The Philadelphia 76ers are not supposed to be the team that has their struggles on the boards and in terms of being tough. They are huge all over the lineup and with the addition of Al Horford in the offseason to add to Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons as well as Tobias Harris, they should not be out-toughed in any games.
That was the case on Saturday night when the Boston Celtics used their physicality to bother the Sixers to beat up on them 116-95. The win avoids the season sweep for Boston and it gives them a lead of three games on the Sixers in the standings for the 3 seed.
They bothered Embiid all night and held him to shooting just 1-for-11 from the floor and made life tough for everybody. The Celtics jumped out to a 22-8 lead and fed off the Boston crowd in order to run away with this one.
“I mean, we never want to be the less physical team, especially with the size that we have,” said Harris. “But I think you know tonight was one of those games where they imposed their will early, was able to get that momentum, and it’s that excitement in their games coming out towards us. They just made shots, got to the free-throw line, and we just didn’t. We didn’t withstand their punch.”
The Celtics as a team shot 47.5% from the floor compared to just 36.9% for the Sixers. Boston was just the better team on a night where the Sixers were not able to really buy a bucket at all.
“I wouldn’t say it was physical,” said Horford. “I think some miscues defensively. You know, in my eyes, we just had too many of those and we need to be better communicating out there. On the road, it can be a little harder, but we didn’t do a great job of executing our defensive game plan. So, I lean towards that than the other stuff.”
Either way, the Sixers have got to get it together and get back in gear. The road trip continues on Monday with a matchup with the Miami Heat and they need to get that win in terms of the race for home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference. [lawrence-related id=24724,24709,24689]