where he said the fans make him “feel great” and he knows “where the love is”—but the Thunder might also get stuck with Melo, who has a player option for $28 million next season. Meanwhile, five seasons from now, when Westbrook is 33, the Thunder will owe him more than $46 million for the final year of his monster contract. Maybe the Thunder can hire an accountant—either to cook the books or put them out of their misery. Finding a way to pay and retain the homegrown talent is the first step if Sixers president Bryan Colangelo wants to avoid a similarly unfortunate fate (he already gave Embiid a max-money extension before the season started, and he’ll have to eventually do the same with Simmons), but it’s not the only puzzle he’ll have to solve. The Thunder have been searching for complementary pieces for years. With apologies to Jerami Grant, Andre Roberson, and Kyle Kuzma’s favorite “14-lb bowling ball,” they never quite came up with the right mix. Colangelo has gotten a lot of credit (perhaps a bit too much) for grabbing Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova off the NBA discard pile, and they’ve certainly helped the Sixers who were in desperate need of shooting. So has Redick, who signed a one-year deal for $23 million. But this offseason, that will present Colangelo with some questions. The Sixers are in good shape and could have as much as $30 million in cap space, but they’ll have to figure out what to do about the shooters that have factored so heavily into their plans this postseason. Redick and the Sixers feel like a good match for each other, but how much money and how many years is the organization willing to commit? Signing him to a three-year deal would mean he’d be 36 when the contract expired. (Which is totally not old in the grand scheme of things; I’ve had my 36th birthday for the last five years running and my podcast game has never been stronger.) Belinelli and Ilyasova have fit in well, but they’ve also bounced around the league because they’ve never been valued as much more than league-average players with replaceable skill sets. Colangelo must calculate whether they can keep it going before he retains their services or, if not, how to replace their production. Not to mention that the Sixers will need a healthy reserve fund in the not-too-distant future in order to pay Simmons and Saric (both of whom become restricted free agents in 2020). Beyond that, the Sixers must continue the collaborative culture they’ve worked so hard to foster. Part of that is an environment where the coach is permitted to coach his players rather than the other way around. We’ve now seen two separate OKC coaches who were marginalized or ignored in favor of deference to Russ. Westbrook is the franchise player in a market that’s terrified that its superstar well will run dry. That leverage has often allowed him to indulge his whims and chase stats, even if those pursuits don’t necessarily come in the service of the greater good. What the Sixers want is to maintain what they already have—a team that passes the postgame bell around the locker room just as unselfishly as it moves the ball around the floor. To be clear, those are all good problems for the Sixers to have. These are great times for Philly, and they’re only just beginning—provided the Sixers can navigate the obstacles that organizations like OKC couldn’t. Basketball, like life, comes at you pretty fast. One minute you’re the future of the league—then suddenly you look up, and it’s six years later, and you’re getting mocked by a man who once strapped his poor dog to the roof of the car on a family vacation. That’s not what anyone wants for the Sixers. They have Embiid and Simmons, who could dominate the league for the foreseeable future. “Those two players have a chance to be great,” Brown said. “And. They. Are. Ours.” Spoken like a man who knows his hoops history, and would like for his team to make some of its own. www.theringer.com/nba/2018/4/29/17283444/philadelphia-76ers-oklahoma-city-thunder-mistakes
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Post by Admin on Apr 29, 2018 16:15:14 GMT -5
Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers NBA Playoff previewBy: Greg Cassoli The Boston Celtics are moving on to the second round of the NBA Playoffs, where they’ll take on the Philadelphia 76ers. We’ve laid out all the key information you need to know heading into the series. Vitals – BostonProjected StartersC – Aron Baynes F – Al Horford F – Jayson Tatum G – Jaylen Brown G – Terry Rozier Regular season ORTG: 105.2 Regular season DRTG: 101.5 Regular season NETRTG: 3.7 Head-to-head ORTG: 100.3 Head-to-head DRTG: 94.9 Head-to-head NETRTG: 5.4 Vitals – PhiladelphiaProjected StartersC – Joel Embiid F – Dario Saric F – Robert Convington G – J.J. Redick G – Ben Simmons Regular season ORTG: 107.4 Regular season DRTG: 102.0 Regular season NETRTG: 5.4 Head-to-head ORTG: 94.9 Head-to-head DRTG: 100.3 Head-to-head NETRTG: -5.4 Series OverviewIn many ways the Celtics and Sixers represent better versions of each team’s first-round opponent. Boston, much like Miami, is a band of hardworking, tough-nosed athletes in need of a star. The Celtics are missing top-end talent because of injury, whereas the Heat simply do not have any, but the net effect is the same. The Sixers, much like the Bucks, are a cast of long-armed athletes who disrupt offenses through sheer force and overwhelm opponents in transition. But where Milwaukee is undisciplined and lacking a coherent system, Philadelphia is precise in its execution and bought into a set of intelligent principles. Both teams bring whip smart coaches to the table, which should make for a fun, series-long chess match of tactical decisions. The following are the most critical domains in which they’ll take place. Philadelphia’s defenseOffense didn’t come easy for the Celtics in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. Boston managed