#Philadelphia nba score series

So I hope they keep doing it, and we’re going to keep making the right plays and knocking down those shots.” Pretty cold in the first half and then in the second half, you’re not going to give the best three-point shooting team that many looks without my guys making those shots. And once again, we did take advantage of it.

“They came back firing - double, triple teams all over the place. “They didn’t change their strategy from what didn’t work in the first game,” Embiid said.

īut here we are in maybe Embiid’s most important playoff push and he’s fully bought in. Now, it’s Embiid (or Reed for 10ish minutes) and nothing but shooters at all times. His plan when he arrived was to immediately surround Embiid and, at the time, Ben Simmons with shooters. Backup center Paul Reed might be the exception, but he obviously doesn’t share the court with Embiid.Ĭredit to Daryl Morey. It’s to a point now where the Sixers rarely have a non-shooting threat on the floor. I think that’s a great statement for our team.” He was really celebrating his teammates tonight because of what (the Nets) were trying to do to him. This is the happiest I’ve ever seen him since I’ve been here with other guys making shots. “You look at his numbers, those are dominating numbers - rebounding, blocked shots, assists - but especially in the second half, he just let the game come to him. “I was really proud of Jo,” Doc Rivers said. In the second half, Embiid was happy to let Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris reap the benefits of Brooklyn’s hyper aggressive defensive strategy. It was by no means a perfect night as the eight turnovers will tell you (albeit two of those were in super garbage time), but his 68.9 true shooting percentage shows how efficient he was when he looked to score. really, it’s all five Nets trying to defend him at this point. He had seven assists and several “hockey assists” by navigating doubles, triples. On the offensive end it was about Embiid being selfless as he scored only 20 points. Given Embiid’s size, injury history and the fact that he has to anchor the Sixers’ offense and defense, it’s understandable that he can’t exude this kind of effort on a nightly basis during the regular season. It’s hard to play 100 percent of the time in the regular season with that many games, but it’s the playoffs - every possession matters.” And then myself, I felt like as I said, it’s the playoffs and it’s been like that over my career, every single time. “I thought tonight as a team, we were really good. That’s usually where I take my defense to another level,” Embiid said. The Nets scored just 10 points in the paint and shot 35.1 percent from the field after halftime.Īs we’ve seen with Embiid countless times, when the stakes are high, his defensive focus is elite.

He quarterbacked the zone and protected the rim impressively. The Sixers switched to a zone, which flummoxed Brooklyn, but more importantly, Embiid took his defense to another level. They held the Sixers to 19 points in the second quarter to take a 49-44 halftime lead. Early on, those results were positive for the Nets. Brooklyn continued to swarm Embiid and live with the results. It was an effort the Sixers needed to produce after an abysmal first half. What stands out is the score: the Nets had 84 points for the game and just 34 in the second half.

#Philadelphia nba score series

The series heads to Brooklyn for Game 3 Thursday night.Īfter two games where the Nets were hellbent on limiting Embiid’s ability to score, he’s looked his most valuable, showing growth and trusting his teammates to help the Sixers win. It was Embiid and the Sixers laughing postgame as they used a dominant second half to beat the Nets 96-84 to take a 2-0 series lead Monday. I don’t remember getting dunked on,” Embiid said. Luckily for the Sixers, Embiid is a goldfish. He also posterized Joel Embiid - and stared the big man down the entire way back down the floor. The young forward, acquired by Brooklyn as part of the Kevin Durant blockbuster with Phoenix, scored 22 points before halftime. Cameron Johnson went nuts in the first half against the Sixers in Game 2.