Here’s hoping JT explodes in game 3 and leads us to a win.
From what I've seen from Tatum in his last several games against Philly, I don't expect him to explode. Embiid's presence inside mostly negates Tatum's driving game and lets Philly's perimeter defenders play him aggressively. And IMHO we don't do a good job of setting him up for easier shots when teams are playing him that way (I expect that this will be an ongoing project for Mazzulla as he gains experience as a coach). So basically, for Tatum to put up points in this matchup, he either needs to get a lot of calls (which is somewhat unlikely against Embiid) or he needs to be connecting on some high-difficulty shots both inside and outside. Possible, but not all that likely.
The good news is that it doesn't necessarily hurt our offense as a whole. With Tatum occupying Philly's best perimeter defender and also a lot of Embiid's attention, our other guys can eat. We get open threes all day and there isn't a ton Philly can do schematically to stop that. Too many average-to-below perimeter defenders, and Embiid doesn't want to leave the paint much to contest shooters - especially on that bad knee. So as long as we continue to bring G2 defensive intensity, I think we're fine even if Tatum isn't hanging big numbers.