just 106.1 points per 100 possessions in their series with the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that ranked 18th overall in defensive efficiency throughout the regular season. The 76ers finished the year 3rd on that list. Philly has the same type of athleticism and length that the Bucks presented in round one, but play with a far greater level of intelligence and instinctiveness. Having an elite-level rim protector in Joel Embiid doesn’t hurt either. The Sixers’ big man coordinates the team’s defense from the paint, gliding across the lane with perfect timing to deny would be scorers near the rim. He’s quick enough to handle assignments on the perimeter in small doses, though consistently switching into such situations is less than ideal from Philadelphia’s perspective. Boston may have an opportunity to gain an advantage by going small, spacing the floor with shooters and having Embliid’s man set ball screens. Doing so would force Philly into deciding between switching Embiid onto a perimeter player or giving the ball handler an open look (there are other strategies the Sixers could employ here, but the general decision is the same). The value of such a strategy is less clear without Kyrie Irving in the fold. The Celtics don’t have anyone who is anything close to as much of a threat to shoot the ball off the bounce and Philly has so much length among its that it can likely let Embiid hang back in the paint and wait for whomever is guarding the ball to recover without much concern. Boston can and should counter by having Embiid’s man pop to the three-point line after screening. That means playing bigs that can hit from beyond the arc, which, particularly in the absence of Daniel Theis, poses a problem of having enough size to handle Embiid on the other end of the court. Defending Joel EmbiidBoston is likely to start the series giving Aron Baynes a chance to function as their de facto Embiid stopper. He’s got enough size not to be completely bullied by the Sixers behemoth big man and just enough quickness to deal with him on face ups as well. Embiid is nearly impossible to cover by the basket, but if Boston can turn him into a shooter or a driver, then they’ve got a chance. He likes to do those things. Luring him into them means being able to force him to start possessions as far from the basket as possible. Baynes has the best chance of forcing Embiid off the block. Al Horford has the strength to do so as well, but Boston can’t possibly like the idea of asking him to stand up to Embiid possession after possession and also function as a fulcrum of the team’s offense. That’s a ton of responsibility and somewhat of an unfair request. Too much is going to be asked of Horford at some point in this series though. He’s the Celtics best option as a facilitator and one of the best defenders in the league, to not utilize him in both regards simply isn’t feasible. That will mean spending time banging with Embiid and likely substantial minutes attempting to slow the Sixers’ other world-class talent. Defending Ben SimmonsBen Simmons is an unsolvable problem. Defend him with sufficient size and he’ll blow past his man, access the paint, and create chaos with his passing. Opt to match him up against a smaller, quicker player, and Simmons will bully his way to the hoop or dislodge unsuspecting Lilliputians for easy duck ins. The Celtics had some success putting Horford on Simmons during the regular season. He laid way off the Sixers’ rookie, attempting to force him into being a jump shooter – the only real flaw in his game. Horford has a special blend of mobility, strength and length. Just enough to contest Simmons’ drives to the hoop despite a relative speed disadvantage. Simmons has grown throughout the year, however. He’s learned to use the cushion defenses give him as a runway to build up a full head of steam going to the hoop. Letting Horford sag off of Simmons might not be as wise a decision now as it was early in the year, when he was still learning how to best fit his game into the NBA. Philadelphia’s first-round opponent, the Miami Heat, had their greatest success against Simmons pressuring him with big, mobile defenders like James Johnson and Justise Winslow. Boston has some options that fit that bill and may even continue to lean on Semi Ojeleye, who proved himself a capable defender against Giannis Antetkounmpo in the Celtics’ series with the Bucks. Simmons isn’t an identical player to the Greek Freak, but athletically they pose similar problems. Both are too fast for most bigs and too big for most wings. The Celtics should be able to apply some of the lessons they learned guarding Giannis to dealing with Simmons. The trouble in translating those learnings comes with context. Simmons is not as effective a scorer, but is a substantially better passer, surrounded by better teammates. Boston can’t sell out in clogging Simmons’ lanes to the hoop in the same way they could with Giannis, because there’s an even higher likelihood he’ll find the open man, who is in turn much more likely to knock down an open look. PredictionIt’s a shame that Boston doesn’t have Kyrie Irving for this series. He could cause all sorts of problems for the Sixers that would lead to some fascinating cat and mouse games between Brad Stevens and Brett Brown. The Celtics are going to have some real difficulty scoring the ball without him. This may become one of the NBA’s premiere rivalries in the next few years, but given the Boston’s injury-ravaged roster, Philadelphia appears to have the upper hand. Sixers in six.
celticswire.usatoday.com/2018/04/28/boston-celtics-vs-philadelphia-76ers-nba-playoff-preview/
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Post by Admin on Apr 29, 2018 16:20:24 GMT -5
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Post by Cabutan on Apr 29, 2018 23:44:10 GMT -5
I say Semi on Simmons. I dont think Horford can keep up with simmons speed.
