NBA-ын плей-оффийн эхний тоглолтод Бостон Сэлтикс баг талбайдаа Филадельфиа 76-чуудыг 123-91 харьцаатайгаар бут ниргэлээ. Жоел Эмбийдгүй тоглож буй Филадельфиа багийн хувьд энэ цувралд тэсэж үлдэх нь маш хүнд даалгавар болохыг энэ удаагийн тоглолт харууллаа.
Бостон Сэлтикс тоглолтын эхнээс л илүү зорилготой, нягт тоглолт үзүүлж байсан бол Филадельфиа баг анхаарал сарнисан, идэвхгүй байдалтай байв. Жейсон Тэйтумээр ахлуулсан Бостоны довтолгоог зогсооход Филадельфиагийн хамгаалалт хүчин мөхөсдөж байлаа.
Багийн гол тоглогч Пол Жорж тоглолтын дараа өгсөн ярилцлагадаа тэдний тоглолт плей-оффийн түвшинд хүрээгүйг хүлээн зөвшөөрсөн юм. Тэрээр Бостоны багийн биеийн хүчний тоглолт болон эрч хүчтэй тэнцэхүйц хэмжээнд тоглож чадаагүй нь олон удаа амархан оноо алдах шалтгаан болсныг онцоллоо. Эмбийд байхгүй нөхцөлд багийн хамгаалалт болон анхаарал төвлөрөлт зайлшгүй сайжрах шаардлагатай байгааг тэрээр сануулсан байна.
Статистик үзүүлэлт ба ялагдлын шалтгаан
Бостон Сэлтикс баг самбараас бөмбөг авалт, дамжуулалт болон шидэлтийн хувь зэрэг тоглолтын бүх гол үзүүлэлтээр илүүрхжээ. Харин Филадельфиа багийн ялагдалд дараах хүчин зүйлс голлон нөлөөлөв:
- Шидэлтийн хувь: Нийт шидэлтийн дөнгөж 38 хувийг амжилттай болгосон.
- Гурван онооны шидэлт: 23 удаа шидсэнээс ердөө 4 нь (17%) байндаа туссан.
- Эрч хүч: Тоглолтын турш идэвхгүй, эрч хүчгүй байсан нь Бостоны давуу талыг улам нэмэгдүүлсэн.
Хэвлэл мэдээллийнхэн болон шүүмжлэгчид Филадельфиа багийг “бэлэн биш” байгаад ихээхэн шүүмжлэлтэй хандаж байна. Цувралын дараагийн тоглолтуудад тэд сэтгэл зүй болон тоглолтын арга барилаа эрс өөрчлөхгүй бол плей-оффоос эрт хасагдах аюул тулгарлаа.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
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BOSTON — The Boston Celtics are going to be difficult for the Philadelphia 76ers to beat in a playoff series.
Since they are one of the best teams in the league, with a rejuvenated Jayson Tatum, this is obvious. The Sixers scratched and clawed their way to this Eastern Conference first-round matchup and are currently without their best player, Joel Embiid. So, for Philadelphia, winning this series is indeed a tall task. If we are talking reality, there was a world in which the Sixers played close to perfect basketball, and still lost.
Still, Sunday afternoon’s 123-91 Game 1 shellacking at TD Garden proved unacceptable. Being an underdog is one thing. Contributing to your own demise is quite another. The Boston Celtics were locked in and ready to play. The Philadelphia 76ers weren’t. The Celtics were disciplined and intentional in the way they approached the game. The 76ers seemed distant and distracted. The Celtics played with a purpose. The 76ers played passively and didn’t provide resistance. Whatever the Celtics wanted to do on Sunday afternoon, the Sixers seemed happy to go along with it.
By the end of Game 1, the TD Garden crowd mockingly serenaded the 76ers with “We want Boston” chants, their answer to the Xfinity Mobile Arena crowd chanting the same thing during the tail end of Wednesday night’s 109-97 Play-In victory over the Orlando Magic. It should serve notice to the Sixers of the obstacle facing them.
On Sunday afternoon, Philadelphia got embarrassed.
