Hoops Tonight - Joel Embiid leads 76ers over Celtics in Game 5, are Jayson Tatum & Boston done?

A ton of thoughts I want to get into. We are also live on AMPS, so if you're watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds, don't forget that AMP is the very first place that you guys can get these shows. You guys know the drip before we get started. Don't forget to subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so 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. Last, but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget you can find them where you get your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight all right, So if you guys remember I was I predicted a big run by the Sixers early in the year, as they were getting healthy, as

Tyree smack See and James Harden were coming back. I liked a lot of things specifically that I was seeing with that roster makeup, And in January they really started to take off. And then they ran into a bunch of really tough games, as every team does and as stacked the league is in that February March April time of the year, and those of you guys who followed the show at that point, you might remember me frequently talking about how much I appreciated the fight that James

Harden and Joel Embiid showed. There was a specific game that they lost, and I think it was at home actually to Boston where Jason Tatum hit that pullback game winning three at the top of the key, where they were up against it late in that game, and rather than letting go of the rope or just saying, hey, it's regular season, who cares, Let's just let it go, both James Harden and Joel Embiid made a bunch of big plays down the stretch of that game, and they

actually tied it late, I believe, on a foul post up Joel Embiid on Jaylen Brown where he made a couple of free throws and they made it a game, and then Jason Tatum ended up just winning it at the buzzer, but they had a bunch of other really impressive performances down the stretch of that season. I thought it was a big part of Joel Embid's MVP case, which was essentially just he won all these big head

to head matchups. He was a much better defensive player than Nikola jokicch That was kind of the narrative surrounding Joel Embiid's MVP, right, and I wasn't very optimistic about them in this series. But in my series preview, if you guys remember, I said I would have given the Sixers a very good chance to beat the Celtics if

Joel Embiid was healthy. There was just such a big question mark surrounding his knee, and specifically I talked about his rhythm and the fact that at the foul line, which has become such an important part of Joel Embiid's success in UH and I shouldn't even say success, but taking that next leap from like guy who's just another one of the stars at the top of the league to a guy who's perennially in the MVP conversation, the guy that can succeed and stay efficient in the NBA playoffs.

Was that success around the free throw line, but so much of it relies on his jump shooting, and I was worried about his rhythm getting disrupted. Well, I was flat out wrong, because Joel Embiid has been incredible. He completely shook off whatever that little rough stretch was that he had against Al Horford down the stretch of Game four, and he absolutely torched the Celtics tonight. James Harden after a couple of rough games in Game two, in Game three,

I kind of broke down. If you guys remember the dynamic in James Harden's playoff history of succeeding in game ones and then struggling as the series progresses, Well, he's thoroughly shook out off too, as he has been getting stronger and stronger down the stretch of this series. Not as much of a scoring performance in this game tonight, but I thought he absolutely dominated the flow of the game. He was the guy that repeatedly was setting up Joel Embiid it with that pocket pass to the high post

there right around the elbow where he's so successful. He just there was a an action that Philly could run theoretically every time down the floor. Now they don't actually do it every time down the floor. It's not how

basketball works. But anytime they got into his stet half court environment, they were able to run a pick and roll with James Harden and draw Rob Williams or allur Ford or whoever into kind of like a loose drop coverage around the foul line but extended out to where James Harden was dribbling, and then he could just throw that pocket pass with Joel Embiid, and Embiide could either make a shot from the foul line, make a kickout pass to the weak side if he drew a helper,

or just ripped through the basket and try to draw foul.

That was their like go to play. Whereas for Boston, they are yet to really uncover anything in this series that is kind of a tendible, Like we can, you know, run this Jason Tatum post up from the left block and he's just gonna score every single time, or get a great shot every single time, or oh, here's this pick and roll that we run with you know, Derek White and Al Horford that you know, or pick and pop that just leads to a wide open three, and

he can make it every single time. They haven't really established anything, and that specific pick and roll dynamic with James Harden and Joel Embiid more like a short role to that foul line has been the ultimate trump card in this series. And as we've made it to Game five, as everyone else is kind of settled into the series and all the Sixers guys are comfortable in their matchups, right,

like PJ. Tucker kind of has an idea of how he wants to guard Jaylen Brown, right, Joel Embiid is very much ignoring Al Horford and Al Horford had a nightmare game trying to shoot the three tonight. But as this series has progressed, James Harden and Joel Embid have elevated and become the best players in the series. Now

series is not over a lot of basketball left. This Boston team has a lot of talent and I'm sure all you Sixers fans know Game six is not going to be easy, But credits to James Harden and Joel Embiid, because as we came into this postseason run, the biggest fear surrounding them was will they be able to shake off their reputation as being players who crater in efficiency when they get to the postseason, And instead both of them have gotten stronger and stronger as the series has progressed.

