Brett Brown, Joel Embiid Address 76ers' Questionable Effort

During the second half of Game 2 against the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers look like they gave up. Following the loss, Brett Brown and Joel Embiid addressed the team's effort.

The Philadelphia 76ers got destroyed by the Boston Celtics in Game 2 on Wednesday night. There's no other way to describe it. At first, the game looked like it was going in an entirely different direction as the Sixers were heating up early. Once again, after a second-quarter collapse, though, Philly fell off.

A strong second quarter from the Celtics translated into an absolutely dominant second half by Boston. Many expected the Sixers to come out in the third quarter swinging, as they did during Game 1, but it never happened.

After a while, the Sixers looked helpless and unmotivated. Following the Game 2 beatdown the Sixers suffered, Philly's head coach Brett Brown admitted that the effort he saw during the second half of the game wasn't quite up to par.

"There were a few possessions in the second half that you'd want to have back," Brown explained following Wednesday's game. "I think the effort wasn't at a level that it needed to be during the meat part of the game, I thought the guys were doing the best that they could. Tatum is a handful, Kemba got it going, Jaylen had a great game, and they made shots, and we had a hard time dealing with that."

Brown described the second-half as "deflating" for the Sixers when the Celtics simply couldn't miss. Sixers center Joel Embiid agreed that when players are able to make tough shots anywhere and everywhere on the floor, it can be exhausting.

"It's hard when you play good defense, and the opponent just keeps hitting tough shots," Embiid admitted. "But it should never affect us. You need to keep playing the same defense, be aggressive, just try to get stops. Sometimes, the offense is better than defense, so you've just got to keep on going."

With their backs against the wall and facing a potential 0-3 scenario, the Sixers have no choice but to come into Game 3 with a much-improved mentality. History says teams can come back and win a series after falling into a two-game hole. When it comes to falling out three games, however, the odds aren't high. Philly needs Friday's game. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_