Sixers’ Embiid frustrated with Celtics scorers; Ex-Celt Horford proud

Philadelphia 76ers All-Star center Joel Embiid expressed his frustration trying to stop Boston’s wings, while former teammate Al Horford had praise.

Philadelphia 76ers All-Star center Joel Embiid is not especially thrilled with how his team has defended the Boston Celtics, which he made clear after the Sixers’ 128 – 101 blowout loss to the Celtics Wednesday evening.

“We’ve just got to be aggressive. We’ve got to be physical,” said Embiid. “They’ve got a bunch of guys that can put it on the floor and can score the ball, but you got pick your poison.”

The Sixers center is clearly not happy with how he is being used by head coach Brett Brown, who wants him camped out in the paint given the easy shots it gives the Celtics at the perimeter, but it’s not clear what else Philly could do that might slow Boston down.

“Jayson [Tatum] has been killing it, so you’ve got to find a way to get the ball out of his hands,” the big man explained.

“I know they want me to sit back on the pick-and-rolls and protect the basket, but they’ve been coming up and just making a lot of threes so we’ve got to make adjustments. Either I’ve got to come up and we’ve got to scramble all over the place, but something’s got to change. It feels too easy and they’re just walking into those shots.”

“We’ve got to fix that,” he added.

Former teammate Al Horford was effusive with praise for Tatum and fellow wing nightmare Jaylen Brown, however.

“It’s been impressive, the leap that they both have taken. Last year was a difficult year, that’s been very well documented, but their ability to play at a high level and continue to be this much better this fast has been impressive. It just shows the growth and the work that they’ve put in.”

If you blinked, you might have missed the reference to Boston’s disastrous 2019-20 campaign, but it clearly still looms large in at least the mind of Horford, who has seen those woes follow him to Pennsylvania.

While certainly not the Florida product’s fault, his fit with Embiid and injured teammate Ben Simmons has not gone at all as hoped, and led to this two-game postseason hole.

It seems a tall order indeed that the Sixers could mount a comeback down two games in an arena without any fans, but that’s what Philly has on its plate for Friday.

And what the Celtics plan to prevent.

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