So shout out to those two guys. I think it's been such a fascinating season from the standpoint of competitive spirit for those two because it did. It wasn't pretty last year. The vitam heat kind of punked you, and you came back stronger, and you've made the improvements in the areas of your game that you needed to and now you're reaping those benefits here as you're one went away from the Eastern Conference Finals. I also wanted to

shout out the defensive effort. If you guys remember in game one that the James, the first of two James Harden game winners. There was this focus on Boston's offensive execute, you know, like, yo, Marcus Smart post up on the final play, What the heck are they doing? Blah blah blah. As I went back and watched the film in that game, I thought Boston's offensive process was fine. I mean for what Boston was doing, Philly was just defending their asses off.

They're doing a bunch of really basic, like defensive kind of baseline principles that a lot of teams around the league use, especially in the playoffs, and they're just executing really well. So they're defending on the perimeter, well, they're sliding their feet and they're flattening out drives. That's step one.

They're digging down into driving lanes. Right, So like if a guy is on the left wing and I'm guarding a and there's a ball handler on the right wing, that dude who's guarding the guy in the left wing is down at the nail, just prepared for that drive to the right, and if they make that pass, it's a hard closeout. And Boston, it's interesting. They have a ton of guys that can shoot, and a ton of guys that can pass, and a ton of guys that

can dribble. But what they don't have are just like dead eye you cannot give this guy any space type of shooters. And so as a result, like a good hard close out go a long way to turning a deadly shot into a shot that they can live with.

Right on the back line. The rotations like if anybody gets beat off the dribble, you're seeing out, you're seeing Joel Embiid step into help, and then the guy guarding the ball handler just sprints out to Al Horford, or the next guy on the way will go to Alofford, and he'll sprint to the next guy. Their rotations are incredibly sharp, and that's been from game one on in this series. They just needed to get the offensive production

to make it work. It's funny. I'm gonna butcher this because I can't remember who exactly conceptualized this idea, but there's this two to one one theory in the NBA playoffs. Essentially, you need your best player to win you two games, you need your second best player to win you one game, and then you need your role players to win you

a game. And that's typically like the not typically, but there's that's a very common path that you'll see a team win an NBA playoff series with and James Harden, your second best player, got you two games in this series, Game one by himself without Joel Embiid, and then in Game four, as Joel Embiid was struggling with the Al Horford matchup, James Harden carried you home, including hitting yet another game winner, but that you needed to get a

game out of Joel Embiid where he dominates. And that's what Joel Embiid did in this particular game, dominating at the rim, defensively drawing a ton of fouls, torturing them in the short row at the foul line. But that was the offensive lift they needed to carry them to their third win with a defense that has been mostly phenomenal throughout this entire playoff runt, a couple of specific things they're doing, so Horford missing that allowed Joel Embiid

to stay at the rim. That's an important part of it. He was blocking and bothering a bunch of shots around the rim, chasing them off the three point line. This is the problem of being a one dimensional team. If you really look at this Boston Celtics team, Jalen Brown's the only guy who's really comfortable working out of the mid range right and is kind of more of a like a creative shot maker inside the three point line right. And he only took sixteen shots in this game, which

we'll get to in a minute. So like with that limitation you've turned your perimeter defenders. You've turned their task into something that's much more achievable. Chase the guy off the three point line. If he beats you off the dribble, just try to flatten out out his drive as best as you can get. If you get beat just rotate to the next shooter. You've got help behind you. The helper doesn't need to come up to the mid range.

