Game 26: Bulls @ Sixers 12/18 @ 7pm EST

[eyeatoma]

Think the key is Maxey, he needs to be a full game player. Not a 2 quarter or 3 quarter player. Jo carried most of the game. Maxey got hot but it was too late.

Also replacing Tobi with a better fitting 3rd option or shotcreator.

I think it’s by design for Maxey not to be a full game player. Need to consider pacing and flow. He usually do his thing at the start of the fourth. But the gap between Maxey taking over and Biid taking over has to be filled.

That's not a smart design.

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[the_process]

Nothing has changed about the outlook for this team because they kicked away a winnable game in December against a bad Chicago team.

I would like to take this opportunity to **** on Tobias, however. No one ever again should say things like “we can’t trade him for that, he’s too good”. Ham ******* sandwich. That is an acceptable return. Get this dude outta here for the love of God.

[76ciology]

Also replacing Tobi with a better fitting 3rd option or shotcreator.

I think it’s by design for Maxey not to be a full game player. Need to consider pacing and flow. He usually do his thing at the start of the fourth. But the gap between Maxey taking over and Biid taking over has to be filled.

That's not a smart design.

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Havent checked the numbers but usually its Jojo for first (defense plays sh*t usually here) and third quarters then Maxey on second and fourth quarters. Then when Maxey starts scorching early fourth, Biid then takes over late fourth.

[elchengue20]

Joel is just not clutch, afwull choke right there. Also didn't do **** in the last 5 mins.

Not encouraging at all when thinking in our Playoff hopes.

The team will win 50 games feasting on the crappy teams of the league. Once the playoffs get here, we're either second-round fodder or one-and-done this year. Don't get me wrong, I love this team/city. Always will and I'll always support. I enjoyed watching tonight. But losing like this is just the reinforcement I need to know where we stand. We really need to beat Minnesota on the 20th. That game followed by the one against Miami are huge for us.

Otherwise,
Kelly Oubre 2-11 tonight. You can bet on that being what his playoff stat line will look like too. There's a reason he wasn't picked up and it's because he sucks against good teams.

-Once again we got killed on the boards tonight. We've had this problem in the playoffs before. We need to get bigger in certain areas. Put a guy like Jabari Smith jr, Evan Mobley, or Lauri Markannen or Jaren Jackson jr and pair them with Embiid and that will stop happening.

-Guards with Coby White's skillset always kill us. No answer for him tonight. We tried Batum, he got smoked, we tried Bev, he wasn't interested. You want that to stop, then you have to get a defensive player to lock them down. OG Anunoby.....It's pick your poison with this team. Either we find a way to get bigger to not get hammered on the glass in games like this or we improve our defense on the perimeter by adding a big time wing talent like OG. Either that or hey...Here's an idea...Play Jaden Springer more.

- Patrick Beverly as our backup point guard is a problem. He's good at times for us. He has a place on this team, a role so to speak, but he's unreliable as our only other creator on offense. The Mavs somehow lucked into Dante Exum. Why we can't we find a big guard like that to help? They're out there, but we'll have to trade for one of them. In short, we need an upgrade from Beverly. I know Jordan Clarkson is available, but he's almost another Kelly Oubre at times. Still, he'd be an improvement over what we've currently got.

- We need to see the young guys play more. I think both Martin and Springer could stand to get some minutes. Both are incredible athletes, but would help with energy and rebounding while playing defense. Problem is they don't have the basketball IQ that Batum and Covington have. They don't even have what Beverly can offer. It's a tough situation to be in for Nurse, I'm sure. You've got to play the guys that give you the best chance to win, but you also need the attributes that both Springer and Martin offer.

Crappy loss, you could feel it tonight. Bulls couldn't miss from three.

We need a Siakam and Caruso this year if somehow we want to get at least a real chance of winning it all.

[M2J]

They need a 3rd star

Joel and Tyrese have to work too hard offensively to get their points and everyone else can be shutdown. I mean if Tobias was legitimately giving you that 14ppg and good defense great... He's doing 1 or the other now, and being a 2 way player all the time is exhausting, imagine that for Maxey and Joel.


