Hoops Tonight - Joel Embiid explodes for 52 points, 76ers down Celtics

or not. Regardless of who you think should win MVP, which we'll talk about later, Joel Embiid as of right now, has become the minus four seventy favorite to win MVP after dominating the Boston Celtics tonight in a very important win I thought for the Sixers, just for their psyche heading into this playoff. We're gonna break down that game. We're gonna talk a little bit about Joel embid and the MVP situation that we're actually gonna take some calls

from the audience. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube chan else you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish don't forget. You can find them

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minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the interesting storyline in this game, as is always the case whenever a team is going against Joel Embida, especially when we're heading into a playoff confrontation, Like you know, we're looking at this and yeah, the Nets are going to be an interesting challenge for the Sixers. We'll talk

a little bit more about that later. And the Heat still have an outside chance to get that spot, but they don't have the tiebreaker against Brooklyn, so it's probably gonna be Miami versus Boston. But chances are, health permitting, we're probably going to get a Celtic Celtics Sixers playoff

series here in about three weeks. And so usually what I'm looking at in a case like this is just different little matchup pieces that'll probably translate into that type of playoff series, albeit you know, it's a regular season game. I thought it was clear from the jump that Philly wanted this one more. I think they needed it more. Like I said earlier, for their psyche, you always have to factor in the the element of players missing the games, like Jalen Brown probably plays if this is a more

important game. Robert Williams obviously is going to be a vitally important piece to guarding Joel Embiad in a playoff series. They opted in most cases in this game, especially when PJ. Tucker was on the floor to stick Al Horford on PJ. Tucker basically helping behind, and then Grant Williams on the ball. And you know, it's funny the difference in size there. Grant Williams kind of fared pretty well against Jannis in

the playoffs last year. You know, Jannis is just a little bit smaller than Joel Embid, but he struggled mightily against Joel Ebeid in this matchup. And then for the most part throughout the whole game, they left Joel Embiat in single coverage until the end of the game when they finally started recklessly doubling off of PJ. Tucker and Joel Embiid made the right reads and PJ. Tucker finally made a couple of massively important threes that ended up

being the deciding factor in this game. Kind of a fascinating night for a fifty point Joel embiid game for it to be determined in large part after a tie game late on him making the right reads down the stretch. I think everything fundamentally with Joel embiad comes down to the improvements he's made at the free throw line as a jump shot maker. You know, it's funny I talk a lot about, you know, the physical confrontations at the point of attack, and obviously it's different for heavy ball

handlers who are hitting tons of dribble combinations. It becomes so much more about foot speed and anticipation and those sorts of things. But these confrontations at the forward position anywhere like three four five in the front court, they come down a lot more to the physical altercation. It's a lot more of the like hitting shoulders and who's

gonna win that shoulder confrontation? Like are you going to blow through the defender's shoulder or is the defender going to hold his ground and kind of keep you kind of flatten out your drive away from the rim. And it's so important in that case to have the jump shooting threat because the better of the bigger threat you are is a jump shooter, the closer the forward has to guard you. If the forward has to guard you closely,

then you can go to that rip through move. And beat is just so damn big and strong that he's gonna win that rip through move every single time. But if he doesn't have the jumper, then they can play off. And it's more about anticipation. And now if you slide your feet, well maybe you can take a charge or you have more opportunity to dig down from the wings

and help. Right, But Joel Embiat has become so unbelievably deadly with that pull up fifteen foot shot there at the free throw line that you can't play off of him anymore. Like there's a bunch of early possessions there in that fourth quarter where you know Blake Griffin is in that same kind of predicament where it's like, am I gonna press up on him and let him go

around me? Or am I going to concede this shot? Well, if you concede that shot, he's just making it every single time now, and it's it's made him borderline unguardable because if he knocks down that if you give him the space. He's gonna knock it down if you press up on him. It's not a question of ball handling.

