PHILADELPHIA -- There is no other way to describe it. The Philadelphia 76ers got waxed in Game 4 as they fell to the Boston Celtics 128-96. The Sixers trailed by 21 in the opening half, never threatened, got outrebounded 51-30, and didn't record an offensive rebound until roughly midway through the third quarter.
There was just no other way to really describe such a performance for the Sixers in a game they absolutely needed to win to avoid the dreaded 3-1 hole. Philadelphia now has to make the trek back up to Boston facing elimination as it appears the Celtics are in a full rhythm in this series.
"We know what we didn't do well, obviously," Joel Embiid said after the loss. "I think they believe in what they believe, which is shoot a lot of 3s, and they believe they can make enough of it to win every single game. Tonight, offensive rebounding hurt us a little bit—a lot, actually. I think 3s equal long rebounds. It felt like we keep coming in. Instead, you know, we should go towards our man and check them before even looking at the ball, and that's an adjustment. We've had that problem all season. So, we got to do a better job."
To Embiid's point, the Celtics grabbed six offensive rebounds in the opening quarter as they set the tone early in this one. Also, defensive rebounding has been a big part of this team's problem all season and Boston is exploiting it in this series. The Celtics grabbed key offensive rebounds in their Game 3 win and then dominated that department in Game 4. It's an issue that has to be cleaned up in Game 5 on Tuesday if Philadelphia wants to extend this series.
"So, just going with the mentality of, yeah, one at a time, take care of some of the mistakes we made today," Embiid added. "Obviously, we gotta do a better job of making shots. We didn't do that in Game 1, and then we came back Game 2, and we made a lot of them. So, yeah, just take care of, you know, like I said, offensive rebounding, not giving them second chance points on the 3s, try to contest it even more than we did tonight, and guard our man."
"Guarding their man" was a big issue on Sunday as well. The Celtics got whatever they wanted off the dribble and it led to plenty of easy shots whether it was in the paint or wide-open 3s. Payton Pritchard hopped off the bench and poured in 32 points for Boston as he played a big part in this contest. As the Sixers move forward to Tuesday, they have to just play harder.
"Well, the tactical stuff isn't going to mean anything if we're not going to play with better energy, toughness, guarding, rebounding," added coach Nick Nurse. "You don't even know if your schemes and what you're trying to do is working, right? So, that has to take up a good portion of what we're doing. It's going to have to be on that big mental pick up mentally. Then we can get to the schematic stuff."
#Sixers star Joel Embiid on being down 3-1 to the Celtics: “We know what we didn't do well, obviously. I think they believe in what they believe, which is shoot a lot of 3s, and they believe they can make enough of it to win every single game.” pic.twitter.com/yADTrLmKnE
With that being said, the Sixers were blown out by 32 in Game 1 to begin this series. They were then able to bounce back and win Game 2 behind a big shooting performance. Even though they have been blown out on plenty of occasions, the Sixers have found a way to bounce back.
"It’s certainly disappointing at this stage, for sure, right?" Nurse stated. "I think we had a couple during the season. I think those are going to kind of happen a couple times a year. I mean, listen, our kind of MO all year is to have a lot of things thrown at us and pick ourselves up and fight back. We just got to do it again."
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Joel Embiid, Sixers address now being down 3-1 to Celtics after loss