How does it respond?
“What we showed today, that’s not playoff basketball,” Philadelphia small forward Paul George said. “We didn’t match their physicality or their toughness. We had a lot of possessions where we essentially just let them walk to the rim for layups. We didn’t show any resistance at all.”
As Game 1 reached its end stages, George turned to his All-Star teammate Tyrese Maxey and had a quick conversation. He told Maxey the Sixers didn’t make the Celtics feel like it was a playoff game. He told Maxey that the Celtics became comfortable early and that the 76ers didn’t do anything to make them feel uncomfortable.
Forgetting the prospect ofwinning the series, the road to being competitive in the series — especially without Embiid — lies in Philly’s ability to defend at a much higher level. But, it also lies in Philadelphia’s attention to detail, both physically and mentally. For instance, the Celtics grabbed more rebounds than Philadelphia. The Celtics significantly outscored the Sixers on the 3-point line. The Celtics had more assists. They made more shots. They took as many shots as the Sixers and they shot a better percentage and made as many free throws.
When the stat sheet points almost exclusively to one team, blowouts happen. But the eye test on Sunday afternoon made it worse. Philadelphia was just flat out non-competitive in the competitive portion of the game. And, how does that happen in the playoffs? Losing is one thing. Not showing up is another.
“There was a little bit in the third quarter where we found ourselves and played some pretty good basketball,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. “Other than that, this was absolutely unacceptable.
“I thought a lot went wrong, that’s for sure. We stumbled from the beginning. We didn’t get off to a great start. Both of our big men got into some early foul trouble. We just didn’t give enough on either end of the floor to settle into the game.”
Witnessing how much the 76ers miss Embiid in this matchup is a bit jarring. With the star center recovering from an emergency appendectomy almost two weeks ago, the Sixers don’t have anyone who can consistently produce offense in a half-court playoff setting. Philadelphia hopes to get him back at some point in the series. And that hope rests on how far the 76ers canextend the series.
But, too often on Sunday, Philadelphia looked like a team feeling sorry for itself. When the 76ers started the first quarter 1-of-9 from 3-point range, there were hung heads on the defensive side of the ball. When the Sixers turned the ball over, they allowed uncontested layups and dunks in transition. There were multiple times in the first quarter where Philadelphia defenders were caught ball-watching, leaving Boston shooters like Sam Hauser wide open for 3-point looks they didn’t miss. There were several mental mistakes offensively that led to turnovers and missed shots.
The Sixers have been a resilient group this season. They have gone for much of the year without Embiid and George. They have been one of the most collectively injured teams this season. And there were multiple times during the year they could have let go of the proverbial rope. They never did. They always fought back. It’s why Philadelphia’s postgame locker room was as quiet as it had been in a long while. Not being competitive bothered them.
“I can tell you this,” Maxey said. “This is my fifth playoff. Whether you lose by seven points, 12 points, or 100 points, the losses hurt. Nobody wants to lose. They don’t feel good. But this one, it sucks. And it’s because we didn’t expect this at all. So, in that sense, we have to flush it. We have to go out there and we have to play better.”
Some of Sunday can be chalked up to key players being in key playoff roles for the first time. Rookie guard VJ Edgecombe scored 13 points, but shot 6-of-16 from the field. Adem Bona, Quentin Grimes and Dominick Barlow each took turns looking shocked at the hostile postseason environment. But, for the most part, the Sixers looked ill-prepared for what they were going to face on Sunday. And, that’s what can’t happen.
Philadelphia shot 38 percent from the field and 4-of-23 from 3-point range. Those kinds of numbers will never win you a playoff game. But, the Sixers can’t be the team in this series that doesn’t play the hardest and without the most energy. That’s exactly what they were in Game 1.
“I think for the most part we did a good job of shot creation,” Nurse said. “We just didn’t make nearly enough of them. But, we had our chances, and not making them hurt us in transition and it hurt us defensively. We didn’t execute on the defensive end and do the things that we wanted to do. And that put us in a big hole. We have to let this one go and we have to find ways to play better.”
