There it is –

A marquee road win.

That was the Sixers’ best W of the season, a mature and composed display against a team that was previously unbeaten at home. They took out an Eastern Conference rival, a team above them in the standings, and honestly really needed that kind of victory to instill a bit of confidence in a fan base that was happy but looking for just a bit more from a title contender.

Quirky ending to this game, too, with a brief ‘hack-a-Simmons’ routine resulting in Ben going 2-2 from the foul line. Joel Embiid closed with a 5-6 mark from the stripe over the final 25 seconds and the Sixers benefited from a no-call on Josh Richardson, who hooked Jaylen Brown on an inbound play with both hands but avoided a whistle:

Hey listen, if they don’t call it, they don’t call it. It was a three-point game when that happened, the Sixers extended the lead to four on the ensuing possession, and then closed it out from the free throw line.

If you’re keeping track, that’s two wins over Boston, one at home and one on the road. Brett Brown’s team also has home wins over Miami, Toronto, and Indy, so they’ve defeated every top-six team in East outside of Milwaukee, who they have not yet played. 19-7 puts the Sixers 3.5 games back of the Bucks and tied for 2nd in the conference with the Heat.

Taking the “criticism” in stride

When you find yourself the topic of national scrutiny, you go out and post 38 points with 13 rebounds and 6 assists while shooting 12-14 from the line. You also only turn the ball over twice while blocking a shot and staying out of foul trouble.

That’s what Joel Embiid did on Thursday night, and he really could not have handled the TNT flap any better than he did.

I put “criticism” in quotation marks in that sub-heading, because while that was the buzz word being thrown around RE: Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal’s Tuesday comments, I didn’t think that was the best way to describe what they said. I think the gist of the message was this:

“We see greatness in you; can we see it every night? Can we see it consistently?”

That’s the theme with Embiid both locally and nationally, and we’ve been arguing this among ourselves for more than a year now, so I don’t know why some people got all offended by what Charles and Shaq had to say. Joel Embiid has the athletic profile and skill to be a DOMINANT player, and it’s always been about finding that consistency and getting him to show that on a nightly basis. Last night I thought he looked dialed-in and really focused, just letting the game come to him instead of over-thinking things, but I also saw a few moments where he turned to the crowd or showed some enthusiasm after a big play. It was the closest thing I saw to him having fun while remaining focused at the same time.

When you go through the reel of his 12 made shots, the common theme is assertiveness. He doesn’t wait too long on these possessions, no empty dribbling or anything like that; it just looks more or less automatic:

Really the only blemish on a superstar performance was a quick stretch of three fouls that he picked up in the first six minutes of the 3rd quarter. Luckily he committed zero in the entire first half, so that didn’t kill the Sixers, who were without Al Horford on the night. And defensively, Enes Kanter probably shouldn’t go 7-9 against him, but that’s fine; Embiid was handling the burden offensively on a night when the Sixers needed him to do that.

Check out the post game interview with the TNT guys:

Part of that exchange:

Barkley: “You’ve got a chance to be the best player in the world.”

Embiid: “I appreciate you. I really listened to what you said, and Shaq, and I’m gonna keep working. I’m definitely gonna use that try to get better every single night and bring it every single night. Thank you.”

Not sure about you, but I think that was a perfect way to handle it. Same with his comments at shoot around. If Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal are being hard on you, that should be worn as a badge of honor. They wouldn’t waste their time saying those things about a lesser player, but they do it with Joel because they see straight-up greatness in him. They see the pinnacle of modern NBA center play. They see the big man apex from the studio. Last night Embiid delivered and it was fun to watch.

Ben Simmons

Not a great game for him outside of a couple of second-half defensive plays, plus the two-free throws he knocked down, which ended the hack-a-Ben prematurely.

He only took six shots total and was again deferential, hitting the Brad Stevens foul-line blockade and passing the ball instead. Probably the highlight of the game for him was holding Jayson Tatum in check for the large majority of the time he was guarding him.

But yeah, imagine if the Sixers get that night out of Embiid, plus the Simmons we saw against Toronto or Cleveland. I know Cleveland stinks, but that’s not the point; the point is that aggressive Simmons is the most effective Simmons. Passive and deferential Simmons is the least effective Simmons.

Volleyball and lip reading

Two good clips from last night.

This one made me laugh out loud:

Furkan with the ‘ole volleyball dig out there. He had a nice night, going 3-4 from the floor in a brief seven-minute stretch, adding 7 points and 3 rebounds.

And then after a turnover in which Simmons couldn’t pick out Korkmaz in the corner, we got a great Brett Brown cussing sequence on national television:

Pretty sure Brett is saying, “fuck that, let’s go! holy shit!”

Love the fire, for real. Let’s get Joel Embiid going. Let’s get Brown fired up and slinging curse words. This team is better when they are pissed off and mad about it, which is the name of a song by a band called “The Texas Hippie Coalition.”

Other notes

  • Mike Scott started 4-4 from the floor and finished 5-7 overall, every field goal attempt coming from three. He’s really broken out of his slump since being inserted as a starter.
  • Matisse Thybulle had trouble with Kemba Walker early on, as most people do, though he had a really nice rearview block on a 4th quarter three-point attempt and Kemba actually only finished 3-9 against him on the evening.
  • Chris Webber complimented Embiid for running the floor on a play where he was cherry picking.
  • The in-game interview must be fired into the sun. It’s just useless. It adds nothing.
  • Loved the Brett Brown SLOB call around 5:00 in the fourth quarter, the  Simmons/Embiid/Simmons high-low inbound that resulted in a foul.
  • Thought Brett used his timeouts well, identified points where the offense was sort of stumbling along and tried to get the gears moving again.
  • Boston is actually a great town, very similar to Philly with the history and food and sports attitude, it’s just that “you people” (Don Cherry voice) have terrible accents.

Have a fantastic Friday.