Embiid lifted the regular-season MVP trophy today ahead of Philadelphia's home game against the Celtics.
On May 16, 22 years ago, before Philadelphia played the Raptors, Allen Iverson also lifted the MVP trophy in Philadelphia - and then cut 52 points against the Toronto Raptors to let Philadelphia take Mount Tianwang.
Embiid scored 30 points today and literally stepped on Gwe's head.
But Philadelphia lost.
Harden's first game against the Celtics, relying on a large number of right-handed breakthroughs + mid-range shots, scored a career-high playoff 45 points, and forced Philadelphia to regain home-court advantage; He shot 5-of-28 from the last two games, the worst of his career:
So home field advantage returned to Boston.
Coach Mazura said their adjustment was to control Harden to the free throw line, "not letting him go to the free throw line, the players work on the details." ”
The details are: The Celtics have used the extended collar defense to limit Harden from advancing in the past two games, squeezed through cover to stick to him to avoid him from pulling back from making another shot, always put a person in his path, limit his speed, and then let the opponent chase: for example, Jaylen chased Harden today.
In the last game, Coach Rivers said of the Celtics, "The whole court was under pressure. "It's the same today.
Embiid said after the game that the Philadelphia team was too slow to go on the offensive and held the ball for too long.
Then he added, "I didn't get the ball enough, not to score, but to make the ball for my teammates – the Celtics had a lot of pinch shots today and we could have taken advantage of that." ”
Taken together, this is the Celtic strategy:
The speed of braking Philadelphia does not allow Harden to get the rhythm, does not let Harden comfortably give Embiid the ball; Harden holds the ball and presses; Embiid holds the ball and pinches.
Then there's the Celtics' open secret: emptying Tucker.
Embiid and Harden made 21 free throws today, and 16 three-pointers were beautiful — Harden assisted six of them and shot two of them — but Philadelphia had just 28 points inside.
Get Tucker to shoot threes — When Tucker hit his third three-pointer today, the courtside commentator muttered, "The Celtics don't guard against him!" But Harden's 45 points in the first game, Embiid's 52 points against the Celtics in April, couldn't play it.
The pinch pressed the Philadelphia aces, forced them to divert the ball to role players, and then took advantage of the opportunity to disrupt the speed - the Celtics scored 15 points in the game.
Embiid scored 21 points in two and a half quarters today, but shot 2 of 6 in the final quarter, mostly from the free throw line, scoring nine points.
Although it is because of the knee injury, because of the pinch, but "I don't get enough balls", how can I be so tired?
The Celtics offensively also targeted him.
In the third quarter when the Celtics had the advantage, Jaylen Brown scored 10 points, and all four of his shots were defensive: three faced Embiid and one countered to Harden. Run up and fight, chase Embiid. The offensive and defensive sides tossed together, can you not get tired?
Old Lee also tried to make Tucker take on more defense, but the Celtics today whenever the ball carrier faced Tucker, they picked Embiid or Harden to block it. Tucker's defensive ability was both cut away, offensive and targeted, and felt extremely poor; Old Lee also thought about contingency, and in the second quarter, he even let Tucker block the inside and take the ball to break into the score, and successively found open space for Tucker to shoot from a distance, but the Celtics said they could afford it:
After all, the space advantage is on their side.
Then there's Tatum.
He actively started up and looked for a three-point opportunity to chase Philadelphia, and did not let Philadelphia's half-time defense fall; There was also a wonderful continuous long pass transfer in the second quarter - as an aside, Tatum's assist numbers this season are Jimmy Butler's level, but assists the fifth in the league on bottom-corner three-pointers, and finding bottom-corner three-pointers in a wide range is his specialty - and then the fourth quarter, when Philadelphia is on the one-sided chase, it's interesting.
First, Tatum missed the throw, and Jaylen ran out of physical strength to save the game with Brogdon.
