76ers shoot 84% 21-25 in the paint

[Tr1boy]

It's the same nonsense as last season

Brad, when are you going to wake up?

Before the blame extends to Danny,  Small ball Brad, play Williams and Poirier some mins

A player like Poirier was brought in exactly for a game like last night.  Yet Brad chooses to doll out 33 minutes to an ineffective Marcus Smart

Poirier obviously is not ready; Brad is not a masochist.

And Kanter defended Embiid very well.  Our biggest problem was defending Simmons.  No one (but Al Horford, last year) could.  Philly posted him a lot, and got him out on transition. 

I think Rob Williams should be trained to defend him. No one else has the size and athleticism to handle him on our team.

So when you have a mismatch like this plus a smaller Kemba out on the floor

why not try to compensate by having Kanter and Williams out on the floor at the same time?  Or Williams and Theis

Instead Brad has to satisfy the "cravings for mins" for Brown, Tatum, Walker, Smart, Hayward

the reality is, he didn't have to .... block the middle and have anyone else on the 76ers try to beat the Celtics

Have them keep launching bricks

But when you have Kanter or Theis as the sole rim protector +  4 other players that don't provide exceptional interior defense

well the result was last night

[DefenseWinsChamps]

In the past, I think Tatum and Brown have played Simmons well as too. I know Horford was on him for a lot of our games against him last year, but Brown, Tatum, and even Baynes guarded him well.

It sounds like the Sixers got into rhythm in the third and figured out how to attack the Cs. It's an issue, undoubtedly, but one that we will only face versus a handful of teams. Also, it's one that CBS will figure out wrinkles for. No one gave us a chance against the Sixers a few years ago, but we beat them because CBS put Horford on Simmons, which was a different strategy at the time.

I'm more interested in seeing how they respond against the Raptors.

[Jamilmac99]

Celtics interior defense is complete garbage. This team is going to get shredded on a nightly basis. The loss of Horford was big irregardless of "how much" he should or should not get paid. Extremely unfortunate and yes, obviously only one game, but this is concerning.

[Vermont Green]

We have a real issue regarding lack of talent in our big rotation.  That should have been clear to anyone even before but after one game, there is now a "book" on how to beat the Celtics.  And no, playing one of our wings out of position as a big is not going to solve this.

Philly is a team that can exploit that weakness as much as anyone but I think most teams will be able to to some extent.  There is no magic coaching adjustment that is going to fix this.  It is a personnel issue.

We have enough talent that we will win some games.  Guys will shoot well and we will look good but other nights not so much.  We need another starting level big.

[action781]

We played against the biggest team in the league and Ben Simmons had a great game.  If we hit even just 70% of our free throws and if Kemba shot even just 6/18 from the floor then it's a tie game at the end of the 4th quarter.  The sky is not falling.

I'd like to see us defend Simmons better and I'm hopeful that we will gameplan how to.  But he's a #1 overall pick who averaged 16.9/8.8/7.7 as a 22 year old and getting better.  He's not a scrub.  He had a great game.  Let's not overreact to one game.  If he does it to us for 3 or 4 regular season losses to us this season, then I'll worry.  Until then, I'm looking forward to Kemba making shots, Tatum's continued progression in turning down long 2s for more 3s and shots at the rim, Smart's consistent defense, Kanter's offensive put-backs, and Hayward getting back to being himself.

[johnnygreen]

I thought the Celtics played really well defensively against Embiid and Horford. Simmons ended up killing them inside, which is mind boggling. Why didn’t the Celtics foul Simmons every time in the fourth quarter, when he drove to the basket? Did the coaching staff forget Simmons can’t shoot free throws?

[Silas]

I thought the Celtics played really well defensively against Embiid and Horford. Simmons ended up killing them inside, which is mind boggling. Why didn’t the Celtics foul Simmons every time in the fourth quarter, when he drove to the basket? Did the coaching staff forget Simmons can’t shoot free throws?

Agree.  He is a career 58% shooter from the foul line.

[BitterJim]

I thought the Celtics played really well defensively against Embiid and Horford. Simmons ended up killing them inside, which is mind boggling. Why didn’t the Celtics foul Simmons every time in the fourth quarter, when he drove to the basket? Did the coaching staff forget Simmons can’t shoot free throws?

Every guard that played (besides Carsen Edwards) had 4 or 5 fouls. We didn't have many to spare

[BitterJim]

A big team like the 76ers is gonna be able to kill us inside every time. Especially if the refs call a foul every time they miss

[johnnygreen]

I thought the Celtics played really well defensively against Embiid and Horford. Simmons ended up killing them inside, which is mind boggling. Why didn’t the Celtics foul Simmons every time in the fourth quarter, when he drove to the basket? Did the coaching staff forget Simmons can’t shoot free throws?

Every guard that played (besides Carsen Edwards) had 4 or 5 fouls. We didn't have many to spare

Tatum - 2
Kanter - 3
Grant Williams - 2
Theis - 1
Ojeleye - 0

The Celtics had plenty of fouls to give.

[jambr380]

A big team like the 76ers is gonna be able to kill us inside every time. Especially if the refs call a foul every time they miss

Fwiw, the fans at the game were complaining about how bad the refs were in our favor and couldn't believe the breaks the Cs were getting. Go figure 

[johnnygreen]

A big team like the 76ers is gonna be able to kill us inside every time. Especially if the refs call a foul every time they miss

Fwiw, the fans at the game were complaining about how bad the refs were in our favor and couldn't believe the breaks the Cs were getting. Go figure 

I thought the Celtics may have gotten away with one call, but the rest were legit. Do you recall the blatant travel on Embiid that wasn't called in the first quarter? It was laughably bad, but the refs never called it.

[Atzar]

I thought the refs were even enough, tbh.  They called a very tight game, but I didn’t think they favored anybody.

[Sophomore]

People have to start ignoring Embiid’s pump fake on the perimeter. Let him jack up that jump shot, don’t give him a path to the rim! Kanter seemed to figure it out but only after surrendering a couple of buckets at the rim.

[BitterJim]

A big team like the 76ers is gonna be able to kill us inside every time. Especially if the refs call a foul every time they miss

Fwiw, the fans at the game were complaining about how bad the refs were in our favor and couldn't believe the breaks the Cs were getting. Go figure 

The only people the refs favored were themselves. They screwed the Celtics, the 76ers, and especially the fans

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