Well, we almost paid tribute to the '66-'67 championship Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night in the way they'd appreciate the best: beating the Boston Celtics. Despite missing two starters in Joel Embiid and Robert Covington (and, y'know, all those other guys we've barely seen this season), the Sixers led most of the way last night against the fully healthy Celtics, and nearly escaped with this one in the final minutes. The Ballers fell short, losing 107-106, but it was about as game an effort in a loss as we've seen from our Processors this season.
Dario Saric certainly gets the year-end consideration for his performance in this one, with 21 points, 12 rebounds, three triples, and this maybe-not-totally-on-purpose ankle-breaking of Jonas Jerebko:
It was a breakout performance after a week-plus-long slump, and it's worth noting that despite his struggles this early season with shooting and turning the ball over, Saric has consistently been very impressive on the boards: His 8.6 rebounds per 36 minutes rank third on the team, behind only Embiid and Richaun Holmes.
And aside from Nik Stauskas, whose Sauce level is currently at Room Temperature and dropping after another off performance (3-11 FG, 2-8 3PT) last night, it was a fairly good shooting showing all around for Philly. The Sixers were 15-37 from three on the night, with five separate players hitting multiple treys, and Sergio Rodriguez in particular enjoying one of his best performances of the season (15 and 8, and 4-7 from deep). Amazingly, the Sixers have climbed to seventh in the NBA in both three-point percentage and three-pointers made: Incredible for a team that hasn't been outside the bottom five in 3PT% since '13-'14.
Philadelphia 76ers
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But it was all undone last night by Isaiah Thomas. The Celtics' pint-sized point guard absolutely brutalized the Sixers in the pick-and-roll, getting past our guards with minimum difficulty and then punishing our bigs every which way imaginable: Draining threes when they went under, hitting long twos when they sagged back on drives, drawing fouls or driving past them when they pushed up and dishing to his own bigs when additional help arrived. It was a masterful 37 and 7 on just 19 shots, and you can't really be mad about a shorthanded loss when it comes at the hands of an All-Star player having a night like that.
We'll have our own (soon-to-be) all-star back on Monday at home against the Denver Nuggets. Six losses in a row feels like a lot right now, but remember: Four wins in early December was still an impractical Christmas miracle this time last year.
