You Truly Love To See It
I wrote in this space Saturday morning that I thought Jayson Tatum's confidence problems were a thing of the past. And let me just say that I would love to say that I told you so. Tatum was firing from all cylinders right from the jump, and had 25 at the half. He completely broke the Sixers' will in the third quarter.
When we looked up toward the end of the third quarter, and realized that the Sixers had only scored SIX points in the first 10 minutes of the quarter ... well, let's just say that I wish could bottle that feeling. This is why we watch sports.
The run started in the third quarter the way it started in the fourth quarter the other night, with Tatum nailing a three right in Joel Embiid's mug. Tatum got Embiid in a switch at the foul line, and wisely decided that instead of driving on him – which he did successfully a few times – he would bring him back out to the three-point line. Right in front of his bench. Embiid made the mistake he always makes, which is assuming he's much lighter and shorter, and get in people's shirts at the perimeter. Tatum knew otherwise, and as soon as he got Embiid backpedaling, he calmly stepped back and drained the three on him. It was Tatum's 28th, 29th, and 30th points of the contest, and it gave the C's a seven-point lead, their largest of the game to date. The next time Philly scored, more than seven minutes later, the game was over.
When Tatum isn't at his best, people forget why he has made first-team All-NBA the last two seasons. Why he finished fourth in the MVP voting this season, and sixth last season. When Tatum is locked in, in my opinion, the only player on this planet capable of matching him shot for shot is Stephen Curry. And he's golfing now. There is not a shot that Tatum can't make, and while he's drastically reduced his midrange shot output, he opened it up a little today:
Those two green circles on either side of the free throw line, and that one by the right hashmarks – and even those three red x's in the paint but not right at the cup – showed Tatum's willingness to mix it up just enough to keep the Sixers guessing today. And guessing they were. Tatum did whatever he wanted to all game.
Fifty-one points. Thirteen rebounds. Five assists. Two steals. Zero turnovers. A game-high +33. You truly, truly love to see it.
They Were Who We Thought They Were
In the second half of Game 6, James Harden shot 1-for-6. Tonight, it was Joel Embiid's turn to shoot 1-for-6 in the second half. Overall, the pair each shot .404 in the second half in this series. Combined, they shot 40-f0r-99 in the second half of these seven games. These series are a best of seven because it's hard to win four straight games. Sometimes, guys have off nights. But you can't have this many.
In the final three games of this series, Harden only attempted 11 second-half shots. He only hit two of those shots. Two shots in three of the most important halves of his season. Harden was great in the second half of Game 4, going 7-for-9. And then he took the rest of the series off. If we had not seen it so many times, it would be more of a surprise, and I guess it was a little after Game 4. But in the end, he was who we thought he was.
Embiid was great in the second halves of Games 5 and 6. He shot 5 for 10 in the former, and 6 for 10 in the latter. He perhaps didn't demand the ball as much down the stretch in Game 6 as he should have, but as the center, that's not entirely within his control. But today he was a no-show. Al Horford bullied him out of the paint, which was quite a feat, because the few times Embiid drove hard to the paint, he got whatever he wanted. He just stopped doing it for some reason (I mean, we know the reason), and he couldn't hit his jumper all day. It's a make or miss league, but on a night where Harden clearly didn't have it, the Sixers needed Embiid to go up a level, and he didn't have a level to go up.
In the end, my feeling on the 76ers never changed. Last season, it felt like a real achievement to beat Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. Giannis never let up, he just kept coming. This 76ers team? I never felt the Celtics were the worse team. It never felt climbing a hill, or that the C's were outgunned. Philly briefly broke the Celtics' spirit in Game 5, but even watching it live I felt it was more about the C's failing to make adjustments. Which they finally made in Game 6, and the Sixers had no answers. The Sixers averaged 115.2 points per game in the regular season, but when the Celtics finally put their foot down, they held them under 90 in each of the final two games. Like in the first round, Boston's toughest opponent was themselves.
Is Tyrese Maxey an All-Star or Just a Guy?
Embiid and Harden may have not have shot well in the second halves of these games, but Tyrese Maxey shot poorly the entire series. For the series, he shot 50-for-124, for .403 overall. I really like Maxey. He averaged 20.3 points per game in the regular season, which was just his third overall. But like his more star-laden teammates, his performance in the series was also often confounding.
Is Maxey the guy who put in 26, 30, and 26 in Games 1, 5, and 6, respectively, or is he the guy who put in 13, 13, 14, and 17 in Games 2, 3, 4, and 7? Is he truly a star capable of pushing the Sixers to new heights when he's able to get out in transition? Or is he destined to be a poor man's Trae Young who won't move the needle when it's winning time?
I actually really like Maxey, and I would love him if he didn't play for the Sixers, so I'm rooting for the answer to be the latter. But no matter what the answer is, to me, this is the most important question the 76ers face this offseason. Next season is the last season the Sixers get to pay Maxey short money. Harden and PJ Tucker are old. Whether they stay or not, they're not the future of the 76ers, they're the present. Embiid is locked up, they don't have to worry about him. But Maxey? Maxey, they have to figure out. The Sixers can not afford to end up with a Jordan Poole situation with Maxey. And as much as I think Poole is a sourpuss punk and Maxey is an effervescent breath of fresh air, their on-court play makes them pretty close comps for each other. Philly needs to figure this out. Worst of luck to them. :-)