For the Philadelphia 76ers to have any shot of defeating the Boston Celtics in this playoff series, they will need Joel Embiid to step his game up in a drastic way. They will have to play through the big man and have him dominate.
He started off strongly in Game 1 scoring 11 points in the opening quarter as he was able to attack the basket with aggression and the Celtics had no answers for him. However, it seemed as if the Sixers went away from that the rest of the way and it caused some issues for both him and the team offensively as they dropped the series opener.
Embiid finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds, but he also only had 15 field goal attempts and he was a non-factor really in the offense in the fourth quarter.
“Obviously, it’s not enough,” said a frustrated Embiid afterward. “I feel like it’s whatever. We got a couple guys who had it going, but I guess with the way I started in the first quarter, I just got to be more assertive and demand the ball. Just be aggressive.”
The big fella has a huge size advantage down low against this smaller Celtics team so he has got to do more on the offensive end of the floor. The 15 shot attempts will not work for them to have the success that is needed for them to win. He has to be up around 25 attempts a night.
“I got to be more aggressive,” the big man added. “Maybe call some more plays, but that’s another thing we got to fix going into Game 2. Like I said, I just got to be assertive and aggressive and let the game come to me.”
The final stat line of 26 points and 16 rebounds will look nice on paper and he has a few highlights that will look pretty on YouTube, but at the end of the day, Embiid needs to be the guy. He needs to carry them in this series.
“I got to do more,” he added. “Whatever the stats are, I got to do more. I got one job to do which is carry us. I got to do more, I got to take more shots, I got to be more aggressive, defensively I got to help my teammates, and we all got to play hard. Take care of the ball and follow the game plan.”
Game 2 is set for Wednesday night inside the bubble in Orlando. [lawrence-related id=36906,36903,36896]