76ers vs. Lone Ranger, you can roughly know the plot at a glance:
The 76ers scored 126 points. OK, the Lone Rangers don't have much defense within the three-point line, and the teams they have played against recently have exploded in the paint zone, and the 76ers just happen to have the emperor;
The Lone Ranger scored 133 points. OK, a team with Doncic and Irving, the cutting base will not be bad, the Lone Ranger has the ability to play big center squat pit, and there is a full-space five-outside lineup, cleaning up opponents like the 76ers who don't have enough rotation speed.
I actually watched the game and found that the plot was not bad as expected, but there are still a lot of details worth scrutinizing. The Lone Ranger shot 52.1 percent from three-point range and made 25 three-pointers, indeed the 76ers who exploded with outside firepower. Later in the third quarter, Kléber took Doncic from the ball and fired two consecutive open shots at the top of the arc to extend the score, similar to what Horford did the other day.
However, Kléber scored these two three-pointers throughout the game, and we use the term "extended score" to describe these two shots, which shows that the 76ers have been a little unbearable before the situation has come to this point.
The fact that Kléber had a plus-minus of -3 and Wood was -21 was not proof that the two of them didn't play well, but that the way the Lone Ranger built the lead was not by five outside, and the Lone Ranger had already won when Powell was on the floor. Powell himself has only 4 points, and against a team with Embiid, he was not expected to be too smooth on the floor, but this time, the Lone Ranger's offensive efficiency is 161.7. It seems that the lone ranger's ball-holding pitching feeling of squatting pit is not an ordinary explosion.
This is also Rivers' explanation after the game - not our inaction, but the opponent is too outrageous.
However, Rivers cannot prevaricate so easily, and his formation clearly amplifies the opponent's outrageousness. In the last game, Embiid was out and Rivers took Maxi as the starter, and the 76ers won. Embiid returned today, Maxi remained in the starting lineup and Melton went to the bench. So the defensive alignment became, Tucker led Doncic, Maxi led Irving - what level of defense did Maxi have, others didn't count, Rivers didn't count yet? With Embiid already struggling to defend the ball, it's no wonder that Irving played so well.
That guy might have to say - can Maxi be blamed for this?
If it weren't for Maxi today, would it have been spent a long time ago?
The pot is arrayed in Rivers. Maxi Carry's time slot is not to play with the starters, but to bring substitutes. His explosive fourth-quarter explosion, in addition to relying on long-range shooting sense, is more important to break through and counterattack the basket. The lone ranger is now not only struggling to prevent small people, but also preventing small people who can break through and are aggressive. Just looking at the offense, Maxi is suitable for playing the Lone Ranger.
If Lao Li thought of this layer, then he put Maxi in the starting lineup for some reason, but it should not be Melton, who can be defended, but Harris. The Lone Ranger is not large, and Maxi can give Bullock and Green to Harden, so that both defense and offense can be balanced. However, Harris starts forever with the 76ers, and Rivers doesn't seem to have the flexibility to schedule his rotation. So, you didn't say it to me.
Since the two teams are not in the same division, neither is an imaginary opponent that the other needs to focus on, so it makes limited sense to digest the content of this game in depth.
But this game has a very typical meaning:
The Lone Ranger is a bayonet team with a weak interior line, relying on space and projection;
The 76ers play as a center and are an inside powerhouse.
The meeting of teams with two extremes of style can be a good example of the merits of their own system.
The Lone Ranger won mainly by the blocking, single-handedness and ball-holding shots led by the main player, and the five were just the icing on the cake, adding a handful of wood at the end of the third quarter. But the ultimate killer skill of the Lone Ranger must be the all-space play, which was proven in last year's playoffs, and they can really put five shooters out at the same time and play the Russian roulette wheel of death or death with opponents. This kind of "same return" style of play has a certain chance of overturning the upper opponent.
A big center like Embiid, in the face of this style of play, the rotation speed has to be said to be painful. The 76ers once tried joint defense and could not fundamentally solve the problem, and even if Embiid could keep up for a while, there was always a physical limit.
