Unscrupulous sentiments he has all season, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid asked for more shots after his 109-101 Game 1 loss to the Boston Celtics on Monday.
Embiid scored 12 points on shots at 5-of-5 in the first quarter, after getting a number of early chances in the post. But the Celtics brought in double teams to force conversions and Embiid finished with just 15 shoes for the game, finishing with 26 points and 16 rebounds.
“Obviously not enough [shots], “Said Embiid.” I need to get more aggressive. Maybe we should name some more plays, but I do not know. That’s another thing we need to fix by going to Game 2. “
The Celtics, who have a big disadvantage and often struggle with bruising centers, had a game plan ready. She pressed the ball on the perimeter to make it harder to get passages to Embiid, and then, when he got it in, Boston would regularly bring the doubles from his blind side.
That led to seven Philadelphia turnovers – three of them by Embiid – in the first quarter, which underpinned the strong start. Those problems led coach Brett Brown to move away from so many post-up plays for Embiid the rest of the way.
Embiid finished with five conversions before the game and the 76ers had 18 as a team, leading to 21 Celtics points playing a major role in the outcome.
“This is the double-edged sword where you have to figure out which line you want to run,” Brown said. “This exaggerates the volume of just smashmouth, bully-ball post-ups; if you do it all the time, it comes with some level of punishment if you are not careful.”
This has been a routine all month and back with the 76ers. When the team arrived for the restart, Embiid announced that he intended to be more assertive in questioning touches. Meanwhile, in practices leading up to the boiling games, Brown ran a daily boot camp to put Embiid through drills to deal with double teams to prepare him for this challenge.
With All-Star Ben Simmons for the season with knee surgery, there are hopes Embiid can carry the 76ers with enormous performances against the Celtics. But even though the numbers looked OK on Monday, both aspects of the game plan were abandoned.
“I have to do more. I have one task to do, to carry us,” Embiid said. “I will need my teammates to help, but I need to do more. I need to take more shots, I need to be more aggressive, I need to help my teammates.”
The Celtics suffered a setback when forward Gordon Hayward left the game late in the fourth quarter with a scattered right ankle. He was already swollen and was on his way to an MRI late Monday. If the injury that Hayward misses time on, the already thin Celtics could be more vulnerable.
Brown took an optimistic view despite remaining behind in the series.
“You can not minimize the fact that the lost stink,” Brown said. “But I feel there are answers to the questions of why.”
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