76ers shoot 84% 21-25 in the paint

[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

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

The Celtics had plenty of fouls to give.

Sure, if we wanted to put bigs on Simmons and leave mismatches elsewhere. It would be one thing to have one of those guys foul him on a play or two, but you're not gonna have Tatum or Kanter in position to foul him every time he drove the lane for an entire quarter

[RockinRyA]

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.

Because those guys werent on simmons when he drove? Only way to make sure those guys foul is intentional fouling

[IDreamCeltics]

Just because you have desire to play small ball doesn't mean you have the personal.

Small ball requires crisp passing, something we don't have.

What's our other option?  The team doesn't have a legit starting center or power-forward on the roster.

[Moranis]

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.

Sure, if we wanted to put bigs on Simmons and leave mismatches elsewhere. It would be one thing to have one of those guys foul him on a play or two, but you're not gonna have Tatum or Kanter in position to foul him every time he drove the lane for an entire quarter

And that is the problem with Simmons from a defensive standpoint.  His size is just so unique he is incredibly difficult to guard.

[Celtics4ever]

They are built like an old Eighties team that was designed to pound it inside and use their bigs on you.

[Moranis]

They are built like an old Eighties team that was designed to pound it inside and use their bigs on you.

They need to run more.  I really think they should try to be like the Showtime Lakers.  Obviously Simmons and Embiid aren't as good as Magic and Kareem, but they need to run the floor and use their size advantages on the break and then if it fails, use that size advantage in the half court. 

[RockinRyA]

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.

Sure, if we wanted to put bigs on Simmons and leave mismatches elsewhere. It would be one thing to have one of those guys foul him on a play or two, but you're not gonna have Tatum or Kanter in position to foul him every time he drove the lane for an entire quarter

And that is the problem with Simmons from a defensive standpoint.  His size is just so unique he is incredibly difficult to guard.

Brown has done a decent job on him before but with the foul trouble its really a problem. Not to mention we lost horford.

[Celtics4ever]

They need to run more.  I really think they should try to be like the Showtime Lakers.  Obviously Simmons and Embiid aren't as good as Magic and Kareem, but they need to run the floor and use their size advantages on the break and then if it fails, use that size advantage in the half court. 

Can they though?  Embiid wears down late in game and may not be able to take the pace with his trick knees.   But it would definitely help Simmons,  I agree.

[Somebody]

They need to run more.  I really think they should try to be like the Showtime Lakers.  Obviously Simmons and Embiid aren't as good as Magic and Kareem, but they need to run the floor and use their size advantages on the break and then if it fails, use that size advantage in the half court. 

Can they though?  Embiid wears down late in game and may not be able to take the pace with his trick knees.   But it would definitely help Simmons,  I agree.

Agreed, Embiid can't really run like Worthy/Cooper/McAdoo/Rambis/Green/Scott. What Embiid can learn from the showtime Lakers though is to develop a scoring move that's impervious to any kind of defense like Kareem's skyhook. Kareem is in elite company among All-Time big men on offense-he was probably the only one aside from Shaq who could be an elite offensive centerpiece in both the regular season and playoffs while meshing well with star talent who need the ball around them. Here's a graph showing how the very best big man legends stacked up against each other on offense, and Kareem/Shaq stand out from the rest with their combination of volume and efficiency to go along with strong creation:



Although Duncan and Hakeem are also very impressive, they are hamstrung by their isolationist tendencies and subpar to mediocre vision compared to their contemporaries (Dirk suffers from a similar problem as well). Their creation numbers are inflated due to teams running the entire offense through them and surrounding them with shooters for easy kickouts when they're doubled to make life for them easier when it comes to creating shots for their teammates, while Shaq and Kareem got the bulk of their creation numbers through utilising their passing and vision to exploit gaps in the defense. If Embiid can develop a scoring move like Kareem's skyhook and clean up his passing/vision (his passing is also problematic at times), he could be one of the very best offensive big men in NBA history.

[ozgod]

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.

Transition was where Simmons killed us. I thought we handled Embiid pretty well given the circumstances. Having one of our best transition defenders on the bench with fouls for most of the game didn't help.

[Somebody]

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.

His love of getting pounded inside by trotting out small ball lineups points to the contrary though

[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.

Sure, if we wanted to put bigs on Simmons and leave mismatches elsewhere. It would be one thing to have one of those guys foul him on a play or two, but you're not gonna have Tatum or Kanter in position to foul him every time he drove the lane for an entire quarter

The only reason Simmons was so aggressive with going to the hole, was because he kept on getting a free pass. If he was fouled maybe just 3-5 times in the 4th quarter and had to go to the line, I have no doubt his desire to shoot would have went away. Until he proves otherwise, you have to assume he still has a mental block with shooting.

[Moranis]

They need to run more.  I really think they should try to be like the Showtime Lakers.  Obviously Simmons and Embiid aren't as good as Magic and Kareem, but they need to run the floor and use their size advantages on the break and then if it fails, use that size advantage in the half court. 

Can they though?  Embiid wears down late in game and may not be able to take the pace with his trick knees.   But it would definitely help Simmons,  I agree.

Sure they can. Kareem wasn't near the athlete of his Bucks days when he was on the Lakers.  They just ran and he eventually caught up.  That is what the Sixers need to do.  Simmons is by far at his best in transition.  He isn't quite the freight train Lebron was, but he is the closest thing to Lebron on the break since Lebron.  That maximizes Simmons strengths and if they don't score, then you have Embiid trailing and you enter the half court and dump inside to Embiid. 

[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

63 fouls is a ****ing joke

Just to drive home how ridiculous the foul calls were on Wednesday: 63 PFs were called. That would have been tied for 2nd most in a non-OT game last year (most was 64 in the 6ers-Suns game on 1/2, the game we tied with was 6ers-Pistons on 11/3. Apparently refs think Phili fans really want to watch them blow whistles)

Edit: and with 64 PFs called in the Heat-Grizzlies game on Wednesday, the league has matched last year's season high (for non-OT games). They really know what fans want to see

[tazzmaniac]

They need to run more.  I really think they should try to be like the Showtime Lakers.  Obviously Simmons and Embiid aren't as good as Magic and Kareem, but they need to run the floor and use their size advantages on the break and then if it fails, use that size advantage in the half court. 

Can they though?  Embiid wears down late in game and may not be able to take the pace with his trick knees.   But it would definitely help Simmons,  I agree.

Sure they can. Kareem wasn't near the athlete of his Bucks days when he was on the Lakers.  They just ran and he eventually caught up.  That is what the Sixers need to do.  Simmons is by far at his best in transition.  He isn't quite the freight train Lebron was, but he is the closest thing to Lebron on the break since Lebron.  That maximizes Simmons strengths and if they don't score, then you have Embiid trailing and you enter the half court and dump inside to Embiid.

The Sixers do run.  They were 8th in pace last season.  They've been top 8 since coach Brown has been there.  They don't need to become an up and down running team.  Their top strength is their half court defense.  They need to run off the opportunities that their defense creates which is what they are doing.