The 76ers closed the score twice in the fourth quarter, the first time in addition to Maxi's explosion, but also the backup Reid played center, rotation mobility is better than the starter, and the quality of defense has improved.
Similarly, not all teams can't take five. For example, when the Knights meet the Celtics, they can rely on the excellent mobility of the twin towers and the advantage of the large coverage area of the double basket points, and rely on the overall rotation to deal with the five outside of the Green Army. On the contrary, Lowe will annoy them on the Green Army, because Lowe can take advantage of the Cavaliers' lack of projection on the defensive end. This is the opposite of the plot of Lowe meeting the 76ers.
Since the Celtics are a team built around the wings, they have the flexibility to deploy centers according to the opponent's situation. But the core of the 76ers is Embiid, there is no flexibility in free formation, whether Embiid is suitable for defense or not, it is impossible to take this offensive thigh off the court.
The only way to respond is to open the offensive first. You have an inside heavy hammer and the inside is always more stable than the outside. There's also a difference between three-point feeling, with the advantage of rushing to the basket, free throws and rebounds easier to hold.
Here's the problem — Embiid has a big advantage in position, but the 76ers can't be called an "inside powerhouse." The 76ers rank 21st in the league in interior scoring, 26th in the league in frontcourt rebounding rate, and only the 1st in the league in free throw percentage, but this is mainly because the 76ers can not only make free throws, but also make free throws, and their overall foul-making ability is only mid-range.
In other words, the 76ers aren't the standard aggressive powerhouse. This is in stark contrast to the fact that they have an MVP-level center. The reason for this result is that the 76ers' system is designed to "make Embiid comfortable with one-on-one." Fundamentally, Embiid is a hard-solution star who plays "regardless of the environment", not a "giant who churns the basket and sparse".
You could say it – what else do you want Embiid? He averaged 33 points per game and averaged 11.8 free throws per game, even if the basket is not as good as those beasts, 64.2% true shooting rate is here, isn't it efficient?
No one said Embiid couldn't do it, he was great. But let's imagine the difference between the two scenarios:
The hard-cut Bronson/Randle missed a mid-range jumper, and Miró punched the rebound, giving the Knicks another chance to play;
The hard-solved Embiid jumper missed, who will rush this board? Tuck? Harris? Or Melton? They may be able to do it, but their impact is undoubtedly a few notches worse than that of the centre-forward.
This is where the 76ers' offensive system gets stuck in its neck. Modern basketball swings the center outward, which is not actually convenient for this most aggressive position to play the height advantage. The fundamental reason for this approach is that most teams are not guaranteed to be the biggest "fist" in the interior confrontation, and the big fist will always eat the small fist. The center is placed on the line, not to allow them to shoot frequently from a long distance, but to create space to defuse the opponent's big fist with softness - the center's jump shot is not an end, but a means.
76 people actually turned means into ends. This approach has created a unicorn-like player that Embiid is unmatched, but the 76ers are not. The 76ers didn't fill the space, didn't have enough aggressiveness, and weren't a top defensive team that defended and ignored the environment. After having Harden, the 76ers completely solved the problem of Embiid's dessert catch, but some opponents developed the ability to force Harden out of the ball first and then clip Embiid (Heat), and another part of the opponent could eat Embiid's hard solution damage, and then hit your soft spot at the other end (Kay, today's man). The 76ers still have pain points.
At the beginning of the season, seeing signs of Harden's suspected rejuvenation, I suggested that the 76ers needed to tilt the system toward Harden, and Embiid needed to be a Kobe-style hard solution and a harder-working defender. From the experience of the NBA in recent years, two-star cooperation, one to build the foundation, the other to raise the team ceiling, is a model that is easier to succeed. Harden quickly proved that his legs were still the same, and it was clear that he could not carry a heavier burden. He's still strong and probably the strongest assist in the league, but at the end of the day, the dual-core configuration of the auxiliary + ADC is an outlet that Harden is attached to Embiid and is no longer self-contained. And as long as Harden can't hit the single and destroy everything in a rush like the following, the 76ers won't be able to go to their ideal place after all.
