Sixers shot pretty terribly from the field. Was the Celtics D that good?
Celtics D was amazing -- had a drtg of like 76 when Time Lord was on the floor -- and the Sixers helped things along by missing some makeable shots.
Embiid really, really struggled to impose himself on the game when facing the double bigs. Horford would guard him w/ Rob in that roaming role, and Embiid is just not a good enough passer/playmaker to punish that. And he just lacks the stamina to bring guys down to the block every time.
Embiid's numbers for this series:
- 28/9/2 on 45/25/89 shooting splits and a negative a/to ratio
Embiid's career playoff numbers:
- 24/11/3 on 46/29/82 shooting splits and a negative a/to ratio
Embiid's career conference semis numbers:
- 24/11/3 on 43/30/82 shooting splits and a negative a/to ratio.
This is his 11th playoff series. He's shot better than 50% from the floor in three of them, and had a positive a/to ratio in three of them. All of those were first-round series.
The Sixers are 0-4 in Conference semis since he's been there.
Jokic's numbers, for comparison:
- 35/13/10 on 59/44/89 shooting splits with a 2.5-1 a/to ratio vs. the Suns.
Jokic's career playoff numbers:
- 27/12/7 on 53/41/83 splits w/ a 2.3-1 a/to ratio.
Jokic's conference semis numbers:
- 28/14/8 on 53/40/81 splits with a 2.6-1 a/to ratio.
The Nuggets are now 2-2 in conference semis, and bear in mind one of those losses came two years ago without Murray and MPJ.
If Embiid doesn't turn this around in Game 7 and at least get Philly to the conference finals, this "rivalry" is going to end up like Hakeem/Ewing, where the clearly inferior big market guy got propped up for years until eventually it just became so damn obvious that the other guy was miles ahead that it wasn't a rivalry anymore.
This is absolutely a legacy game for him coming up..
