Same Old Sixers — Sixers Fall to Knicks 97-92

Stop me if you have heard this one before. The Sixers lose a playoff game where their star player is absent in the 4th quarter, and no one else on the team stepped up. In essentially a must-win game on their home court, the same old Sixers showed up again. And now they are facing elimination.

After the game ended I tweeted that after six straight playoff failures, it’s amazing that the Knicks are the team that wanted it more. The Sixers just don’t want it enough. After the Sixers shoot players run back on defense, after the Knicks shoot they fight for the ball. The Knicks scored 11 second-chance points in the 4th quarter alone. The Knicks out-rebounded the Sixers 18-8 in the 4th quarter. If the Sixers limit them to just half of those second-chance points they win this game, but like it has been all series long, the Knicks outworked the Sixers and came out victorious.

At the end of the day, most of the blame for this game will go on Joel Embiid. Embiid finished with 27 points on 7-19 shooting with 10 rebounds. In the 4th quarter, Embiid had 1 point 0-5 shooting and was a -4. I know he is injured, I know he is dealing with a facial issue, but that cannot happen. If you are going to be on the floor you have to produce, and when it mattered most in this game Embiid did not produce. A lot of the team’s rebounding struggles should fall on him as well. When the team doesn’t rebound well, the first person you should look to is the biggest guy on the team. There were far too many times when a player was grabbing an offensive board and Embiid was standing right next to them. If you are going to be a nonfactor on offense, you have to at the very least use your size to grab rebounds. At the end of the day, the one constant that has been with this organization through everything post-process has been Joel Embiid, and he holds as much blame for every failure they have had as anyone.

During last offseason, Daryl Morey was reportedly telling people that Tyrese Maxey is untouchable for any player in the NBA. If Michael Jordan is available do not call and ask for Maxey. If Maxey is going to be the number two guy during the Joel Embiid prime timeline he has to be better in the non Embiid minutes. In the first half when Embiid sat Maxey did not do anything and it lead to the Knicks taking a twelve point lead down to just two. When Embiid is off the floor Maxey has to take over the scoring, or at least get others involved. Too many times he can just disappear in games, and when Embiid is off the floor that is the worst time to disappear. Then again down the stretch of the game Maxey made some key mistakes. The biggest has to be when he did not realize the missed free throw play was on, and then the ball landed in where he was supposed to be. I know he is still a young player, but this is now his 4th postseason. He needs to be paying better attention in that situation, and go and get the ball. He also missed some key shots down the stretch including again having a key layup blocked. In the final minutes, it is a lot easier for a guard to create shots than a center, and so far in two of their three losses this series he has been bad late in the 4th quarter.

The reality of the situation is this roster is just not that great, and that goes back to Daryl Morey. In Morey’s tenure as President of Basketball Operations, he has failed to put together a championship, or near-championship roster around Joel Embiid. James Harden did not want to be here anymore because of Morey, and then when he traded him he got zero impact players in return. He claimed that Buddy Hield was the best player traded at the deadline yet Buddy logged zero minutes today. He refused to get off of the Tobias Harris contract a few years ago, and now Tobias is a barely playable black hole on this team. He has brought in no young talent to bolster this roster. In past years he has made horrible trade deadline acquisitions including George Hill, DeAndre Jordan, Dewayne Dedmond, and many more who did not pan out. I am done with the excuse making, and the free pass Morey has gotten in this city. He better get this offseason right, because at this point he should have a very, very, very short leash.

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