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Post by kivancb on Apr 30, 2018 6:36:36 GMT -5
76ers fans talking about sweeping the C's makes me very, very pumped. Under normal circumstances they should be winning this series, but deep down I feel like we will come out on top, making them look like fools.
Only if we can stop their bench production (Ilyasova & Belinelli) and prevent their most important scorer, JJ Redick from going off. If Redick goes off we cannot stop them. I'm not afraid of Simmons or Embiid - Brad will have an agenda about that and I trust thim. But if Redick scores 5 threes a game, which he is very capable of, we are doomed. Hopefully we will prevent that.
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Post by cole on Apr 30, 2018 8:49:12 GMT -5
I'll feel better about reddick when Brown is back.
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Post by kyceltic on Apr 30, 2018 8:52:05 GMT -5
76ers fans talking about sweeping the C's makes me very, very pumped. Under normal circumstances they should be winning this series, but deep down I feel like we will come out on top, making them look like fools. Only if we can stop their bench production (Ilyasova & Belinelli) and prevent their most important scorer, JJ Redick from going off. If Redick goes off we cannot stop them. I'm not afraid of Simmons or Embiid - Brad will have an agenda about that and I trust thim. But if Redick scores 5 threes a game, which he is very capable of, we are doomed. Hopefully we will prevent that. agree! I would keep TRoz Or Smart on Redick at all times, no need to double team off him!
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Post by drewski6 on Apr 30, 2018 9:16:27 GMT -5
I came here to suggest Semi, but ChrisJey beat me to it. Whoever is on him, the goal should be to slack and make him shoot.
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Post by Cabutan on Apr 30, 2018 12:46:19 GMT -5
I came here to suggest Semi, but ChrisJey beat me to it. Whoever is on him, the goal should be to slack and make him shoot. but I just read that Horford has been our best defender against Simmons. We have enough guys to throw at him.
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Post by kyceltic on Apr 30, 2018 13:15:20 GMT -5
I can feel that nervous feeling coming on!!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2018 14:42:22 GMT -5
I can feel that nervous feeling coming on!! LOL!! It is early. The game doesn't start for almost 4 hours.
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Post by kyceltic on Apr 30, 2018 15:01:08 GMT -5
LOL!! It is early. The game doesn't start for almost 4 hours. yeah, 4 hours, and they're going by slow!!
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Post by cole on Apr 30, 2018 15:07:51 GMT -5
I don't mean to throw cold water, but I don't expect to win until Thursday. We're lucky to be here.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2018 15:14:17 GMT -5
I don't mean to throw cold water, but I don't expect to win until Thursday. We're lucky to be here. But does not mean that the 4 hours will stop passing faster. :-) Hey, I am going to enjoy myself and hope that the young guys discover that they are capable of even more. It is all good.
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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2018 15:48:03 GMT -5
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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2018 15:53:18 GMT -5
Maybe we take a chance and let Al cover Simmons and Baynes/Monroe take Embiid. Embiid may take advantage on the perimeter but protect the paint and let him shoot or someone like Morris or Tatum rotate.
Can even play a box +1 zone ....
