Sixers more focused on matching Boston Celtics’ intensity than reintegrating Joel Embiid

The Sixers shot 39.2% from the floor and scored 87 points in Game 2, in part because of the Celtics' ball pressure and poor floor spacing.

James Harden, dribbling as Joel Embiid looks on, is confident the Sixers will regroup for Game 3 against the Celtics.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Gina Mizell

Published May 5, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

Doc Rivers, Joel Embiid, and James Harden acknowledged the 76ers’ Game 2 clunker against the Boston Celtics came with a notable dose of rust.

Not just for Embiid, the NBA MVP who was maneuvering on his sprained knee in game action for the first time in two weeks. The rest of the team also needed to adjust its style to secure a close-out first-round game in Brooklyn and impressive Game 1 victory in Boston, before switching back Wednesday to playing around the NBA’s leading scorer.

Less than 24 hours later, Rivers said outsiders were “making too much” of that Embiid reintegration process, which will continue during Friday’s pivotal Game 3 at the Wells Fargo Center. The coach is more focused on countering the higher intensity Boston displayed on both ends of the floor during Wednesday’s 121-87 drubbing.

“Should we just play different the rest of the year, now?” Rivers said following Thursday’s team film session at their practice facility in Camden. “Or should we play the way we played all year, you know what I mean? It’s not rocket science, and it’s not that hard to do.”

Rivers reiterated that Boston’s ball pressure “took us out of everything.” The Celtics were the NBA’s second-most efficient defense during the regular season at 110.6 points allowed per 100 possessions. It showed in Game 2 as the Sixers shot 39.2% from the floor and scored 87 points. After James Harden exploded for 45 points in Game 1, Boston’s Jaylen Brown picked him up full-court “and made a point of it,” Rivers said. The Celtics kept the ball out of the hands of dynamic guard Tyrese Maxey, who scored 26 points in Game 1. And they denied Embiid, even though he conceded that he was less aggressive while testing his injured knee.

“It wouldn’t have mattered if Joel was there or not,” Rivers said. “We would have had a tough offensive night with the way that we allowed them to play [up into] us. They pushed us all around. They rode us off of spots.

“We couldn’t get organized because of their pressure. We’ll be better.”

That pressure also contributed to the Sixers’ poor floor spacing, which Rivers said was even worse than he initially thoughtafter watching film. The coach said there were too many possessions when three Sixers crammed onto one side of the floor, instead of having one player in each corner, one player at the free-throw line “extended,” and a ballhandler or big man coming down the middle of the floor. That space is required to create driving lanes, give players room to operate with the ball in their hands, or to open up outside shots.

“Almost lazy, in some ways,” Rivers said of his team’s failure in that area.

On the defensive end of the floor, Embiid’s five first-half blocks signaled that the Celtics will no longer have the wide-open lanes that were present early in Game 1. But Rivers does still expect Boston to attack the paint after the Sixers’ inability to contain ballhandlers resulted in a bevy of drive-and-kick opportunities and 12 of 29 made three-pointers in the second half.

“It looked like, a couple possessions, they were in shootaround,” Rivers said. “They were just playing with nobody in front of them. No resistance.”

Ultimately, Rivers chalked Wednesday’s thrashing up as “sometimes, you got your butt kicked, and let’s move on.” Harden and Tobias Harris echoed late Wednesday that their blunders were fixable, and that Game 2 shook off the rust of returning to play alongside Embiid.

Yet Harris added that a priority for Friday’s Game 3 will be “figuring out ways to get [Embiid] in his spot to be dominant out there.”

“We’ve got to get him going early in the game and see how they’re playing and just fuel off of that,” Harris said. “If they want to double-team him, swing, swing [the ball], and get downhill [to] create some open looks as a whole group. We’ll make adjustments for Game 3.”

Harden offered a more succinct Game 3 prediction.

“We’ll be all right,” Harden added, before correcting himself. “We’ll be great.”