“Paul Reed and Tucker, we literally were setting our picks at half court-because the floor is wide-and I thought it got Tyrese downhill. “We felt like if we could get them going downhill instead of waiting,” Doc Rivers said. Tyrese Maxey had 26 points, mostly attacking off screens. The Sixers stayed with what worked and ran those high pick-and-rolls basically all game. They stayed within reach and basically waited for Boston to stop hitting everything. Though the Sixers trailed by as many as 13, they were never really out of the game. It was a miracle the Sixers were not run out of the building in the first. Most of those nine close-up shots the Celtics took in the first quarter were completely uncontested. The Celtics finished the game with 66 points in the paint. Embiid was out and his absence was obvious 18 of Boston’s 38 first-quarter points came on layups and dunks within four feet of the basket. Because the Sixers defense was awful, they needed every bit of those heroics. Last night, Harden hit 3-of-5 at the rim and was just about as good everywhere else: 7-of-11 from midrange, 7-for-14 from three. He shot just 5-for-21 at the rim, a grim 24 percent, and didn’t get to the line once until Game 3. Harden did not have a great first-round series against the Nets. He only shot four free throws in Game 1, but he got his points all the same, and his 16 first-quarter points kept the Sixers within reach during a stretch in which the Celtics hit 17 of 20. He made seven threes and shot 17 for 30 from the field. And I’m just like, 'all right, this is what I work on every day.' Get the best available shot, no matter what, and just raise up and shoot it.”Īll night Harden raised up. It was just like, stay home-it’s a one on one. “And I was wondering if they were going to put two on the ball. “I came off the screen,” Harden said of the game-winner. They scored 25 points on those plays-about a point and a half per.

Second Spectrum says the Sixers ran a pick and roll on Horford 16 times. Modern technology is so great that we can know exactly how well that strategy worked. He did a lot of that work against Horford. The Sixers needed a big game from Harden with Joel Embiid stuck on the sidelines in Balenciaga sweats, and he delivered with 45 points and six assists. Philadelphia's 119-115 win gives them a 1-0 series lead. Tucker set a pick that got Horford switched onto Harden and set up the game-winning three-pointer.

All game, the Sixers had used a pick and roll to get Celtics big man Al Horford on him. James Harden kept getting the matchup the Sixers wanted.

The Wicked Come by P.J. Reed