Let's be Honest... Last thoughts on Philly.

[Diesel]

Statistically, this had to be a terrible series for us.

We shot 44% from the field and 33% from three.   We were outrebounded on the average of 45-43.    They took 203 FTs, we took 176 FTs.   They scored 775 pts to our 755 pts.   They averaged 23.7 apg to our 19.6 apg.   Joel Embiid shot 47% from the field and Seth Curry shot 61% from the field... While Trae shot 39% from the field.

If a statistician saw the numbers, they would have concluded that we lost this series in 5.   Honestly, there was nothing that we devised that could stop Embiid in the low post.   There was nothing that we could do to keep Seth Curry silent for a whole game.   Seth Curry had more total points than anybody on our team except Trae.  Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons could score at will.  Simmons FG% was 60% and Harris' was 48%.  

How did they lose??

Trae Shot 32% from three!!  How did they lose??

We wanted it more. 

This is the lesson to every boy and girl.   If you work hard and keep your head done, you will have more victories than you can count.   We wanted it more.   It's still baffling the talking heads.  They are looking at the stats.  And the stats don't mesh with what they saw.  What they saw was us dominating most of the series.   We wanted it More. 

 

 

[HawkingAwesome]

they built different

[Dejay]

I mentioned this to a Bucks fan after they beat Brooklyn in Game 6. The Hawks-Sixers series reminded me of the first Rocky vs. Apollo Creed fight. On points, Apollo was way ahead yet he was one punch away from going down.

While that knockout punch never landed in the movie, it damn sure did last night...

[thecampster]

7 minutes ago, Diesel said:

Statistically, this had to be a terrible series for us.

We shot 44% from the field and 33% from three.   We were outrebounded on the average of 45-43.    They took 203 FTs, we took 176 FTs.   They scored 775 pts to our 755 pts.   They averaged 23.7 apg to our 19.6 apg.   Joel Embiid shot 47% from the field and Seth Curry shot 61% from the field... While Trae shot 39% from the field.

If a statistician saw the numbers, they would have concluded that we lost this series in 5.   Honestly, there was nothing that we devised that could stop Embiid in the low post.   There was nothing that we could do to keep Seth Curry silent for a whole game.   Seth Curry had more total points than anybody on our team except Trae.  Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons could score at will.  Simmons FG% was 60% and Harris' was 48%.  

How did they lose??

Trae Shot 32% from three!!  How did they lose??

We wanted it more. 

This is the lesson to every boy and girl.   If you work hard and keep your head done, you will have more victories than you can count.   We wanted it more.   It's still baffling the talking heads.  They are looking at the stats.  And the stats don't mesh with what they saw.  What they saw was us dominating most of the series.   We wanted it More. 

 

 

My honest thoughts on Philly.

They are the best defensive team I've seen in a long time. They pushed the Hawks repeatedly into uncomfortable shots. The Hawks scored an average of 113.7 points per game this season. The Hawks scored that much only once in the series (game 1).

They are a very difficult cover offensively.

They are not mentally tough.

IMHO - The Hawks won the mental game in this series against a team that should have destroyed them physically. I'm very glad we played NY and Philly. You don't sharpen iron on cotton. It must be tried in the fire and Philly offered the toughest challenge I think we'd face in the post season. Of every team we could have faced in the post season, they scared me the most. They should have won this series, they could have really used a mental coach over an x's and o's guy. It just proves how important the mental aspects of the game are.

Edited June 21, 2021 by thecampster

[HawkingAwesome]

hawks seem to psychologically terrorize their opponents it's like they were built by the dudes that took down noreaga

[Diesel]

8 minutes ago, thecampster said:

My honest thoughts on Philly.

They are the best defensive team I've seen in a long time. They pushed the Hawks repeatedly into uncomfortable shots. The Hawks scored an average of 113.7 points per game this season. The Hawks scored that much only once in the series (game 1).

They are a very difficult cover offensively.

They are not mentally tough.

IMHO - The Hawks won the mental game in this series against a team that should have destroyed them physically. I'm very glad we played NY and Philly. You don't sharpen iron on cotton. It must be tried in the fire and Philly offered the toughest challenge I think we'd face in the post season. Of every team we could have faced in the post season, they scared me the most. They should have won this series, they could have really used a mental coach over an x's and o's guy. It just proves how important the mental aspects of the game are.

Yeah.. We prey on the frail.   I think the real psychology is that we won't quit.   We were in several situations where teams of the past would have quit.   But this Hawks team has a belief that goes beyond logic and statistic.. for them it's all about we're going to win.   I've heard other teams say that.  IN fact, before this series, I'm sure Philly was saying that.. but when we came out and punched them and they punched us and we didn't budge... I think it sent a chill up their spine.. Maybe reminded them of losing last year in the bubble.  Maybe made them think we can't win because that was the look in their eye that I saw in game 5....  IN game 5, we took their will to win.   They won game 6 because of the bright eyed Maxy.  However, Embiid, Simmons, and even Harris were all checked out. 

When they turned to Maxy and Curry to save them in game 7, they got nothing. 

[swanlee]

I'll be honest and I thought no way an ATL team wins a deciding game like this on the road. ATL teams decade after decade choke away games like this all the time. Was glad to be proven wrong, as an ATL team I still do not think we will win the title this year but it was a fun ride so far.

