The fourth quarter started with a two-point Sixers lead and ended with Jaden Springer concession minutes. That’s all you need to know.

They unfortunately bottled it on Thursday night, battling back from several early deficits and taking the lead in the third quarter, only to score 13 points in the fourth and blow a golden opportunity to close out the series at home and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 20 years. The Sixers couldn’t hit a fourth quarter shot to save their lives and quit when the Boston lead got to eight points, the product of Jayson Tatum finally hitting a few shots after starting 1-14 from the floor.

Shot selection was despicable in this game, shot making was worse, and the Sixers looked clunky and stagnant throughout. The defensive performance was more than adequate, but they really let themselves down on the offensive end after clawing their way back into it.

Here’s the tweet that sums it up:

Over the entirety of the fourth quarter, not counting two Celtics blocks, De’Anthony Melton shot 0-4, P.J. Tucker was 0-1, James Harden was 0-4, Joel Embiid was 3-6, Tyrese Maxey was 1-3, Tobias Harris was 0-0, and Springer was 1-1.


Yes, Jaden Springer had more fourth quarter field goals than Tucker, Melton, Harden, and Harris combined.

“I don’t think we trusted very well,” Doc Rivers said after the loss. “It’s a make or miss league, and they were 15-for-35 from the three and we were 8-for-34. I would say we had a lot of wide-open threes. We didn’t make them. I didn’t like how we played overall offensively down the stretch. We’ve got to play through (Joel Embiid) more. Didn’t think the ball went there. So, I have to watch the film. I just didn’t think we had a game with great trust. I thought our guys all wanted to win. They played that way, and sometimes I think that gets in your way. And I thought that happened tonight.”

Double bigs

The tactical wrinkle in game six was that the Celtics took Derrick White out of the starting lineup for Robert Williams, running double bigs instead. It’s interesting because this is the same shift that Nick Nurse tried in the 2019 Toronto series, rolling Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol to combat the Sixers’ size.

In this case, having Williams and Horford out there clogged up more of the paint, resulting in open corner three looks for P.J. Tucker and others. With Tucker unable to hit much of anything, Doc Rivers decided to pull him for Georges Niang, open it up with some shooting, and force one of Williams or Horford to the perimeter. It worked fine for awhile, with Niang hitting a couple of threes, then Doc went back to mostly Melton and some Tucker in the fourth.

It’s something he’s going to have to solidify over the next 36 hours. If Boston runs double bigs again, what’s your response?

the Embiid fourth quarter minutes

Joel Embiid exited the game around the 1:30 mark in the third quarter, beginning the fourth quarter on the bench like he typically does.

With the Sixers up 73-71, they rolled the Harden/Melton/Harris/House/Reed lineup to start the period, giving up a couple of Tatum free throws before House lost the ball on a pair of offensive possessions. He got the hook for Tyrese Maxey, then Embiid re-entered after Marcus Smart went 1-2 from the line.

Result: a -3 swing

That’s fine. They were -2 in the same period in game five. The disappointing thing is that they held serve with Embiid off the floor, only to collapse when he came back on.

“I think it was three things: we missed open shots. We didn’t make them. We stopped moving the ball,” Embiid said of the loss. “And I don’t think I touched the ball in the last four minutes of the game. Like I said, we missed a lot of good looks and I didn’t touch the ball at all.”

Yeah? Well go demand the ball.

Ref you suck

Couple of fugazi sequences in this game, notably the fuck up on Embiid taking two foul shots in the fourth after confusion over whether or not that was a take foul or a clear path foul. Those points were wiped off the board and Maxey had to go shoot them instead, which he ended up making. No change in the number of net points, but some people think the re-take essentially killed a bout of Sixers momentum, which may be true.

Otherwise, there was ticky-tack bullshit throughout, just lame touch fouls and a couple of outright terrible ones, like Marcus Smart ripping the ball out of Embiid’s hands by grabbing his arms here…

…and the worst goaltend you’ll ever see:

It’s terrible. All of it.

Other notes:

  • Tobias Harris scored two points and was nonexistent outside of a couple of defensive plays at the end of the third. He couldn’t finish at the rim (shocker) and finished 1-7 from the floor.
  • The Jaylen Brown slip was essentially a four-point swing. I thought fortune was starting to flip in favor of the Sixers there.
  • That Melton hustle play and offensive rebound and kick out to Niang for three was huge. Too bad he couldn’t hit anything himself.
  • Appreciated the crowd shot of Jason Kelce where he was completely focused on whatever food was on his lap.
  • The Sixers were 100% from the foul line before Maxey missed the front end late in the fourth.
  • They shot 30-83 from the field (36.1%), 8-34 from three (23.5%), and 18-19 from the line (94.7%). Can’t believe Tatum started 1-14 and they still lost this game.
  • Why does game seven have to be on Mother’s Day? FUCK OFF