Then the Celtics made a substitution to hold the ball:
Brogdon was responsible for pushing the ball through the half, and Tatum faced Harris on the left wing and turned over to make a jumper; Harden chased down by six points, and Tatum received the ball on the left wing, one three-pointer, and two more free throws, finishing with seven straight points.
— Those three rounds were Tatum scoring, but it was Brogdon, the sixth man of the year.
That's what the Celtics lacked last season: a guard who could take the ball and create a defender who could put Tatum in place and find his own point.
Off-topic:
In the 2016 draft, Philadelphia selected Ben Simmons. The Celtics chose Jaylen.
In the 2017 draft, Philadelphia selected Fultz. The Celtics chose Tatum.
Today Shuangjie came to Philadelphia, who did not choose them in the first place, and won the game.
Finally, the unsung heroes of the Celtics' past two games.
It's not enough to pinch Embiid, someone has to stalk: the unsung hero of the Celtics today is Gwe. In the past two games, Gwee vs. Embiid is much like Hayes vs. Dirk and Tony Allen vs. Durant — he's literally today, from Harden to Embiid.
After Gwee was stomped on the head by Embiid today, the two talked on the court.
Embiid: "My fault, I fell on your head?" ”
Gwe: "Hey buddy, it's the playoffs. ”
Embiid: "I want to fall. ”
Gwee: "I know you're rushing the ball. ”
Embiid: "I want to jump over too. ”
Gwe: "Let's play and fight this, buddy." ”
It's so cool.
27 points on seven three-pointers against the Bucks' seventh game Big Heart last season.
The best changer in the team and the league.
Highly accomplished students who have completed their degrees in Tennessee.
Today, a seven-foot giant fell on the brain door, and he calmly accepted the apology and continued to finish the game.
It is said that he wants to earn 20 million a year on his next contract, which is indeed high in terms of his talent - after all, he is a pure 3D player - but after such a cool performance today, I think Gwey is really worth it.
Before the Nuggets' third game against the Suns, Jokic was asked "Do you expect the Suns to resist?" ”
In his very Popovich rhetorical tone, he replied to the reporter:
"I also expect them to throw in the towel!"
The sun did resist stubbornly.
Today, Booker and Durant both packed 56 of the Suns' 95 shots, 17 of 24 assists, and 86 of 121 points.
Or to be direct: Booker survived the first quarter, Durant lasted the second quarter, and the two closed the fourth quarter together.
Still, there's a difference in efficiency: Booker's 47 points on 25 shots is one of the most productive shows in NBA history, and Durant shot 12 of 31 and complained after the game that he couldn't shoot: he shot 13 of 31 from the field last season when he was swept away by the Celtics.
But Durant made 16 free throws today.
In fact, it has to do with his style of play.
As mentioned earlier, Durant's terrifying efficiency in the regular season this season somewhat obscured the fact that he had fewer ball-carrying baskets. Against the Clippers in the first round of the series, Booker praised Durant's gravity, but Durant has indeed struggled to attack the opponent with the ball.
The Nuggets constrained the Suns in their first two games, relying on their all-rotation defense:
Jokic was involved in the upper line and relied on his outside teammates to rotate the basket.
This swamp defense will limit Durant.
Today's Durant's offense, I counted manually: he shot 12 shots, except for the opening left side catch shot Gordon, and the closing catch shot at the end of the fourth quarter, all other balls, completion time: 9 seconds, 7 seconds, 4 seconds, 8 seconds, 10 seconds, 8 seconds, 5 seconds (counterattack a dragon dunk), 5 seconds (another counterattack dragon dunk).
The meaning is very clear: Durant shot 8 of the 12 shots today, and after taking the ball in the half, he directly started to play. He is a 34-year-old seven-foot man, how Ren has the movement of a defender, falling into the halfcourt and grinding slowly, it is not as comfortable as Booker:
Then just let him rush directly.
- Besides, Paul is not there yet.
On the Nuggets' side, Jokic posted his ninth career playoff triple-double, tying Chamberlain; Then the first playoff game in history 30+17+17, Chamberlain did not play - before the NBA history of playoffs did not even have 25+15+15.
