After shocking the Celtics anew in Game 5, the Philadelphia 76ers now have a prime opportunity to put their opponents in a real pressure blender. And with Joel Embiid now back and looking like he is in tolerable playing shape, his team might just be able to stage an upset in the first-round by overcoming a 3-1 deficit –– a feat very rarely accomplished in the playoffs.
As mentioned previously, Embiid alone gives the 76ers a clear advantage over their nemeses. It all boils down to a fact no one can dispute –– that no one in Boston is capable of even making him squirm on the floor. When asked about how he feels about his scoring ability, the former Most Valuable Player doubled down on his ability as a one-on-one scoring force, something which even his biggest naysayers cannot argue against.
"I feel pretty good about my chances of going 1-on-1 against anybody in this league...Just by me being aggressive, it opens up shots for everybody else."
The 76ers still have an unstoppable one-on-one player in Joel Embiid
Boston is not necessarily a bad defensive team. In fact, they possessed the fourth-best defensive rating in the league during the regular season. Having said that, if there is one chink in their armor on D, it is their ability to handle physically imposing centers who have ample experience, just like Embiid.
With the Celtics a tad more vulnerable in that regard, Embiid can indeed dominate easily against them. The same, however, resonates for every other team in the league. When the superstar big man is in the zone, he is able to put up nasty scoring outputs built on post-ups, spot-up threes, middies, and much to the chagrin of many, free throws.
Embiid averaged 30.6 points per 36 minutes this season. Only six players ranked ahead of him in that metric, which only goes to show just how dominant he remains to be as a scorer. Mind you, this is even more impressive when one takes into account the fact that the 76ers have even more mouths to feed this season from Tyrese Maxey hoisting up majority of the shots, VJ Edgecombe having the green light, and Paul George still getting a considerable piece of the pie.
As Embiid showed in Game 5, there is literally nothing (aside from the injury bug) which can handle him individually. Even with his waning physicals, he is an outstanding pure scorer who is capable of catapulting his team to wins singlehandedly. Hopefully, that can translate into a playoff series victory.
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