Practically getting robbed in the second game of the series, the Philadelphia 76ers head back home trailing 0-2 to the New York Knicks. Suffering an absolutely heartbreaking loss in their last outing, former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas seems to have a viable solution for Philly going forward. Suggesting a lineup change against this Knicks team, is Arenas’ advice viable for Joel Embiid and the 76ers going forward?
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On one of the more recent episodes of Gil’s Arena, Agent Zero revised the Philadelphia 76ers starting lineup for Game 3 as the team got off to a poor start, trailing two games to none in this seven-game series.
“The fact they got Kyle Lowry and [Tyrese] Maxey starting offsets everything. [Kelly] Oubre is your shooting guard….Put [Nic] Batum in, keep him at the 3. Now, you have a bigger line-up who can offensive rebound.”
Currently, the Philadelphia 76ers have Kyle Lowry and Tyrese Maxey as the starting guards, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Tobias Harris as the forwards, and their star center, Joel Embiid holding down the paint. But Arenas has some tweaks to it.
According to the three-time All-Star, the 76ers should only keep one point guard on the floor, given Maxey and Lowry play the same position. As per Arenas, the lineup should be: Tyrese Maxey at point, Kelly Oubre Jr. at the two, have Nicolas Batum at the small forward position while keeping the power forward and the center position unchanged.
Gilbert Arenas’ reason behind this lineup change is so that the 76ers can crash the offensive boards going forward. And if you have a look at Game 1, despite having an undersized starting five, the New York Knicks dominated the boards right out of the gate.
In the first game of the series, the Philadelphia 76ers had 33 rebounds by the end of regulation whereas the Knicks had 55. The biggest area of disparity was the offensive rebounding. Philly only crashed the offensive boards 9 times whereas the Knicks owned this category, nabbing a whopping 23 offensive rebounds, leading to countless second-chance points.
While Joel Embiid and the rest of the squad could eliminate this rebounding mania by the Knicks, the team still ended up getting robbed in the final seconds of Game 2 because of some missed calls by the officials. But to take Arenas’ lineup change into consideration, there is a possibility that going big against this small-ball Knicks squad may work out well for Philly.
Also, adding Nicolas Batum to the starting lineup would help Philadelphia spread the floor quite well while also providing the team with a knockdown three-point shooter in the corner. However, as prediction goes, only time will tell if this lineup ends up working out for the 76ers; that is if the coaching staff does decide to shake up the starting five.
A heartbroken Joel Embiid was still confident in his squad
Joel Embiid was visibly heartbroken after the Knicks took Game 2 in a series of events during the final minute of the game. Embiid was sidelined due to an injury and joined the 76ers starting lineup earlier than predicted but to no avail.
The reigning MVP did give his two cents on the loss but even went so far as to compare this loss to the Game 7 defeat at the hands of the Toronto Raptors back in 2019.
“This is worse than Game 7 [vs. Toronto in 2019].”
But despite the deflating loss, Joel Embiid had not lost hope as the six-time All-Star was confident that his team would be able to turn things around going into Games 3 & 4 after losing the first two.
“We should be 2-0. We’re good. We’re going to win this series.”
Tune into TNT Network at 7:30 PM ET to see the Philadelphia 76ers host the New York Knicks for Game 3 of this seven-game series.
