Joel Embiid and the Sixers have the opportunity to advance to the Conference Finals next night. At the Wells Fargo Center, in front of their audience, it’s even the perfect opportunity for Philadelphia, which therefore leads 3-2 against the Celtics.
And if Boston is on vacation tomorrow, it’s probably Joe Mazzulla who will be the first target of criticism in Massachusetts. With the Bucks eliminated, the Celtics were thus the favorites for the title among the remaining teams. Except that this group often seems to err on the side of confidence, the coach leaving a lot of freedom to his players. His “cool” coaching, which leaves a lot of responsibility to his men, is already under fire from critics. Especially since he has trouble channeling the “pick & roll” between James Harden and Joel Embiid.
” It happens to everyone “ answers Marcus Smart nevertheless on the criticisms that affect his coach. “We say so much shit about us players, but we need to be empowered. It’s the same for coaches. But even if things go wrong, it’s never one person’s fault. It’s not his fault, it’s not my fault, it’s not Jayson’s or Jaylen’s fault. It’s everyone’s fault.”
The leader ensures in any case that there is no cut between Joe Mazzulla and his players.
” These are things that happen “continues Marcus Smart. “We still believe in our coach. We totally believe in Joe. We have not lost faith in him and we will not. He has a game plan, it’s up to us to execute it. We’re the ones playing, so we have to help him. For his part, he is doing very well. »
Too inexperienced staff?
Nevertheless, between Philadelphia’s good defensive work in shorting quite a few of Jayson Tatum’s usual options, and the good adjustments of Doc Rivers face at the Celtics defense on pick & rollthe 2022 Defender of the Year has to admit that his team is tactically beaten in this series so far.
“It’s not just that we don’t apply certain things”concludes Marcus Smart. “We are playing against a very good team, and it’s all about adjustments in the playoffs. They do a very good job of adapting. Not us. We must find a solution. That’s the key. The playoffs are a different environment. Different obstacles standing in front of you. You just have to handle them properly.”
In Joe Mazzulla’s defense, he was promoted to “head coach” following the suspension of Ime Udoka, whose first assistant, Will Hardy, had just left for Utah. As a result, the Celtics coaching staff is quite inexperienced.
Nevertheless, he must now find solutions to bring the series back to Massachusetts for Game 7, and his players apply them. However, it is difficult to know which version of the Celtics we will find tonight on the Philadelphia floor. The physical, dynamic and collective one, capable of stifling any opponent or the overconfident one who thinks they can get out of every situation thanks to their external address?
Answer from 01:30…
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Jayson Tatum | 74 | 36.9 | 46.6 | 35.0 | 85.4 | 1.1 | 7.7 | 8.8 | 4.6 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 2.2 | 30.1 |
| Jaylen Brown | 67 | 35.9 | 49.1 | 33.5 | 76.5 | 1.2 | 5.7 | 6.9 | 3.5 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 26.6 |
| Malcolm Brogdon | 67 | 26.0 | 48.4 | 44.4 | 87.0 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 14.9 |
| Derrick White | 82 | 28.3 | 46.2 | 38.1 | 87.5 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 3.6 | 3.9 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 2.2 | 12.4 |
| Marcus Smart | 61 | 32.1 | 41.5 | 33.6 | 74.6 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.1 | 6.3 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 11.5 |
| Al Horford | 63 | 30.5 | 47.6 | 44.6 | 71.4 | 1.2 | 5.0 | 6.2 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 9.8 |
| Grant Williams | 79 | 25.9 | 45.4 | 39.5 | 77.0 | 1.1 | 3.5 | 4.6 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 8.1 |
| Robert Williams | 35 | 23.5 | 74.7 | 0.0 | 61.0 | 3.0 | 5.4 | 8.3 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 8.0 |
| Sam Hauser | 80 | 16.1 | 45.5 | 41.8 | 70.6 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 6.4 |
| Mike Muscala | 20 | 16.2 | 47.2 | 38.5 | 69.2 | 0.7 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 5.9 |
| Payton Pritchard | 48 | 13.4 | 41.2 | 36.4 | 75.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 5.6 |
| Blake Griffin | 41 | 13.9 | 48.5 | 34.8 | 65.6 | 1.1 | 2.6 | 3.8 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 4.1 |
| Luke Kornet | 69 | 11.7 | 66.5 | 23.1 | 82.1 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 3.8 |
| Justin Champagnie | 2 | 11.7 | 16.7 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 2.5 |
| Jd Davison | 12 | 5.5 | 42.1 | 28.6 | 50.0 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.6 |
| Mfiondu Kabengele | 4 | 9.1 | 28.6 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.5 |
| noah vonleh | 23 | 7.4 | 45.8 | 25.0 | 100.0 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.1 |
| justin jackson | 23 | 4.7 | 25.9 | 25.0 | 50.0 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.9 |
