I mean, the C's only gave up 15 points in the 4th quarter the other night. Yeah, there was a dagger 3 in there by Harden, but still, it's 15 points in 12 minutes of play.
IMO, their offense only scoring 24 when they should have been running the Sixers off the court, as they bricked and/or turned over everything in that quarter was the bigger issue. 24-15 in the 4th quarter shouldn't happen between these teams. If the Sixers only score 15, the C's should be putting up 30 minimum in that quarter, because they should be out running like its the Derby after every miss and turnover.
But nope, slow it down baby, we got a 2 point lead with 3 minutes to go.
You said the same thing in the Hawks series game 5 and I showed there wasn't much of an opportunity to run. So let's see in this game how they "slowed it down, we got a 2 point lead with 3 min to go"
You know what, I'll even go back further to the entirety of the 4th quarter:
- 11:42 Harden misses a shot, Brogdon rebound 3 seconds later, Harris fouls him 4 seconds after that.
- 10:25 (yes Philly didn't get another offensive possession until then) shot clock violation. So the defense is set either way.
- 10:03 Niang misses a 3, Tatum rebound at 9:59, he passes to White who dunks it 2 seconds later
- 9:40 Harris turns it over out of bounds. Defense is set.
- 9:03 Embiid misses 3 footer, Tatum rebound is fouled 3 seconds later shooting.
- 8:42 Maxey misses a 3, TimeLord rebounds at 8:39, Tatum misses a layup 13 seconds later (maybe this was slow, but they had a layup...)
- 7:57 Harden makes a shot. Defense is set. Smart gets a shooting foul 10 seconds later.
- 7:28 Embiid misses 10 footer, Tatum rebound, Brogdon turns it over 5 seconds later
- 7:15 Embiid hits a 2. Celtics timeout. Smart hits a 3 on the other side of this timeout.
- 6:28 Sixers shut clock violation #2 of the quarter. Defense gets set. Jaylen hits a 3 on the other side of this.
- 5:33 Tatum blocks Niang's 3, Horford rebound 5 seconds later, Tatum with a two pointer 3 seconds later.
- 5:04 Horford blocks Embiid, gets control 2 seconds later, Jaylen misses a 3 12 seconds later (I guess they could have pushed more here?)
- 4:16 Tatum blocks Maxey, gets control 3 seconds later, Brogdon misses a floating jumper 14 seconds later. Should have pushed here... but wait, they got an offensive rebound and Horford got a basket so it doesnt matter.
- 3:38 Smart fouls Harden. Defense is set. Tatum gets a shooting foul at the other end, makes 1 of 2.
- 2:59 (hey we made it to 3 minutes left!!!!) Horford blocks Embiid, rebound controlled 3 seconds later, Marcus hits a 3 four seconds after.
- 2:26 Harden makes a 3. Defense is set. Oh and Brogdon makes a 3.
- 1:50 Harden makes a 2. Defense is set. Marcus misses a 3 as time expires on the shot clock yuck.
- 1:07 Harris misses a 2... but PJ tucker gets the rebound and 1. Defense is set. Marcus gets fouled at the other end and makes two free throws.
- 0.31 Horford blocks Embiid, Maxey rebounds, Harden gets a 2 with 16 seconds left.
- Celtics hold for final shot as they should and Marcus misses.
So I guess my question -- where in all of these possessions did the Celtics not push against a non-set defense? Seems to me like they had great defense for 90% of the quarter before allowing the 76ers to score on their final 4 possessions (due to two offensive rebounds.
I don't know how you could blame a lack of pushing the ball on this loss. Do you have anything to back up those claims? OT was very much the same.