It's not a question of anything other than the fact that he's so much bigger and stronger than you that when he goes to that rip through move, he's either going to get around you or you're gonna foul him. And that's why chances are your best. You know, my feeling for how to beat Philly in a playoff series

is the same as it was last year. You double the hell out of Joel Embiid every time he has the basketball, turn him into a passer, try to get the help off of the worst shooter on the other team, in this case PJ Tucker, and you live with the results. And then with James Harden, you try to turn him into a score because at this phase in his career he's just not quite as dynamic as he used to be scoring the basketball. But that mbiad matchup was a

huge problem for him. It will definitely look different in a series. I think you'll see the alternate of what you saw tonight. Instead of Al Horford kind of being tucked back and help, I think you'll often see al Horford on the ball, and when al Horford is on the ball, you'll see Robert Williams on PJ. Tucker hawking to paint, making it a little bit easier for al Horford to be aggressive without fouling, knowing that he's got

a real rim protector behind him. But this is the chess match of playoff basketball because the best offensive stretches for the Celtics, or when al Horford was at the five and they were able to really space Philly out. And you know, there's a lot of positive from Boston in this game. They were in control of this game until Mbid basically stole it from him with his own

individual greatness. But and Boston has looked extremely impressed, if here, over the last couple of weeks, starting with that absolute shellacking of the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee. I've always said that Boston I think has the most overall talent in the league. I think that was the case last year and this year. Doesn't mean they're the best team. Talent is only one small part of what makes a great

basketball team, but they do have the most talent. What that means is that when they play good basketball, they're good Basketball is going to be better than everyone else. Is good basketball, and they have so much talent on that roster, Like look at the guard battle in this game. I would argue that Malcolm Brogden and Derek White outplayed James Harden and Tyree's Maxie in this game. And if that happens in a playoff series, that's a serious problem.

Because Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum combined, we'll be able to at least meet what Joel Embiid can bring to the table. And so I was came It was an interesting game because I came away very impressed by Joel Embiid, but at the same time, it looks more and more like Boston might very well be the best team in the conference. I've been very delicate about making my predictions because I really do want to wait until after Sunday. We have a show on Sunday. We will get into

this stuff on Sunday. We're going live after that last round of games. But you know, right now, like my safe picks are Denver out west and Milwaukee out east, just because they've demonstrated that to this point. But it could just as easily be Lakers or Warriors or Sons out West. I could very well end up picking Boston when it's all said and done, and I do want to have the rest of this week to look to look deeper at it. But Boston's guards, you know, their

dribble penetration was the story of this game. They just on the Boston side of things. They were it was a layup line. Philly could not contain them at the point of attack. They were consistently engaging and beat at the rim as a rim protector and help and kicking to shooters on the week's side, whether it was Al Horford or whether it was Grant Williams. There was even a little sequence there in the middle fourth where Jayson Tatum was trying to attack Tyrese Maxi, drawing doubles and

kicking to Derek White. They just have a lot of ability to get Philly into help and to get good shooting, get good shot opportunities. And they have the most ball handling and shooting by far in the league in my opinion. Down the roster, they've got like seven or eight guys that can all hit a three consistently and put the basketball on the floor and make plays. They're a terrifying team. And without Jaylen Brown and without Robert Williams, he gave

Philly a hell of a fight tonight. And here's the thing. Embiad was amazing. He was the best player on the floor by a mile. But what if PJ. Tucker misses those shots, and there's a chance that he's going to miss them, potentially in multiple games in a playoff series between these two teams. So again, I'm very impressed by Embiid. Like we talked about earlier, I think he's just about certain to win MVP at this point. Vegas tends to agree. Like we talked about earlier, he's minus four to seventy.

I personally still think Jannis deserves that. I think he's the best player on the best team. And I think Yannis just resoundingly outplayed Joel Embid the other night. But that's irrelevant to what's actually going to happen. It seems pretty clear now that Embiad's going to get it. But you know, interestingly enough, from the matchup perspective, I came away from this game mostly impressed by the Boston Celtics.