[Diesel]

1 minute ago, swanlee said:

I'll be honest and I thought no way an ATL team wins a deciding game like this on the road. ATL teams decade after decade choke away games like this all the time. Was glad to be proven wrong, as an ATL team I still do not think we will win the title this year but it was a fun ride so far.

If you want to be really honest... Philly was the biggest monster in these playoffs after Lebron and co. Lost.    Atlanta vs. Phoenix in the finals would be a very fair finals. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

24 minutes ago, Diesel said:

Statistically, this had to be a terrible series for us.

We shot 44% from the field and 33% from three.   We were outrebounded on the average of 45-43.    They took 203 FTs, we took 176 FTs.   They scored 775 pts to our 755 pts.   They averaged 23.7 apg to our 19.6 apg.   Joel Embiid shot 47% from the field and Seth Curry shot 61% from the field... While Trae shot 39% from the field.

If a statistician saw the numbers, they would have concluded that we lost this series in 5.   Honestly, there was nothing that we devised that could stop Embiid in the low post.   There was nothing that we could do to keep Seth Curry silent for a whole game.   Seth Curry had more total points than anybody on our team except Trae.  Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons could score at will.  Simmons FG% was 60% and Harris' was 48%.  

How did they lose??

Trae Shot 32% from three!!  How did they lose??

We wanted it more. 

This is the lesson to every boy and girl.   If you work hard and keep your head done, you will have more victories than you can count.   We wanted it more.   It's still baffling the talking heads.  They are looking at the stats.  And the stats don't mesh with what they saw.  What they saw was us dominating most of the series.   We wanted it More. 

 

 

 

How did the Sixers lose?

 

Turnovers

4th quarter excellence by Atlanta

Lack of mental toughness

Doc having too much confidence in his bench

[thecampster]

16 minutes ago, Diesel said:

Yeah.. We prey on the frail.   I think the real psychology is that we won't quit.   We were in several situations where teams of the past would have quit.   But this Hawks team has a belief that goes beyond logic and statistic.. for them it's all about we're going to win.   I've heard other teams say that.  IN fact, before this series, I'm sure Philly was saying that.. but when we came out and punched them and they punched us and we didn't budge... I think it sent a chill up their spine.. Maybe reminded them of losing last year in the bubble.  Maybe made them think we can't win because that was the look in their eye that I saw in game 5....  IN game 5, we took their will to win.   They won game 6 because of the bright eyed Maxy.  However, Embiid, Simmons, and even Harris were all checked out. 

When they turned to Maxy and Curry to save them in game 7, they got nothing. 

Nate's decision to almost exclusively throw Huerter at Curry in game 7 must have really crushed their spirit. Lost in Huerter's offensive game was his smothering of Curry at the 3 point line for 80% of the game. It made Philly 1 dimensional for most of the game.

[Diesel]

8 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

How did the Sixers lose?

 

Turnovers

4th quarter excellence by Atlanta

Lack of mental toughness

Doc having too much confidence in his bench

I would disagree with Doc having too much confidence in his bench.  The real truth is that Embiid is not built to run with us.  The big swings did happen when Embiid went to the bench but that's because Harris is a streak shooter and the only other scoring option you have is Curry. 

The Failure of Philly is not Ben Simmons.  I mean Ben did look bad but the failure is Harris.   As a Max player, Harris had to do better when Embiid was out or when he wasn't scoring and Harris never did.  I think Game 2 was Harris' greatest game.   He played very aggressively all game.   BUt there was a failure on his part to do so in any of the rest of the games.  He would come out strong but after the half, it looked like he had the itus.   He would sit back and watch Embiid work in the 3rd quarter and he would take the 4th quarter off with Embiid.  While everybody was belly aching about hack a ben... Hack a ben really didn't account for many points and it failed in game 6. 

The failure of Philly was Max Harris.   He's just a pretender.

 

 

[Diesel]

10 minutes ago, thecampster said:

Nate's decision to almost exclusively throw Huerter at Curry in game 7 must have really crushed their spirit. Lost in Huerter's offensive game was his smothering of Curry at the 3 point line for 80% of the game. It made Philly 1 dimensional for most of the game.

Yeah.. this was my favorite part.  Huerter absolutely SMOKED Curry offensively.  It had to be humiliating to get put out on Huerter Island and to have this Rick Astley looking dude just beat your ass over and over again.  Seth Curry went from being a star in this series to Steph's brother again.  I wanted to believe that JC catching him with the flying knee of Doom effected him but he seemed alright after that... it was just too much red velvet on both sides of the ball.   I give it up to him though... he still put up 16... I would take a good look at Seth if he was available. 

 

[Gray Mule]

Simmons didn't dunk the ball.  No.  Ha made the correct play, it just didn't work.  He was moving under the basket and made the pass to a charging 76er.  I believe he was too far under the basket to dunk.

Huerter gets the gold star for his offense and defense!  Danilo comes in second here.  

All this winning and not an all star in sight on our roster!!

[sturt]

If you looked at who won the turnover battle from game 1 thru 7, then you know that that team won every time.

If you think back to our major concerns about this team just a year ago, one of the more prominent ones was that--turnovers. We were almost the worst in the league, with 16.2/gm (3rd from bottom).

This season, we chopped 3 off that in the regular season... launching us to 8th best. And in the playoffs, we've nearly chopped another 2 off that regular season number... making us 5th best of all playoff teams, and 2nd only to the Clippers of the final four.

 

[HawkItus]

Shock and Awe offense.  The stress of continuous lobs and threes along with Trae's fouls merchandising.... it's psychology breaking.