Joel Embiid Explains Sixers Falling Flat in Game 6 vs. Celtics

The Philadelphia 76ers teed themselves up for success after a big third quarter during Game 6 on Thursday night.

After struggling on both ends of the floor in the first half against the Boston Celtics, the Sixers came out and shifted the momentum of the matchup in the third quarter.

Once trailing by 16 points, the Sixers rallied off 30 points and outscored Boston by nine to take a two-point lead before heading into the fourth quarter.

All was going well early on in the fourth quarter as Embiid drilled his first two shots to match Boston’s offensive attack. Unfortunately, Boston found a way to pull away during the second half of the fourth quarter, which put the Sixers in dangerous territory during crunch time.

After the game, Joel Embiid summed up the Sixers’ fourth-quarter struggles to three factors; missing open looks, lack of ball movement, and lack of touches for the MVP big man.

“We missed a lot of shots,” Embiid explained. “The shots that we take every single night, we missed. We missed a lot of wide-open shots tonight, and they made us pay for it. We only made eight threes. Obviously, they made 15 of them. I thought that’s where the game was.”

The Celtics attempted 35 shots from beyond the arc on Thursday and knocked down 43 percent of them. Meanwhile, the Sixers took 34 shots from deep, connecting on just 24 percent of them. Overall, the Sixers struggled in the perimeter shooting department, but they especially came up short in the fourth quarter as they attempted eight threes and couldn’t make any of them.

“To start that fourth quarter, I was aggressive and got the ball,” Embiid continued. “We scored a few times on that, and then I just think our offense stalled a little bit.”

Embiid led the Sixers in field goal attempts during the fourth quarter, taking six shots. While he made a couple of tough shots early on, the Sixers aimed to take advantage of obvious open looks. When those shots weren’t falling, the Sixers found themselves stalling out.

“We stopped moving the ball,” Embiid explained. “We stopped making plays for each other like we’ve been doing all night. That was a result of not getting good shots and the ball not moving enough.”

Many times throughout the regular season and even at times during the playoffs, the Sixers have found success in crunch time.

Unfortunately, they came up short in the biggest game of the season, as a win at home would eliminate the Celtics once and for all.

“I think we’ve been pretty good all season in those type of situations,” Embiid said. “I just thought tonight we were a little flat because of their shot-making.”

In crunch time, the Celtics hit on 44 percent of their shots and made five of their nine threes. Along with holding the Sixers to under 15 points, the Celtics scored 24 points to gain a notable late lead against the Sixers.

“In the fourth quarter, instead of getting back to ourselves, we just started playing by ourselves,” Embiid finished. “In those situations, we got to stick together. We got one more. Honestly, we feel pretty good about it. It’s a make-or-miss league. Tonight, we missed a lot of good open looks that we’re going to make. We just got to go to Boston, keep working, and knock those down.”

The Sixers failed to punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals on Thursday as they took on a 95-86 loss. They’ll get one more chance to go toe-to-toe with the Celtics in a do-or-die Game 7, which takes place on Sunday.