All right, we are going to take a question from the audience, but also for everyone listening, don't forget that. Later on tonight, we're gonna have another video on YouTube, so keep an eye on the feed. In that video, we are going to be breaking down the late slate and primarily focus on the Western Conference. All right, let's see if we can get a caller on here. Hey, Jason, what's going on? Man? How are you? I'm good? What's

your name? Man? My name is Josh. I'm a huge Knicks fan, and right now they just clinch the five seed and they're playing the Calves. So I just wanted to get your opinion on what you think. Do you think the Knicks or the Calves are more of a threat to take down one of the top three teams in the East. Oh, that's a very interesting question. Thank you for Colin and Josh. You know, the more I look at the standings, I don't think there's too much of a threat in the first round at the bottom

of the conference. The Hawks got a massive win tonight, They're most likely going to end up getting that eight seed. I trust Miami to win that play in game. And Miami, I'm a little disappointed in them that they couldn't lap Brooklyn because I like their chances better against the Sixers than I do against the Celtics. I think those two are pretty easy matchups. I think the Nets are going

to beat the Sixers. The Calves and Knicks are the two teams that have the most qualities that we associate with championship contention, right, So, like, for instance, the Calves have a top tier defense and a ton of rim protection. They have a ton of shot creation, both a high level playmaking from Darius Garland and high level shot making

from Donovan Mitchell. But my biggest concern with the Cavs is that I don't think they have nearly the amount of spot up talent that they need, and I think in the backcourt their perimeter defense is more than a little bit suspect and has damaged and you've seen that

especially in clutch situations this year. The Nicks are interesting because you know, obviously they don't have the star power that we see from other teams in the conference, but they check so many boxes that I've historically kind of connected with championship contention. Mitchell Robinson obviously doesn't have the reputation of a top tier rim protector, but that's something

that he can do and can do well. They have I think one of the best perimeter defense cores that you have in the conference, between guys like Josh Hard and Emmanuel Quickly, even Jalen Brunson, dating back to his time in Dallas, really competed at the point of attack, and then they can do that to you on the other end of the floor. They've won a lot of games. They've won a lot of games this year by beating teams at the point of attack and getting tons of

dribble penetration. There was a game a couple of weeks ago where we saw them beat the Lakers in Staples Center when they were red hot, just because no one could keep RJ. Barrett out of the lane, because no one could keep Quentin Crimes out of the lane. Like it's it's just one of those things where you know your ability to generate dribble penetration and then contain it on the other end of the floor is a high

level asset. And then, last, but not least, from the shock creation standpoint, they have two of my favorite archetypes of shock creators. You've got Jalen Brunson as this dynamic three level score that can hit pull up threes and pull up fifteen footers and pull up eighteen footers and he can knock down those floaters in the lane with the high level playmaking. But then he can also beat

a switch in pick and roll. But then you've got Julius Randel, who represents an entirely different type of scoring archetype one that I've always found to be immensely important in playoff series, which is the big matchup attacking forward, because more often than not, teams when they're confronting issues with ball handling and shooting, or when they're confronting issues with perimeter defense, will opt for a smaller guard. You're going to see a lot of teams do this this year.

They're out a guy between six foot and six two that they need out there for ball handling and shooting, and they need out there for point of attack defense. But the problem is is in a switching system in the playoffs, which is what you're going to see more frequently from teams in that sort of dynamic, having a forward that can attack those switches by fighting down to that ten fifteen footmark and shooting those little fadeaways over both shoulders. That's a huge asset to have. And so again,

now both of those teams. Unfortunately, just with the way that the seatings have a seating is broken down, They're probably gonna end up facing the Bucks and that's going to be a really tough matchup for them. But look at it this way. The Bucks are a heavy drop coverage team. Jalen Brunson is one of the best drop coverage attacking guards that we have in the league. The Bucks are going to play at any given moment two guys below six five on the court at the same time.

Those are matchups that Julius Randall can attack. Julius Randall himself, I think is going to have to take on the challenge of potentially battling Janis on a bunch of possessions. I'll be really interested to see how he handles that. But he's gonna have the advantage of Mitchell Robinson behind him, provided that they can rotate to Brook Lopez. So again, I don't think many of these teams have that much of a chance because the Buck, Celtics, and Sixers are

so much better than everyone else. But I do as of right now, like the Nicks slightly better than the rest of that group as a team that could knock off one of them, but they got to beat the CAAZ first and that's another tough matchup. And again I wouldn't pick them in a series, but I do think that they've got a chance. All right, Josh, thank you so much for calling in man. So we've got to get back to the TV screens to watch these Western

Conference games. So we're gonna call it to night for right now, but I will be back on YouTube later tonight breaking down the rest of the Western Conference slate. The Gold Say Warriors are trailing after the first quarter, so it should be a fun one. All right, guys, We'll see you later tonight. The volume