Game 7 Saturday, Do We Believe?

[Phantom255x]

First Take: Kendrick Perkins is impressed with the 76ers and believes Philadelphia will win Game 7.

Reasonable. Boston is certainly the underdog for game 7. I don't care what Vegas says.

Yeah I have no clue how on earth the C's are favored by 8.5 points

[SparzWizard]

First Take: Kendrick Perkins is impressed with the 76ers and believes Philadelphia will win Game 7.

Reasonable. Boston is certainly the underdog for game 7. I don't care what Vegas says.

Yeah I have no clue how on earth the C's are favored by 8.5 points

Should be +8.5 for Boston in Boston. Need to change the minus to a plus.

That said, take the points. 76ers may just win outright.

[Phantom255x]

It could be a very bleak 36 hours in Boston if the Bruins lose tonight at TD Garden, and the Celtics do the same tomorrow night 

[Atzar]

I don't particularly believe in Boston this season.  They may beat Philly in G7, coin flip there, but I don't think they get through New York - and I thought that even before this series happened. 

To make a deeper run, JB is going to have to get back to the form that was generating some MVP buzz.  This last month isn't it, and this playoff series especially isn't it.  I can live with his high turnover rate if they're a byproduct of running the offense, but it's a lot harder to take when he's just shutting out his teammates and picking up offensive fouls trying to do everything himself.  It feels like Tatum came back and JB went "cool, I don't have to play team basketball anymore."

Very worried about Tatum trying to stretch that other leg out last night.  If he's at all at risk of serious injury there, just sit him.  It's frustrating because it feels like he's the only guy playing good team ball night in and night out and we may be screwed without him, but it is what it is. 

Derrick White's offense has reached 'unplayable' levels.  If he's part of his core for the next few years, then we need to do what it takes to get him back to the ~.570 eFG% guy he was for three years prior to this one.  Queta has sucked.  Foul magnet.  Play Garza over Vucevic.  If he gets his ass beat because he's mediocre then fine, but I'm going down with the guy who has battled his ass off to earn rotation minutes this season, not the guy who - due to injury or otherwise - hasn't done a f***ing thing since putting on a green jersey.  Stick Walsh to Maxey.  I don't care whose minutes he takes.  Nobody else on our roster can handle his speed. 

I understand that the Simons deal was necessary from a cap perspective, but I feel like this series would already be over if we still had him instead of Vuc.  Granted he's out for the season with the wrist injury anyway.  Bah.

[Who]

Very worried about Tatum trying to stretch that other leg out last night.  If he's at all at risk of serious injury there, just sit him.  It's frustrating because it feels like he's the only guy playing good team ball night in and night out and we may be screwed without him, but it is what it is. 

Yeah what we don't want is Tatum getting another long term injury and missing a chunk of next year too. Better to be extra cautious with him so soon after the torn achilles. Sit him. Rest him. Think of the rest of his career.

This team does not look like they are ready to win the title anyway.

==========

I feel the team might play better without Tatum (in this Gm 7) than with Tatum. That they will get back to that chemistry they had a few months ago. Jaylen back in his #1 role. The role players more involved in the offense. Everybody understanding it is an uphill battle and fighting harder and fighting together. 

[Who]

Stick Walsh to Maxey.  I don't care whose minutes he takes.  Nobody else on our roster can handle his speed. 

Is Jordan Walsh doing anything to slow down Maxey?

I agree he is playing good D but Maxey still looks comfortable out there against him. A few mins here or there where he struggled with J Walsh's size and length but it looks like Maxey figured it out after that.

Maxey has been very good the last 3 games with J Walsh getting more minutes. Maxey had 30pts 5ast on 11-22 FGA in Gm 6. Maxey had 25pts and 5ast on 10-18 FGA in Gm 5. He had 22pts and 6ast on 7-14 FGA.

So while J Walsh has played good D on Maxey and is our best defensive option on Maxey, I don't think J Walsh has disrupted / bothered Maxey enough to justify playing J Walsh given how bad his offense has been.

J Walsh is just killing the team on offense. He has been a complete zero out there. 4-17 FGA in 84 minutes. He makes a shot every 21 minutes of basketball. He needs to be making a huge impact on defense to make up for how bad he has been on offense and I don't think he is doing that. He is making a solid impact defensively but not a large one. I don't think he is bothering Maxey enough.

