Against all odds, the Philadelphia 76ers managed to stage another shocker on the road, playing spoilers to the Boston Celtics who were looking to end their first-round affair in Game 5. Now, the series shifts back to Philly, where the impending hosts have the chance to win on their home floor for the first and final time against their adversaries in hopes of forcing a rubber match in Game 7.
Philly caught fire in the fourth quarter and never looked back, catapulted mainly by their three-point shooting. They drained 15 triples compared to the Celtics, which were only able to connect on 11 of their 39 attempts from rainbow country. As expected, poor three-point shooting is the common denominator among all Boston losses so far. However, the 76ers have to stop relying on thet trend to get a leg up on their opponents.
Ahead of Game 6, the 76ers have to expect the Celtics to get into more actions (as they usually do) in order to generate higher quality shots from three-point territory. As such, the team should already assume that Boston will have a recovery to the mean, which means voluminous conversions on voluminous attempts.
The 76ers should not be dictated by the math game against the Celtics
Inherently, the Celtics have the clear edge in the math game over the 76ers. However, with Joel Embiid back, Philadelphia now has a more well-rounded artillery they can deploy not only to overwhelm the Celtics, but also to stymie their offense.
In truth, while Embiid' (and Quentin Grimes') timely scoring lifted the 76ers in the final frame, it was defense that allowed them to seize control after going down by as much as 13 in the second half. They held Boston to just 40.4 percent shooting from the field, which includes a ghastly 28.2 percent conversion rate from beyond the arc.
The 76ers also played a clean game, coughing the ball up just nine times against a tight Celtics defense. They outsmarted the hosts in the little details, pleasing the basketball gods, so to speak.
Boston will once again be favored in Game 6, but the 76ers have a chance to truly put the No. 2 seed in the East in a blender. As long as they actively defend and refuse to yield to the math game controlled by the Celtics, they should have a good chance of forcing a do-or-die to advance.
Add us as a preferred source on Google