The Sixers Lost

At least they went down fighting this time. They looked like utter dog doo in the first quarter, then came roaring back in the second quarter and lost the game primarily because Jalen Brunson had a great fourth quarter and Josh Hart hit a late dagger and some clutch free throws. That’s pretty much it. Yeah, Brunson did his stupid bullshit where he slows up at the foul line and tries to initiate contact, and was rewarded for that, but he also hit some big, clean field goals and those consecutive three-pointers made the Sixers play from behind for a decent portion of the fourth. They clawed back to tie it, only for Hart to show up late.

For all the questions surrounding Joel Embiid, he played a great Game 6. 39 points and 13 rebounds in 40 minutes before fouling out. He got his turnover number down and benefited from the Sixers’ three-point shooting, which caused New York to lay off the double teams and play him 1v1 instead. At least we won’t have to hear the same Embiid arguments on sports talk radio for the next few months, so there’s a silver lining.

The Sixers got a brilliant bench game out of Buddy Hield and Nico Batum, and a couple of threes from Cam Payne, but needed more from Tyrese Maxey, who shot 6 for 18 and just 1-6 from three. He couldn’t buy a whistle and seemed to playing a little fast. A little frenetic out there, but they wouldn’t be in this position had he not saved their bacon at Madison Square Garden in the first place, so it’s hard to level too much blame there.

You can certainly blame Tobias Harris, though, who was a non-factor in his final Sixers game, shooting 0-2 from the floor for 0 points and finishing a -10 on the evening. A fitting end to his Philly career.

And Kyle Lowry was mostly useless, a reminder that starting a 38-year-old buyout player in the postseason is going to get you what, exactly? At least he only played 13 minutes this time around.

It was an objectively great series. Felt more like a 2 vs a 3, didn’t it? You had to keep reminding yourself that this was a first round matchup, because it didn’t seem that way. You had a 50-win team vs. a 47-win team, the latter of which ended up the seven seed by virtue of a three-way tiebreaker, so on paper, there wasn’t a ton of separation between the teams despite the seeding disparity. The difference was probably offensive rebounding, but in the late stages New York just had better shot making. They executed a little better down the stretch and had a legitimate closer to go through in Brunson. And they got contribution across the board from the entire starting lineup, be it on the glass or making hustle plays, blah blah etc.

Not sure about you, but this playoff exit doesn’t hit me very hard. Why? Because I didn’t expect the Sixers to win the series anyway. Did you? Embiid wasn’t fully healthy and the Knicks were favored.* This certainly was not the Atlanta 2nd round series, or Boston last year. They didn’t blow a series lead or fold like a cheap suit. This wasn’t the quit job we saw last year, I just think they lost to a better team.

So it’s the same thing we always talk about in May. You need a healthy Embiid and the proper supporting cast. Daryl Morey has a blank slate to work with this offseason, and what seems like one more chance to build a contender. And if we find ourselves in the same place one year from now, then what?

*I’ll edit this to say that the opening number for the Sixers was anywhere from -110 to -130 at the main half dozen or so books. A couple of them had Sixers/Knicks both at -110, so it was probably more of a wash or at least not unanimous. 

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