The helper just can meet you at the basket and either take a charge or or embat if he's there, is gonna be able to deter shots at the rim, and you rotate around by by chasing them off the three point line. And this team not feeling comfortable doing anything but taking layups and threes, has turned the defensive job for Philly into one that's much more achievable. And that praise on Boston's weaknesses. They don't have a guy who could score in the mid range. Look at the

points in the paint in this game. Go to look at the team stats I checked before. We're going right after the final buzzer, So I missed some of garbage time, but it was literally thirty four to thirty four in the late fourth quarter, and points in the paint. So like Philly's not getting any points in the paint either, but they don't care because they thrive in the mid range. James Harden has been thriving in the mid range in this series. Joel Embiid has been thriving in the mid

range in this series. So they can live with that. But on the Boston front, when they're not getting points in the paint, they damn well better be hitting all their threes than they weren't tonight, and so it's made them a little bit one dimensional and it's put them in some problems. So shout out to Philly. I think a lot of their their roster constructs that make them

a successful playoff team have come to the surface. And big shout out to Joel embian and James Harden, who have guys who have I've been I personally have been very critical of in their playoffs playoff careers, have overcome a lot of that in this playoff run really quickly on Boston. I'm really confused by the fact that Joel Missoula and I've been talking about this entire series, as we've been talking about James Harden, ISO's and pick and

roll coverage and things along those lines. He just hasn't done anything gimmicky or tried anything to try to throw them off of rhythm. Right, we're covering this Lakers series, and it's like every game there's a monumental chess move, like, Oh, we're gonna put Jared Vanderbilt on Draymond Green. Oh, we're gonna start Jamichael Green so that we can put Anthony Davis in the screen and roll. Oh we're gonna start Gary Payton the second. Oh we're gonna put Anthony Davis

on Andrew Wiggins. Now it's like both coaches are like, as soon as they start getting burned by something, they're always thinking about how they can adjust. Whereas like we're in game four and I'm watching James Harden work in isolation while PJ. Tucker's on the floor. How does that happen? He's not a little bit at the end of this game. But they started to putting Marcus Smart on Joel Embiid in fronting and then having Al Horford ignore PJ. Tucker

behind the back. That should have been the entire damn series. That should have been an adjustment they figured out in game two and tried to force Philly to do something different, so like being again, like you cannot be mister Oh. All we gotta do is execute better. Yes, execution matters, but at the end of the day, when you are facing warping offensive person like Joel Embiid and James Harden, you have to be willing to try different things. One

other thing is there's a clear hierarchy with Philadelphia. It's like James Harden high pick and roll with Joel Embid, or post ups with Joel Embiid, ISOs with James Harden, right, and like every once in a while, when those guys are tired, they'll toss the ball to Tyrese Maxi and have him run a pick and roll, or they'll toss the ball down to Tobias Harrison the post. But it's the stars that decide, like, hey, we're taking a break

on this possession. It's very clear hierarchy. With Boston. There's just so many guys that are used to having the ball in their hands. Jaylen Brown used to have in the ball in his hands, Marcus Smart, Jason Tatum, Malcolm Brogden, Derek White, all of these guys are used to having the ball in their hands and making decisions, and so

the hierarchy gets a little tricky in this game. Jason Tatum in particular, was just full tunnel vision, empty the clip, and I admired it from a competitive standpoint, but like he was just driving into traffic and he was making some shots and getting to the foul line, but like it just ruins the flow of the offense and everyone else is just kind of standing around, doesn't know what

to do. Jaylen Brown only takes six shots. The guards are Malcolm Brogden and Derek Whider are co opting possessions. It'd be a lot easier if you had spot up shooters around them, and it's like Jason and Jalen are the only two guys going. It just gets a lot more simple. From a rhythm standpoint. We're seeing this in the Denver Phoenix series. We got Devin Booker and Kevin Durant just deciding every single possession now that Chris Paul's

out and their offense looks better. So like, sometimes less is more when it comes to primary ball handling, And I understand the predicament. Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum art traditional point guards, so you need guys that can ball handle. But this is the catch twenty two. When your two best players are not great playmakers, you end up in a situation where you have to supply them with playmaking, and now you just have a bunch of guys who know how to dribble, and their offense can get really,

really stagnant. Look at Philly, you've got guys that are just role player specialists. PJ. Tucker role player specialist, Daniel House role player specialist, d'An Anthony Melton role player specialists. Even the other two primary guys like Tobias Harrison, Tyres Maxi, they can go six minutes at a time without touching the basketball and they don't care because there's a clear hierarchy there, and I think that's been an advantage towards Philly.

This is not over. Boston. I believe still has more talent down the roster. They're very capable of going in and beating Philly in game six. I mean they beat them in Game three, and they were up big late in game four, so they certainly are capable. But they're in a tough spot here and I expect a raucous, desperate Philly environment as they try to end this series. All right, guys, that is all I have for right now.

We're gonna be back later tonight on YouTube to break down Game five of Nuggets Suns The Volume