In the fourth quarter, the Nuggets scored a total of 9 goals, he scored 5, assisted 2, almost like the previous game, alone against Booker + Durant, but in the end, it didn't work.
The Nuggets' question, coach Mike Malone said a paragraph after the game, very tactful, but the meaning is clear.
"Murray tried to carry the team, he started very well, you look at his statistics, 32 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, played 41 minutes, attracted a lot of attention, he did his job..."
After boasting, look at the back:
"He sometimes faces two defenders alone, and when he should trust his teammates and pass the ball, I think the Suns' plan is to force Murray to throw difficult balls... I'm sure he'll play a lot better in the next game. ”
Glance.
Murray shot 12 of 21 in the first three quarters (Jokic shot 6 of 10), the Suns also used a delay + squeeze cover style to deal with Murray in the first quarter, directly blocked him for the basket in the second quarter, and began to change defenses in the third quarter, allowing Murray to single out Ayton. In the fourth quarter, Murray's physical strength was almost used, and Shamet on the Sun's side made a contribution:
He and Randale kept up with Murray, who shot 1 of 8 in the fourth quarter.
Murray made 29 shots and Jokic + Porter 33.
Here's a twist from Coach Monti:
Probably because Paul was forced out injured, or perhaps because he returned home, he extended his rotation to give Randale, Ross and Warren more time. Booker + Durant held the game, and the other youngsters fought desperately.
And, with Randale playing 22 minutes and Ayton playing 25 minutes, can this be analogous to yesterday when the Warriors let Moody play 10 more minutes than Poole?
Murray himself said that his dad is a Jordan fan and Kobe fans, so he also let him watch Jordan and Kobe from an early age, of course, he is Canadian, so he is also a Carter fan.
Coincidentally, Booker, who is opposite the Suns, Murray's own mentor in Kentucky, is also a Kobe fan — and was also the No. 13 at the time of the draft.
The details of Booker's style of play today are quite Kobe.
The left wing faces Murray, a in out feint, jumping mid-shot.
The right back hit KCP, two right shoulder jumps strongly, and even one jump step landed on the ground and turned around for a layup.
Received a pass from Durant, faced KCP, an extremely light three-threat shaker, got rid of, three-pointer.
When counterattacking, he faced Porter, who blocked his own center, started speed, pushed Porter to find shooting space, and rode his own archery to win.
The right wing faces Gordon, a right-handed breakthrough with a tentative step feint, and a left-handed dribbling breakthrough mid-shot.
In the fourth quarter, the left wing broke through and landed on the ground, left foot front right foot, jump, turn to right front left back, shot shot, 43rd point.
Receiving a pass from Durant, breaking through, jumping with his right foot, adjusting balance in the air and making a low-handed layup, 45th point.
The league's Kobe Bryant has a lot of imitation shows, but in terms of pace, position, and small skills, especially in those very subtle small jobs that do not seek to get rid of clean, and pursue more in the pursuit of completing actions in confrontation, the most refined is Booker.
Pull the ball to get rid of, start speed and throw strongly, many people will; Like turning around after a strong jump, shaking the center of gravity before the three threats, jumping up and adjusting the balance when the pace is not smooth, probably the surviving team in the West has Booker, and the surviving team in the East is Jimmy Butler.
Murray once said, "Kobe Bryant is on the court, you know he's going to win games, you know he's going to fight back, you know he's going to do something crazy... So I've always had this mentality: keep working until I win the game. ”
Booker said today:
"It's something I've dreamed of since I was a child: I left my family when I was a kid and I was in the pursuit of being in this critical moment."
Obviously, there are legendary teammates such as Jokic and Durant, but they are Kentucky brothers, who are the protagonists. Even the mentality is similar.
In the end, it was Booker who won.
The 47-point game against the Lakers two years ago, the 47-point game against the Clippers this year, and the 47-point game without Paul 2-0 today.
Devin Booker is really good at scoring 47 points.