Six Thoughts: Sixers Fall a Few Plays Short in Game 3 Loss to Celtics

The Sixers and Celtics exchanged punches all night long, but a few plays down the stretch doomed Philadelphia as Boston recovered home-court advantage and took a 2-1 series lead.

Here are six thoughts on the game.

Adem Bona answers the call

Bona had to follow the slight letdown that was Joel Embiid being ruled out two hours before the game. To his credit, after some very up and down moments in Games 1 and 2, Bona was crucial to the Sixers getting off to a stable start in Game 3.

One of the luxuries of being young and athletic (and slightly undersized for a big) is that you are usually more switchable on the perimeter. The Sixers leveraged that to keep the ball contained on Boston's possessions. Rather than a hedge or a drop to get the defense rotating on the back side of actions, the Sixers just switched in their ball screen coverage. They were clean and communicative with those switches, making rotations on the back side easier and shorter.

He didn't expense all of his defensive energy on the perimeter, saving his size and legs for hard work at the rim. Although Bona didn't get to every rebound, he disrupted Boston's rebounders at the rim. He made strong efforts to jar the ball from their possession without fouling as they pulled it down, held position at the rim so that they couldn't get over his back and tipped the ball away when he could.

Bona wasn't satisfied there, though. He preyed on the rim, playing the cat-and-mouse game beautifully. He lurked in the background, outside of the focus of Celtics ballhandlers but in the vicinity to step to the rim and smack the ball away. And when the Celtics thought they were in the clear, Bona was there to spike the ball away from the basket before it touched the backboard.

As impressive as anything were Bona's hands in traffic. He was strong with the ball when the dump-off pass came and took his time, making sure to gather himself and finish with force. It is low-hanging fruit, but it kept the scoreboard moving for Philadelphia.

Maxey's rough first half

It was a tale of two halves for Maxey, whose decision-making felt pretty stalled out before halftime. His approach off the dribble was bizarre, to put it nicely. The biggest gripe with the way he played on the ball was that he danced too much as a ballhandler. Probing to see where your primary defender is on your back is very fundamental. It seemed like Maxey stayed in probing position far too long once he got around the ball screen. It led to indecision, and he missed opportunities to attack downhill.

Your first thought may be that it should be easy to hit that extra gear and blow by a back-pedaling big. But the more you dance, the more the gap to attack closes. The more the defender(s) in front of you settle into their positions and find their balance. The easier the attack is to contain. Maxey shot 3-for-13 in the first half. The regret should be that he could've gotten more shots, but also that he missed some gaps in the defense that would've led to a more efficient scoring column.

The star finds his stride

Credit to Maxey, though. He came out of halftime looking like not only the star of the team, but a guy who was unaffected by his pinky injury. Maxey was an aggressive shooter off the dribble, beating up Boston's drop coverage by getting to his pull-up 3. He had a plan when the ball pressure was there, getting to his exit dribble in the mid-range for baseline fadeaway jumpers.

One thing Maxey had all night long was a counter move, even if it simply unlocked him some extra pockets of space to navigate on the floor. He was able to flip his back and swiftly change directions, reversing the action ever so slightly and making off-ball defenders take one step toward him.

Playmaker P

Paul George only taking 14 shots in this game is unacceptable. Philadelphia didn't make as much of a coordinated effort to get him isolated against mismatches like they did in Game 2, and he did not provide the volume scoring punch you'd like a player of his size on a max contract to give when Maxey is shooting a tour date from the field.

But his playmaking was excellent down the stretch of this game. Boston got Jaylen Brown on him in isolation, stunting George's ability to crack the paint on his first move. It led to a lot of dancing with the ball and eating away precious time on the clock. But keep in mind that that is a soon-to-be 36-year-old trying to break down a 29-year-old, and George was able to shed Brown after a series of moves just enough to get his feet in the paint.

You could see his will to set the possession up through his strength. We've seen Tobias Harris cough the ball up on drives time and time again, leading to live-ball turnovers or strips off his leg for dead-ball turnovers. George had the ball locked up through reaching Celtics, prepared for the helper to slide over and block up his driving lane. In those moments, he found none other than Andre Drummond plunging to the rim, leaving dump-off passes to the veteran big man for dunks that kept the scoreboard moving for Philadelphia.

A little too much Edgecombe

You're not realistic if you think V.J. Edgecombe is going to come out every night and do what he did in Game 2. The Sixers relied on him a ton in this game and probably lost sight of better offensive approach in some possessions. He was 0-for-7 from 3 in the game and took more shots than George did overall. Do what is organic and in the flow of the offense. Sometimes that may mean the rookie takes more shots than George does. But in this matchup, where every possession is critically important, there was some missed opportunity with Edgecombe going 5-for-17 while George put up a 7-for-14 night.

The math battle

The Sixers' defensive rotations were very good sandwiching a stint in the middle of the first half. This was a very winnable game for Philadelphia all the way through, but the Sixers' worst moments have come when they adhere to historic basketball concepts instead of thinking outside the box. 22 of Boston's first 33 field goal attempts were 3s. They want to drive and kick. If a ballhandler gets around you, don't panic. Stunt if you must. But the insistence on disregarding shooters to stop drives is making this series tip toward Boston when it's really more even than anyone thought it would be.

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