What I remember of the defense against Embiid last year was that the Celtics backed off Philly's outside shooters and when Embiid got the ball low the Celtics flashed or committed the double team almost every single time. They dared Philly to beat them from three without Embiid taking a shot. Baynes role was to hold off Embiid until the double came and in that part of the defensive scheme, he did his job.
We have much different impression lol
They put Baynes on Embiid and dare him to take every shot under random flash/double noise in the post and competently took out the 3 , Embiid took lots of shots with low efficiency and wore down while their pride shooters became a competently disaster
I don't remember it that way at all. I remember the C's packing it in to stop Simmons drives and doing the double team underneath on Embiid. The Celtics were leaving everyone else: Simmons, Covington, Saric, Reddick, McConnell, etc open for threes with late closeouts. They dared Philly to beat them from three and Philly couldn't do it.
No lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydy-pzs5uCA&app=desktop
Even in this video you can see the intention to stick to the outside shooters and let Embiid going to work, their shooter were never open
The very first play Smart guarded reddick way outside the 3 arc, how does that looks "leaving everyone else open for threes" is beyond me
From an article from philly.com of all places:
http://www2.philly.com/philly/sports/sixers/sixers-celtics-76ers-nba-playoffs-score-recap-offseason-ben-simmons-joel-embiid-20180509.html
It starts with Simmons, who made things look easy enough throughout the regular season that it was fair to wonder whether he would fool himself into thinking that's how easy they are. More than anything, his performance this postseason should lay to rest any such notion. This was somewhat true in the first series, but in the second there was no doubt. The Celtics spent all five games walling him off in the transition game, and packing the lane in the half-court. They dared him to shoot, and he didn't, and the result was one of the game's most electric rookies looking too much like a bystander in too many possessions.
So even Philly reporters see it my way.
No one is arguing we let Simmons open to shoot but you are talking about the shooters?
"the Celtics backed off Philly's outside shooters"
"The Celtics were leaving everyone else: Simmons, Covington, Saric, Reddick, McConnell, etc open for threes"
Yeah, that's obviously not how it went. The plan was to let Embiid get his, sag off Simmons, and stick to all of heir shooters which included switching on off-action screens.
After game 1 here is the recap:
The Celtics rarely sent double team help toward Aron Baynes in the post, which left him one-on-one with Embiid. Not surprisingly, Embiid went for 31 points on 12-for-21 shooting.
The reason for leaving Baynes all by his lonesome was that the Sixers are just too freaking good on the perimeter. The issue is that Embiid is good enough to negate that strategy all by himself. Stevens is willing to live with that, to a point.
“When we’re up 12,” Stevens said. “You’re just going to have to balance that as the series goes on. He can get 31 in isolation or whatever. If you’re doubling him are you giving up 33 because you’re leaving shooter? It’s a thin line. It’s what makes it really hard to play these guys because they’re so talented.”
The Sixers shot 30.9% from 3's (JJ 34%, Marco 31%, Ersan 21%, and Covington 25%), which is obviously not happening if they're leaving them open for 3's.
Topic: Baynes needs to be part of the starting five (Read 13571 times)