I'd play J Walsh less in Gm 7. Maybe give him some more minutes if he makes a shot. Otherwise, I am sticking with guys I trust more to make shots.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Walsh at least is picking guys up full court....everyone else is worried about their own shooting...Play Defense and win, I remember in the past all the guys would say "Our defense leads to our offense", everyone seems to have forgotten this.

[celticinorlando]

Joe's strategy will be to dare the sixers to shoot open 3s and hope they miss.

[SparzWizard]

Joe's strategy will be to dare the sixers to shoot open 3s and hope they miss.

76ers core guys with large outputs:

Maxey
Edgecombe
Embiid
George

Just any TWO of those four going off and Boston's Jays aren't going off with 30+ each are enough to inflict another L.

All it takes is just two of those four. We can forget about White as he has been unreliable the entire season. He's not walking through that door today or tomorrow

[Neurotic Guy]

Sadly the last six quarters have taken just about all the wind from my sails. I?m a bit shocked and a lot disappointed. What a surprising and wonderful regular season only to have it stripped away in 6 quarters. Even more heartbreaking, as I think about the first half of game 5, a good half by the Cs could have buried the struggling Sixers. But they couldn?t and from that point it?s been brutal to watch.

I?m not expecting the outcome I?ll be hoping for.  Philly has a ton of momentum and the Cs appear to have no answer.  I think the worst ending to me would be a close loss. And that?s what I think will happen tomorrow.

[Phantom255x]

I think one adjustment they seriously need to consider is having Tatum at the 5, and just going small. That might allow them to effectively hang with the Sixers' younger and athletic guards/wings, and to make it so they can't switch/rotate and get ideal matchups every time. Embiid is gonna get his usually anyways, but if you make him work for it and force him into tough situations especially on the defensive end that could disrupt them.

I just don't think Queta/Vucevic are a good matchup against Embiid at all and frankly, when Queta is out there the offense feels truly 4 on 5 since Queta isn't a shooting or scoring threat. Vucevic can be but he's toast defensively. Garza is fine as like a 10-12 minute backup big. But you may be better off utilizing Tatum at center, in fact that could allow Tatum or someone to be put on Embiid/Drummond and you can score on them.

Matchup wise it makes sense. I don't think the C's can beat Philly just playing straight up and playing into their matchups. They'll need to play faster, be disruptive and match them from an athletic-standpoint. Our bigs don't fit that mold and make it even tougher. 

Even if Embiid gets his on offense, you can make life tough on him by exploiting him defensively or being active around him so that he's not comfortable and has to think too. If you just let him be guarded by Queta/Vucevic 1-on-1 he's gonna fry them everytime with no sweat, and then he can also just take it easy on defense since Queta isn't a threat to score.

[Who]

Joe's strategy will be to dare the sixers to shoot open 3s and hope they miss.

76ers core guys with large outputs:

Maxey
Edgecombe
Embiid
George

Just any TWO of those four going off and Boston's Jays aren't going off with 30+ each are enough to inflict another L.

All it takes is just two of those four. We can forget about White as he has been unreliable the entire season. He's not walking through that door today or tomorrow

We SHOULD have:

25-30ppg = Jaylen & Tatum
15ppg = D White, Pritchard, Vucevic

That is 50-60ppg and 45ppg. 95ppg from 5 players. Another 15-20ppg from the rest of the cast led by Queta and including Hauser, Scheierman, J Walsh, Hugo, Garza.

Unfortunately, D White has been missing in action. Vucevic is both (1) ignored by his teammates (2) has no actions run for him (3) and isn't acclimated in the offense yet. Pritchard is the only one of the three support scorers who is doing his job effectively.

[SCeltic34]

Philly has shown to be the better team since Embiid's return.  Game 4 was disastrous for them.  But especially in game 6, there was a clear difference which team was better.  Their shot quality, hustle, scoring ability, defensive tenacity - all of it was better.

That said, I think the Celtics will win game 7.  Though it also wouldn't surprise me if we have another dud under Mazzula.  Vuc is unplayable, so we'll need PP to have another strong game, and perhaps an unexpected contribution from a lesser player such as Baylor.  White made some 3's last game but overall has been atrocious this series.