"We had a chance to win, but the game was for five. I'm going to focus on getting better, and now I need to review the problem.
But all of us have to get better to help the team win. I can't do it alone, and Harden and I can't do it alone, which is why basketball is 5v5
We're going to find the right way to get stronger and we'll be fine. ”
If you hadn't watched the 76ers vs. Celtics tie-break this morning, hadn't watched the desperate 88-122, hadn't watched the 76ers' avalanche-style 10-33 third quarter,
Most importantly, you don't look at Embiid's 38 minutes of 5-of-18 shooting, 15 points, 8 boards, 1 assist, 2 blocks, 4 turnovers, -28 plus-minus.
and being pinched by the 37-year-old Horford, who scored only 2 points in garbage time in the second half.
You feel like he's a progressive leader who will be strict with himself and his teammates even if he fails.
But the truth is that Embiid himself was the worst 76ers player of the game, he was at a loss under the Celtics' bag, he was sluggish against Horford, and he was invisible in the third quarter.
What's more, he's still this year's MVP.
Just ten days ago, when he lifted his first MVP trophy, he swore with conviction:
It's something I've always dreamed of, what I've always wanted. This is a step towards what I want to achieve (to win championships).
I'm just competitive, I want everything, I want to win whatever I can. ”
Just ten days later, after seven games against the Celtics, he lost the arrogance of "swearing a championship" and once again became a helpless person who "I need my teammates to get better".
How much better?
Lacking an outside ball core, Philadelphia traded him for Harden, lacked bodyguards and muscles, and signed P.J. Tucker, lacked his own backup, successively took Harrell and Dedmon, and even his own cultivated Seibl dragged down his offensive space, and also waved away in exchange for a younger and more comprehensive McDaniels.
To help Embiid win the championship, the 76ers management did a great job.
Their total salary this season is 149 million, the tenth in the league, and they have plenty of reserves and diverse styles in terms of roster structure, both guards and forwards. Whether defending, projecting, or opposing, there are available troops.
Before the start of the season, they were one of the favorites to have both the strength and thickness of the league's stars, ready to attack the championship.
Of course, the premise is that you Embiid is going to play.
He did well in the regular season, with 33.1 points, 10.2 boards and 4.2 assists, the first center to defend the scoring title since McAdoo in the seventies.
He led the 76ers to the third place in the league, and it was only natural that he won the MVP.
This season's Embiid the Great is at a real peak, with a reasonable lineup and strong teammates.
How many times can there be a fight in life, and when can I not fight at this time?
But after bullying the Nets in the first round, he was weak again against his old rival Celtics.
The first game was absent, relying on Harden's courage to win a game, the last two consecutive losses, he once again fell into the quagmire of the Green Army forward group, the fourth and fifth games, he led the team 3-2 in a row 30+10 to win the match point,
It proves that as long as he takes out the MVP-level state, the Green Army has no way to take him.
Then in the last two games, when the retreating Celtics fought bloodily and played with them, he relented again.
In the last 5 minutes of the last game, I could only watch Tatum pull out four consecutive three-pointers. This time, they only resisted for two quarters, before they were wiped out by the Green Army's three-point fire and Tatum's 51. In the last two games and the final five quarters, Embiid scored 21 points on 8-of-24 shooting.
You were supposed to be the giant who protected the 76ers and crushed the Celts, but you ended up being the first to fall and look up to your predecessors.
(When Chamberlain couldn't beat Russell in the playoffs, the media described him as a Quiter who ran away as soon as he got into a tough fight.)
The reason why today's NBA disappoints many people is not just because of the three-point sky, frequent body hair whistles and the increasing number of "water-filled hype" stars.
But many times, fans no longer see the idol and team they support have the consciousness of "decisive victory", and the fighting spirit of "Lao Tzu will kill you even if he dies on the field today".
On the contrary, instead the fans scolded and cheered on the Internet, and as soon as the game was over, the players immediately turned into good brothers, should they get together or get together, live broadcast or live broadcast.
Just as not long ago, after the Bucks were blacked by the Heat, when the team's boss Alphabet brother participated in the press conference, he did not wait for the reporter's comfort, and first "poured chicken soup" on himself, and asked the reporter:
"If you don't get promoted for a year, will you see the year's work as a failure? The same is true in the NBA, where there is only one championship every year, and it cannot be said that hard work is pointless. Jordan played in the NBA for 15 years and won 6 championships, but did the other 9 years be failures?
"Failing to win is not a failure, it's a process towards it, you know?"
The most interesting thing is that after Embiid was eliminated today, he also quoted Alphabet Brother's remarks that "not winning the championship is not a failure, but a ladder to success".
It is really version 2.0 of "Trust Process".
It seems that the two most terrifying inner monsters in the east have reached an agreement on whether to win the championship and are very open.
The point is, Alphabet brother, you don't care if he is cushioned or not, anyway, he has already won a championship + FMVP, two regular season MVPs,
What do you have in Embiid? MVP+ Scorer?
Remember why we love basketball and the NBA?
It was Michael Jordan who had a 38-degree fever, still scored 38 points in Utah, and then collapsed in Pippen's arms.
It was AI who took the 76ers to the playoffs despite 13 injuries in his body, and even locked in a hotel by his coach and teammates to force him to rest (Game 3 of the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals).
It was Charles Barkley who slashed 44 points and 24 boards on seven breaks in the 1993 Western Conference final, and yelled at the coach who asked him to rest during the timeout:
"Don't let me rest, after Lao Tzu dies, there is time to rest."
It was Kobe Bryant who reset his dislocated finger on the sidelines, and made six kills with seven fingers in the 09-10 regular season.
It was LeBron's last two East finals that took only 1 minute and 54 seconds to rest, and Tyronn Lue even shouted timeouts to give him more breath.
At that time, even if we were across the screen and thousands of mountains and rivers, we could feel that they wanted to win more than us fans!
They lost in the end, maybe because of inferior skills or ill-fated, but it will never be a lack of fighting spirit and give up early.
It will not be like now, after failure, "failure is also a ladder, let us believe in the process." ”