The Philadelphia 76ers and their fans had a roller coaster of emotions tonight. They started the night with Joel Embiid getting his MVP trophy in front of the home crowd. However, after that, they were absolutely dominated by the Celtics. The duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown was too much for the Sixers. It did not help how James Harden played. At one point, he gave the Sixers fans a huge throwback to when they had Ben Simmons.
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It was a game that the Sixers could have won, if they knocked down their shots. The team shot 39.7% from the field, and, surprisingly, 43.2% from the deep. Joel Embiid played well, but other than that, no one else could find their shooting stroke. This resulted in a 114-102 loss.
Sixers fans get flashes of Ben Simmons from James Harden
James Harden had a brilliant Game 1 against the Celtics, getting the Sixers their only win in the series. However, he’s looked very inefficient since. He’s gone 5 of 28 from the field in the other two games.
Tonight, he had the Sixers fans getting flashbacks of 2021. While driving to the basket, James Harden could’ve easily shot over Jayson Tatum but instead kicked it out to De’Anthony Melton.
This got loud groans from the Philly crowd. They’ve seen plays like this before, a play that cost them their chance at getting to the Conference Finals. A play like this by Ben Simmons.
It wasn’t a pretty sight, and the casters weren’t taking it easy on the 2018 MVP as well. Even Skip Bayless went on Twitter to demand Harden to help out Embiid. The Philly fans weren’t pleased with what they saw, and they were quite vocal about it.
Joel Embiid asks players to ‘show up’
Tonight was a night when Joel Embiid would have really appreciated a win. Instead, he’ll go home with an MVP trophy and a loss. Down 2-1, Embiid knows they need Game 4 if they have to have a chance to win the series.
After the game, Joel spoke to the media and said,
“Players have to show up. I gotta do my job. Other guys, they know their role, they have to do their job. If the players don’t execute, and they don’t show up, if we don’t make shots, that’s on us.”
Could Embiid be taking a dig at Harden and asking him to show up? We may never know. What we can expect is to see a different Sixers unit(hopefully) in Game 4 to try and level the series.
