There’s an old adage about good teams learning how to win even when they don’t play their best game.

It does not apply to the Sixers or the Celtics after a truly terrible Friday night basketball contest.

Both teams were sloppy and choppy in a game that was officiated worse than the Eagles 28-23 win over the Panthers. It felt like Pete Morelli’s crew had dressed up as NBA refs just to heap more misery on the Philadelphia faithful.

The incessant whistles destroyed the flow of the game, but the Sixers didn’t blame the refs for the loss, instead choosing to focus on an underwhelming fourth quarter and other issues. The Celtics outscored the home team 33 to 20 in that final period, pulling ahead for a 102-92 win.

Shane Larkin scored eight of his 10 points in that period to finish +16 on the night. Kyrie Irving added seven down the stretch and Boston went on an 18-8 run in the final 7:10  to close it out.

The silver lining, I guess, is that Joel Embiid won’t play much worse than he did in this one.

Let’s get it to the low post

When your 148 million dollar center airballs a three-pointer on the final first half possession, you know it’s just not his night.

Embiid finished with 11 points on 4-16 shooting. He was 0-6 from downtown. That elusive first field goal didn’t come until 4:26 in the third quarter and he was 0-6 at halftime with two points on a pair of free throws.

Part of the problem is that he spent way too much time on the perimeter when they really needed him down low.

Check out his shot chart below, compared to a mystery Celtics player:

That’s Embiid on the right and Kyrie Irving on the left. Joel took 10 of his 16 shots from outside the paint and made only one of them, which was a short baseline jumper.

Here’s what he said about his positioning:

“I felt like I needed to go to the perimeter to make something happen because I wasn’t getting the ball in the post. That’s something we have to look at the tape and find out how to get me the ball in the post. But I felt like because I wasn’t doing that I had to go outside and make something happen to help us win.”

“I had a bad shooting night. That’s on nobody but myself.”

You understand that he wants the ball in his hands in any way, shape, or form, but if you’re not hitting, sometimes you just have to go back to basics.

This is an example of that, the first field goal where Dario Saric found him on the block for a drive to the rim:

https://youtu.be/fTiHTg9ixXA?t=5m39s

“Here he is down on the block for one of the few times tonight,” said Marc Zumoff.

“Goes right to the rack and scores!”

On this one, Embiid sets the pick and pops out for the airball, when I think he’d just be better served rolling to the rim and making Al Horford slide over to defend:

https://youtu.be/7k7hY_wCLAQ?t=4m32s

Just like we drew it up!

Still figuring out personnel and rotations

A couple of quotes from Brett Brown on his personnel choices..

On a young team struggling and Saric at the five:

“I think our guys struggled in the second half. I thought Dario had a really good first half, and I decided to give with him as a five man in the second half. He, I thought, had a rough second half. Joel probably had the most difficult offensive game he’s had as a Philadelphia 76er. We’re people down. It’s stuff we’re gonna have to figure out as time unfolds.”

On Saric gaining confidence closer to the rim:

“It’s a decision you make as the coach when you’re on the sideline and you’re wondering, for example, do you got with Amir or Dario. I felt, the way Dario was playing in the first half, and this type of game, it was small ball game, picking and popping and having the ability to shoot threes, that it made sense in our mind. I think in general Dario does have that luxury. To restrict him only inside and not tap in to what I think is part of his skill package – although it hasn’t shown up in the regular season –  we saw it in preseason. I think his versatility as a five at times can bother other teams and help us.”

On playing Saric, Ben Simmons, and Amir Johnson together:

“When they went bigger, we went bigger. The matchup that I didn’t like was Jaylen Brown and Saric. He did a good job of chasing Jayson Tatum around. So, when Jaylen was the four I opted to go with Justin Anderson. I think that with the big ball, if that’s what we’re gonna call it, we probably have more law and order into our structure. I think when you move Dario over to the five, because it’s new, there’s a little bit of uncertainty at times with play calls. I think just the familiarity when you go traditional big ball at this stage of the year is simpler for these guys.”

I’ll reserve judgment until we have a bigger sample size to look at here.

More from Markelle

Markelle Fultz came off the bench to have first two shots blocked, then fouled Terry Rozier during a three-point attempt.

His third shot was also blocked but drew a foul call, and he hit both free throws to an ovation almost as loud as the booing of the refs.

He then showed some nice off-ball movement to cut towards the rim and finish on an Embiid feed.

Fultz had another three-point foul in the third quarter, then decided not to take this shot:

I thought Fultz’s best play of the night was that pretty spin move and dish for an Embiid dunk.

Check it out:

https://youtu.be/PkSkb3R28Mw?t=6m23s

Beautiful.

You want the ball in his hands with Embiid operating around the rim. That’s two birds, one stone, and a glimpse into the future. We need to see more of it, and less of the Markelle who looks hesitant out there.

Turnovers and offensive rebounds

Offensive boards were again a problem out of the gate for the Sixers, who gave up two in the first quarter to Aron Baynes and another to Kyrie Irving. Baynes finished with five offensive rebounds and probably would have had more if he didn’t struggle with foul trouble. He was whistled for his fourth early in the third quarter.

Brown on defensive rebounding:

“I think our guards have to come in and get some of those long rebounds. I think our interior people really have to do a better job at not getting moved. I feel that the combination of those two things, long rebounds where our guards need to get in that free throw area – and I think at times Baynes, who I know well, got the better of our interior people.”

Richaun Holmes will certainly help in this department when he’s healthy. Saric had a good night rebounding the ball off the bench but I don’t know what it’s going to look like tonight with Embiid not playing and Jahlil Okafor next in line for some minutes.

Ref you need glasses

The biggest victim of the officiating fiasco was Robert Covington, who drew two quick fouls and came out around 7:00 in the first quarter. He picked up his third foul with 7:03 remaining in the second quarter, followed by JJ Redick taking a technical for voicing his displeasure with a separate call.

It was an atrocious game in that regard, with whistles coming on seemingly every other play. The Sixers probably had more calls go against them, but there were some equally egregious decisions made against the Celtics in the second half as well.

There was a stretch in the third quarter where we had six fouls in 96 seconds. That’s one foul per 16 seconds.

God almighty.