The Philadelphia 76ers lost their opening game of the playoffs against the Boston Celtics 101: 109 (the highlights of the game in the video). Joel Embiid had a good 26 points and 16 rebounds, but was dissatisfied after the game.
The Cameroonian dominated in the first quarter with 12 points with perfect odds (5/5 FG), but afterwards the Celtics frustrated him with double teams and Philly often failed to serve the center. In the end, Embiid only made 15 attempts from the field.
“Obviously there weren’t enough litters,” said the 26-year-old. “I have to be more aggressive. We might have to announce a few other plays, but I don’t know. This is one more thing we need to fix before Game 2.”
Before the game, Sixers coach Brett Brown indicated the route to be posted a lot about Embiid, as Embiid has enormous economies of scale compared to the Celtics and their center Daniel Theis. However, Boston was prepared for this and exerted great pressure, which resulted in seven ball losses in the first quarter alone, three of them by Embiid.
Brett Brown doesn’t want to “overdo” post-ups
As a result, the Sixers’ offense changed a little. “This is the double-edged sword where you have to decide which path to take,” said Brown. “If you overdo it with the face-off ball post-ups; if you do it all the time, there is a certain amount of punishment if you are not careful.”
For Embiid, however, the matter seemed clear, since the beginning of the training camp before the restart, the center has repeatedly assured that he wanted to have more touches and be more involved. Without the injured Ben Simmons, the Sixers are even more dependent on Embiid being the dominant figure in their game.
