Joel Embiid put the Sixers in the backpack and led them to victory Friday night, securing their first 50-point game in a 112-105 victory over the Chicago Bulls.
This is what I saw.
The good
• Congratulations to the great Bulls man, Wendell Carter Jr., for not showing any fear in his confrontation with Joel Embiid. WCJ matched Embiid’s shot at first, leading the Chicago offensive by itself with a great mid-range job.
Unfortunately for the young Bulls senior man, this ensured that Embiid was engaged from the start. Embiid seemed to take these marks personally, and absolutely punished Carter Jr. at the other end of the floor, forcing him to have early foul problems with deep catches on the spot and emphasis on initiating contact. Embiid would score 14 points on a shorter turn than the match should normally open.
Successes kept coming. Embiid took the spot where he left the game in the second quarter, pushing the Sixers into the lead with great style, scoring it with this ridiculous Euro pitch and foul:
There are so few guys in league history who have been able to do everything this guy can for both ends. Embiid is regularly able to achieve this type of movement at full speed and while you are concerned that a man with a health history may enter traffic without a plan, it is sometimes remarkable how elegant and stylish he is for a man of his size.
Then he enters with power and suddenly you remember him is an old man after all. This was one of the most dominant nights Embiid had on the glass at one time, with the big boy creating a lot of extra possessions with hotly contested rebounds, where he decided he wouldn’t let anyone down with the ball. It’s a big signal on several levels, especially for what he says about his physical health after an ugly grimace and back pain earlier in the week.
By the time the third quarter rolled, Embiid’s help had already dried up to start the half, so the great friend continued the attack. When he left the game with less than two minutes to play in the third, he was already at 37 points with a 70% shot from the field in just 27 minutes of action. The Bulls couldn’t find an answer despite having every reason to focus all their attention on Embiid. It was so good.
Whenever Embiid has this form, the Sixers have a chance to win. Even on a night where there was little help from the secondary cast, it was like that on Friday, even though it was closer than it should have been. When all was said and done, Embiid had his first 50-point game of his career and the Sixers got a “W”. Good work.
• He will be lost in the sand of time when this story is published, but possession in the last minute of the first half where Embiid and Tobias Harris just refused to retreat to the offensive it’s probably my favorite possession of the season. He should have seen the replay again, but they got 4 or 5 rebounds in a single possession, and when they finally came out of the sea of Bulls players, Embiid took a foul and picked up a pair at the charity line.
The highest praise I can offer is that it was a time when Moses Malone would have been proud. Not bad for a mid-February game against an Eastern Conference team.
• Speaking of Harris, he’s one of the few guys who shouldn’t hang his head embarrassed by his offensive contributions Friday night.
The theme of the season of playing with physicality continued against the Bulls, with Harris instructing virtually anyone the Bulls had the audacity to throw themselves at him mid-post. A year after we expected the Sixers to play ball, Harris finally found a way to make that happen. Newcomer Patrick Williams, an old, athletic man in his own right, had the misfortune of protecting Harris at a few different points throughout the game.
While ESPN’s Richard Jefferson called the show, Harris learned that his cover didn’t read the scan report and took advantage of Williams bending too far toward the center by glancing to the left. .
If anything, Harris ’part-time job was able to buy Embiid some possessions where he could rest while he was on the ground, and with the workload the big boy had on Friday night, it was a great blessing.
• Matisse Thybulle’s impact from a cash score perspective was minimal, but she had a huge task on her hands Friday night and did an excellent job with Chicago’s top perimeter assignment. Zach LaVine had a few flashes of brilliance like so many times throughout the year, but Thybulle was especially excellent while guarding him, even in possessions where he didn’t close the game himself.
Lately, we’ve seen more of Thybulle’s “total package” type games on defense, performances where he’s been able to combine the chaos of creating business volumes with the discipline to force players where he wants to go. Embiid was able to meet LaVine on the edge or deter him from attempting on several occasions due to Thybulle’s positioning, guiding the Bulls’ guard to a place where the big boy could fall at the end.