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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2018 15:55:02 GMT -5
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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2018 16:02:07 GMT -5
Celtics surprisingly big underdogs to win series vs. 76ersBy Jeff SmithPhoto Source: UnknownThere’s no denying the fact that the Philadelphia 76ers, led by their dynamic duo of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons (among others), are a talented group. But the Boston Celtics are still the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, have home-court advantage and defeated arguably the best of the bottom four teams in the conference in the Milwaukee Bucks during the first round. Even still, they’re getting virtually no respect ahead of their second-round series with the 76ers. As ESPN’s David Payne Purdum pointed out, the odds to win the series have been released and the Celtics aren’t just underdogs, but they’re sitting with pretty unbelievable odds. For those who aren’t familiar with betting odds, the 76ers being -400 means that you would have to bet $400 to win $100 while putting $100 on the Celtics at +300 would result in a win of $300 if they take the series. For comparison’s sake, OddsShark revealed that the Celtics were -170 favorites over the Bucks in the first round, who held odds of +150. While the 76ers aren’t as large of favorites as the Houston Rockets (-1400) or Golden State Warriors (-800), it’s still interesting to see Boston listed as this much of an underdog. The argument can obviously be made that Kyrie Irving being sidelined impacts their chances, but this isn’t some out-of-blue injury. The Celtics have proven on a consistent basis this season that they can win without Irving, who played in 60 games during the year. Over the 22 games that he missed, Boston posted a 14-8 record and also won a game in which he played just two minutes before leaving with an injury. celticswire.usatoday.com/2018/04/29/celtics-76ers-nba-playoffs-odds-kyrie-irving-ben-simmons-joel-embiid/
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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2018 16:17:49 GMT -5
Boston Celtics know how to contain Joel Embiidby Joshua BatemanPhoto by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty ImagesThe Boston Celtics need to repeat their success on Joel Embiid for a chance against the 76ers
The Boston Celtics go into their second round series facing the hottest team in the NBA. The Philadelphia 76ers are on one of the most impressive stretches and might even be the favorites to come out of the East right now. That being said, the Celtics can still get some confidence from knowing they won the season series 3-1, and there was a pretty solid indication of what needs to be done to win. Joel Embiid had one truly dominant game against the Celtics this season, and that was the lone game they won. He did miss one of their games, but the Celtics effectively shut him down in two of their wins, and that needs to be the priority for this series. Ben Simmons presents a world of troubles, but Boston’s front court defense should be the deciding factor in this game. We know that Al Horford is going to be the most important, and he has been successful against the most talented unicorns all season long. The problem is Horford cannot do it on his own and you also have to think about the other shooters the 76ers have playing alongside Embiid, some of which were not on the team when they played in the regular season. One big worry right now is that the Celtics might not even know when they are going to have out there next to Horford. There is a dilemma between Aron Baynes and Semi Ojeleye, and that could end up being the most important rotation decision in this series. In the two victories where Embiid played, the rotation looked a lot different. Ojeleye did not even appear in one of the wins, and Baynes played just 14 minutes in both games. Later on, when Embiid dominated with 26 points 16 rebounds and 6 assists, Ojeleye had no impact and Baynes saw 15 minutes. It is hard for Stevens to really trust either of these guys with a significant role, but they need to make it work. In the regular season meetings, they also had the benefit of using Daniel Theis. His defensive versatility was vital when they played the 76ers. Baynes and Ojeleye are going to be the ones to take on those minutes, and at least one of them needs to be able to stay on the court for extended periods of time. Horford will always hold his own, but he has a tremendous amount of defensive responsibility. Horford is always needed to help players around him, and things start to break down if he does not get good defense from whoever else is playing with him in the front court. Add on that Jaylen Brown will not be there to help, and the front court’s ability to shut down Embiid will be a determining factor in this series. Embiid is too good and the Celtics need to have multiple players to help account for him. He is the player most likely to destroy this game for the Celtics, and the number one priority has to be making sure he is being contained the same way he was when they kept him under 20 points in their first two meetings this season. The 76ers are the best version of this team we have seen all year long, and looking to regular season success could be dangerous. That being said, we have seen the Celtics with these pieces to slow down Embiid, and that is the first and last important step in finding a way to get out of the second round. hardwoodhoudini.com/2018/04/30/boston-celtics-need-to-repeat-success-on-joel-embiid/
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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2018 16:23:18 GMT -5
The Tatum - Fultz Series
hardwoodhoudini.com/2018/04/30/boston-celtics-need-to-repeat-success-on-joel-embiid/ In Tatum’s first-round matchup against the Bucks, he was fantastic. He averaged 15.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game per the seven games in the series. The twenty-year-old Tatum made clutch plays and played strong defense throughout the series. He truly proved that age is just a number.
Meanwhile, Fultz came off the bench in the Sixers’ series against the Heat, playing a total of 23 minutes in the five games of the series. He scored a whopping total of five points all series, all of which were scored off three free throws and one field goal in Game 1. His team still won the series, but Fultz was a non-factor.
So now as both teams head into what should be an ultra-competitive Eastern Conference semifinal matchup, they will have to opportunity to showcase both rookies head-to-head. Fultz has the opportunity to show the Celtics’ front office what they are missing, while Tatum has another chance to show his front office that it made the right decision. But so far, Tatum has proven that he can be a crucial contributor for the Celtics down the line, and Fultz has only been labeled as potential.
This playoff matchup is just the beginning of the eternal link between these two players. Whether Tatum continues his success, or Fultz breaks out of his shell in the series, both bright, young players are headed for long, successful careers with their respective organizations. Additionally, fans should be excited for many future matchups between both players, as the forever question of “who won the trade?” will reign throughout their careers.
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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2018 16:28:32 GMT -5
Both the Celtics and Sixers should be contenders for EC Champs for years to come ... Get use to meeting this team in epic battles to claim the right to the Finals.
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