76ers head coach Brett Brown often describes Joel Embiid as the organization's "crown jewel." He also declared Ben Simmons an All-Star before the 6-foot-10 point guard got the nod as a reserve earlier this month.
Neither lived up to those declarations in a 112-109 loss to the Celtics Tuesday at Wells Fargo Center, which dropped the Sixers to 36-21 overall, while improving Boston to 36-21, leaving the teams tied for fourth place in the Eastern Conference with the tie-breaker going to the Celtics because they clinched the season series, which at this point is 3-0.
It also didn't help that Tobias Harris was colder than the weather.
Here are my observations.
Embiid and Simmons Can't Solve The Boston Puzzle
Even without Kyrie Irving, the Celtics still found a way to neutralize Embiid's and Simmons' offensive effectiveness.
Embiid finished with 23 points and 14 rebounds, but shot a dismal nine-of-22 from the floor and two-of-eight from three-point range. When Embiid's first three of the night came in the fourth quarter, he raised his arms to the sky as if to say, "FINALLY."
"I was sleep walking for three quarters, and that's on me," Embiid said.
Al Horford did a tremendous job defensively against the 7-foot-2 center, while matching him offensively with 23 points on nine-of-16 from the field and three-of-five from three-point land. Horford remains a thorn in Embiid's side. An example of this came late in the third quarter when the center tried to do his signature euro-step move to the basket, only to get cut off by Horford, and miss badly.
Simmons usually doesn't get the looks he typically does against other teams when facing the Celtics, and that stood to form Tuesday. He finished with 16 points on seven-of-nine from the floor (no three-point attempts), which isn't bad, but only racked up five rebounds and five assists. That's an Un-Simmons-Like night. The Celtics continue to take advantage of Simmons' lack of a jumper in his arsenal.
Harris Was No Help
While Embiid and Simmons were kept in check, the same can be said for Tobias Harris, who played his worst game as a 76er, albeit there are only three. Harris scored only 10 points on four-of-14 from the field and zero-of-six from distance, which leads to my next observation.
Questionable Play Call By Brown
Considering Harris couldn't throw a rock into the ocean, especially from behind the arc, it made no sense why he took the potential game tying three-pointer on what was technically the Sixers second to last possession, but truthfully their final clean look of the night.
Trailing by three with 13.1 seconds left, Harris in-bounded the ball on the Sixers end towards Embiid, who juggled the pass a little bit before tossing it back to Harris for what the Sixers hoped would tie the game. "I mean I think I'm going to make it," Harris said. "Obviously tonight a rough night shooting."
Embiid was able to grab the offensive rebound with 3.7 seconds remaining, but instead of kicking or dribbling it out for another three, he made a layup with no timeouts left to cut the deficit to one, essentially ending the game.
"I'm an idiot," Embiid said. "Should've kicked it out or take it out or shoot it. I didn't think about the situation and us not having a timeout. I thought we had one and then I soon as I shot it, I looked and I was like, I'm stupid."
The real question is, why in the world was Harris an option on the initial three-point attempt when he was colder than the Delaware River? JJ Redick and Jimmy Butler were having much better nights from the floor.
"We hoped to get the ball to Jo and having the timing of the catch be better," Brown said. "Joel fumbled it a little bit and then tried to orchestrate some movement around that with Tobias and JJ. Tried to just send five to the boards. I'm sure if Jo had it over, he would've rebounded and tried to find somebody instead of laying it in. That's part of his growth, but yeah, it was that notion."
Maybe the play wasn't supposed to go to Harris before Embiid bobbled the ball. Yet, it's not uncommon for the in-bounder, in this case Harris, to get the ball back. Butler was on the other side of the floor and nowhere near Embiid. Redick was having trouble getting open.
In the end, it wasn't a good play.
Embiid Calls Out The Refs
Embiid was very critical of himself postgame for his performance against Horford and on the final three attempt. He wasn't just harsh on himself though. When he and Harris were done with their press conference, Embiid leaned into his microphone unsolicited and said "The referees (expletive) sucked."
This could've been in reference to many moments of the game, but there's one in particular that stands out and might've been the cause of this reaction.
With the Sixers trailing by two with 33.9 seconds left, Embiid attempted a jumper over Horford and was clearly fouled, but no whistle blew. The center was visibly upset, this as Marcus Smart raced to the other end with a vicious dunk to go up four.
Embiid should've gotten the call, but I'd also be shocked if he doesn't get fined.
Tatum Bites Again
Win or lose, good individual performance or not, every time Jayson Tatum does something good against the 76ers, it's a glaring reminder that he could've been theirs.
Early in the second half, Tatum made an unbelievable spin move on Embiid into an emphatic dunk before Simmons was able to block the attempt.
You don't need to be reminded of this, but the Sixers took Markelle Futlz instead of Tatum, and that will sting them for at least a decade.
Tatum finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. I wonder what Bryan Colangelo is thinking.
Hayward Huge Off The Bench For Boston
Boston's bench outscored the Sixers reserves 39-22 and that was thanks to Gordon Hayward's game high 26 points in 28 minutes off the bench. He was six-of-seven from three-point range.
Brown was asked what made Hayward so effective, and the head coach simply said, "Making shots."
No Sixer backup played more than Jonathan Simmons' 15 minutes. Brown is clearly still learning about his new bench. They will need to be much better if the Sixers are going to go deep in the playoffs.
Offensive Rebounds and Free Throws Hurt the Sixers
Boston finished the game with eight offensive rebounds, many of them resulting in big time, back breaking Celtics buckets. Boston out hustled the Sixers in just about every one of those instances. That's simply inexcusable, especially on your home floor.
The Sixers were also 22-of-31 from the foul line. Butler missed a couple of key ones down the stretch.
Home Court Advantage Didn't Make a Difference
The Sixers were 2-9 against the Celtics in their previous 11 meetings, regular season and playoffs, dating back to the start of the 2017-18 season. Of those 11 matches, only three were at Wells Fargo Center. One of the 76ers home games technically took place in London last season.
"To dismiss a home court advantage in the city of Philadelphia, and in my opinion most places, but I sure certainly feel it here, would be wrong," Brown said pregame. "I love playing here. Look at our record at home."
The Sixers were 23-6 at home heading into Tuesday night. Make it 23-7 as none of that mattered.
The Celtics weren't phased by the outstanding Wells Fargo Center crowd and they gave the Sixers just as many problems as they do at TD Garden.
To sum things up, the Celtics own this match-up, which should be very concerning for Sixers fans heading to the postseason, as this is certainly a potential playoff preview.
"At some point, do you have to worry about it being in your head that you can't beat these guys," a reporter asked Brown.
"No," Brown responded. "Not even close. We got a whole new team. We've been with each other for a minute. It's like I don't even think like that at all. I'm excited to play these guys."
