I definitely still believe. We suffered two meltdowns but so did they. It?s the playoffs, better teams than us have been pushed to a game 7. And Philly are a much better team than some overconfidence Celtics fans have given them credit for, at least this iteration of them. They?ve just been injury ravaged the last couple of years. This victory has to be earned, they?re not just gonna roll over and give it to us.
I do think we need less Vucevic and more Garza though. Vuc seems to have lost all confidence to shoot. I know he will be crucified for missing, but if he doesn?t even shoot, there?s no incentive for Embiid to come out to guard at the perimeter, he can stay in drop coverage all day.
We need to make Embiid work more defensively. Garza is not afraid to shoot at least. I feel like vuc is too scared to be blamed for missing shots (if he is, he should get a thicker skin) and so he?s always passing it at the perimeter and his threat as a stretch big is negated and so Embiid gets to stay in the paint and clog it up. And Garza can?t be any worse than Vuc is against Embiid derfensively.
Speaking of which,it?s Embiids presence that has changed the complexion of the series. We just have no way of guarding him without fouling. Q is scared to touch him for fear of being called for a foul. So they send help as soon as he gets the ball and the Sixers with PG13, Maxey and VJ and Grimes have made us pay. There?s no easy way to solve that, but we must simply have to be better at our closeouts if we?re going to keep sending help. and we have to make this guy work defensively.