The Philadelphia 76ers needed a big effort in order to avoid an 0-2 hole against the Boston Celtics. They needed a big game out of Joel Embiid and he delivered, but the rest of the Sixers could not match his efforts nor could they overcome Jayson Tatum as the Celtics ran away with a 128-101 win in Game 2 and put Philadelphia in an 0-2 hole.
Embiid led Philadelphia with 34 points and 10 rebounds, Josh Richardson had 18 points, and Shake Milton had 13. Other than those guys, the rest of the Sixers had rough nights and there was not much urgency from a team that really needed this game.
With that being said, here are the three observations from a big win:
Embiid bouncing back
Embiid got off to another great start. He had 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting in the opening quarter as Philadelphia shot a blistering 60.9% and it was mostly due to the spacing. Milton and Richardson were knocking down open threes and that caused Boston defenders to stay with them and that allowed Embiid to go 1-on-1 with Daniel Theis early. He finished with 22 points and seven rebounds at the half, but they trailed it 65-57 at halftime after Boston outscored them 38-24 in the second quarter.
In the second half, Boston adjusted by going to a zone defense and that bothered the big fella. There was a play where Richardson tried to throw an entry pass to Embiid that got picked off and Marcus Smart then attacked and finished an And-1 while being fouled by Embiid. The big man then shook his head in frustration and that summed up the night.
Thybulle matching Tatum’s minutes/lack of defensive intensity
The Sixers made the adjustment of starting Matisse Thybulle for this reason. Tatum is an elite scorer in this league and Thybulle did a solid job against him in Game 1 so the Sixers matched his minutes with Tatum a majority of the game. The rookie did not do a bad job, he forced Tatum into a lot of tough shots, but Tatum is just that good and he had 18 points by halftime and Boston did a lot of screening to force Philadelphia to switch Thybulle off of him. That then caused Al Horford to defend him off the screens and one can predict how that happened. Tatum finished with 33 points and shot 8-for-12 from deep.
On top of that, Kemba Walker woke up. He turned back into the Charlotte Hornets version of himself in the second quarter scoring 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the second quarter. He freed himself up with a few dribble moves and some good screens and that was it for him. It seemed like Philadelphia—a team built on defense—had no interest in fighting on that end. Walker had 22 and Jaylen Brown had 20 points. It would be nice to have Ben Simmons for this series.
Harris and Horford struggling
This was just not a good night for Tobias Harris and Horford on offense. Philadelphia has a lot of money tied up in these two players and they were not able to step up to the challenge in a must-win Game 2. The two of them combined for only nine points at halftime and they missed a lot of fairly easy looks. Harris freed himself up in the post, but he couldn’t finish at the basket and Horford missed an easy jumper that is normally in his wheelhouse. Harris shot 4-for-15 on the night and Horford had a grand total of four points and two rebounds. [lawrence-related id=36972,36969,36965]