• I say this to make a shot against the rest of the group, but to praise the issue: The best offense on the Philadelphia bench on Friday night was to throw shots and then pray that Dwight Howard could get an offensive rebound. It’s been the only area of the game where he’s had a steady impact this season and they needed every opportunity he got, because they couldn’t count on anyone else to produce against the Bulls.
If that’s the cost of their typical foul problem, I guess they’ll just have to live with it.
The bad
• Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about the bench, almost all bad, and I can understand the concern as someone who has to watch every minute of these games. They have offered almost nothing at both ends of the floor and it is easy to look at this group as it is currently built and think that they will not be good enough to compete in the playoffs.
They were basically the only reason Chicago was Friday night in that game. Rivers tried to buy Embiid a little more rest in the first half and, without Tobias Harris being able to support them, it was an absolute nightmare stretch for Philly. Tyrese Maxey faced runner after runner, Mike Scott was basically trotting back and forth across the field of play and Furkan Korkmaz … well, we’ll find him next.
(Staying with Maxey for a second, this type of game is part of the reason why rookies are seen struggling to get playing time with many coaches, including Rivers. It’s one thing to lose shots, especially when asked that you bring a second lifeless unit, but aggravated it by making terrible mental mistakes and trying to make up for them at the same time, instead of letting the game get close to you.I feel like I might be parked on the bench for a while once Shake is back .)
Here’s a ray of sunshine in a dark period for the second unit – I don’t think they need to panic and I don’t think that’s the drastic problem you’re feeling right now. Shake Milton will come back and give them a promotion, yes, but many of these guys will also be minimized or completely left out of the rotation when the games start to matter.
I would bet a good amount of money that there will be an addition / exchange or two before the trade deadline, and drawing conclusions about this group one night without Ben Simmons is a bit pointless. When your most versatile player (and your most active man) is parked on the sideline, you’ll see that the guys are too big.
• The fact that he stank on the bench is one thing, but this was an ugly game for Seth Curry and Danny Green, who were bad for their unique (but relatively familiar) ways.
Curry’s night is something that can be excused to some extent because it had no rhythm. I still think it’s too hesitant to shoot at times, with Curry paying attention to several open glances at the big Embiid steps, but it’s been a lot better most of the year, so I ignore the fight to some extent. point.
Green was bad in the strongest way possible on defense, repeatedly burst by dispositions and late in closing after closing, he was lucky not to burn himself. He’s been a scratched player basically throughout his career, but it’s a little worrying that we’ve seen so few useful veteran games this year. If you run out of time, they will need a lot more if you want to continue in the starting and finishing groups.
(I’ll say this: Green made three big pushes when they needed them all night. I’m a little surprised at how bad he’s been on defense most of the season.)
• Doc Rivers just has to rock Embiid and Harris in a game like this so that one of them is on the ground at all times. The bench has not had it for weeks and letting the group of all the banks die is an avoidable problem.
The ugly
• Furkan Korkmaz had none but two of the worst losses of the season in a small stretch spanning the end of the first quarter and the start of the second quarter. I have no idea what he thought he was seeing, but he threw two separate passes at absolutely no one and then looked in disbelief as other players remained parked in the places they had been all along.
I arrived last year with pretty high expectations for Korkmaz, who had a good year last year and seemed to be a guy who could benefit from Rivers ’contact with the shooters. He’s gone in the other direction, with Korkmaz, the obvious guy who has to stop rotation to mix things up.
Mike Scott deserves some scrutiny for a very different version of inefficiency. Korkmaz’s problems are stronger, no doubt, but Scott basically doesn’t do any of the little things right. When the paralyzed shooter makes the occasional open shot that hits him, we excuse the rest, but defensive mistakes abound and there are few times when you think, “I didn’t expect it from him!” in a positive way.
There are a lot of stopped shooters in the world.
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