The fact that Harris and Melton are so casual that they take a combined 8 shots when the team is struggling is telling.

[Kova]

It's not the best thing ever to just keep blowing out teams all the time. You put your guard down and start getting complacent. And then someone punches you in the mouth. Bulls also can't lose every game, they're not that bad. Bad loss unfortunately.

[phillynative]

I bet the celtics wouldn't have lost that game

[mjkvol]

Watched the game late, a few observations:

Kind of predictable we would be flat at some point, and after a bunch of blowouts where the white flag was raised after three quarters a loss the first time an opponent showed up wasn't a big shock.

Please no more talk about how we can't trade Tobias for _________ because it would be a step down. This game and the game Embiid was out pretty much summarized in a nutshell his career here. 'Nuff said.

I love that Oubre is a fearless shooter, but there's a reason he's a minimum contract player at this point in his career.

Still don't like Embiid as a closer, but I'll take this action and miss over those Glenn-era iso contested fadeaways.

Maxey is a beast, and needs to be the closer with this group as it stands. It's at least something Nurse needs to try.

The Bulls are a far better group with Lavine out of the lineup. Boy, his trade stock is certainly skyrocketing with the team playing so much better without him, isn't it?

This Sixers group isn't a finished product, and Morey damn well knows it. Patience, everyone.

Kate Scott is just brutal. Alaa as well, but Kate is off the charts awful, just unlistenable.

[Stanford]

Losers

[Jailblazers7]

This one kinda felt like a trap game because Chicago has been playing good basketball since Lavine left the team.

I don’t think we necessarily need a third star but we absolutely need a 3rd playmaker. Could be a role player, sixth man, or 3rd star. But we need someone else capable of generating a little offense.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

Losers

Yeah, but only because the wrong unit is out there playing. If we had Furkan Korkmaz canning jumpers from outside this wouldn't have happened.

If we had used the devastating athleticism of Mo Bamba along with his freakish wing span along with sniper like precision from outside, this wouldn't have been a loss.

If Nurse would grow a pair and play KJ Martin in the dunker spot and use his insane leaping ability, this wouldn't have been a loss.

If Morey would just trade Embiid and Maxey to Charlotte for Leaky Black and Terry Rozier, we wouldn't be losers.

Jeez why is this so hard to see?

[Negrodamus]

Thats why you need to play more games like this.

Mic drop.

You’d think after 8+ years of letting Embiid blow the last second shot, he’d finally figure out how to get a good, clean look off.

Also, everyone didn’t just start playing basketball this year. They’ve been in close games before.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

Thats why you need to play more games like this.

Mic drop.

You’d think after 8+ years of letting Embiid blow the last-second shot, he’d finally figure out how to get a good, clean look off.

Also, everyone didn’t just start playing basketball this year. They’ve been in close games before.

I agree. This shouldn't be anything new to these guys. I can't actually say that Nurse should have called a timeout. I think he was right in letting them play it out. The play itself was executed perfectly up until Jo went to make his move with Coby White on him. That should have been an easy 1-2 play to the basket for 2 points and the lead. It doesn't get any easier than that in those moments and Jo blew it.

The 2nd option would have been to call a timeout and set up a play to take the last shot of the game.

The 3rd option would have been to just let Maxey make his move on Vucevic who he clearly had beat on the switch. We had three different options to win that game. All of them should have easily worked. This one is on Embiid for choking it away.

Joel Embiid is clearly my favorite player in the game today. He's my third favorite Sixer all-time behind Iverson and Barkley. That doesn't absolve him of criticism though. It's deserved and he's got to get his nerves under control in those moments.

[jc23]

Caruso is awesome. I hope the Bulls start to fall apart again so we can get him.

I dont think that changes anything, Chicago knows how valuable he would be for a contending team. He will be traded this season imo.

[phillynative]

The reason I believe we are going to need a 3rd shotcreator is I believe the Embiid/Maxey 2 man game will become predictable during a playoff series against good teams. So your going to need another player that can take off some of the pressure and attention they will garner when it matters the most. (Something Tobi has proven he cannot do).

Embiids offense falls off during the playoffs and Maxey is not the shotcreator that can get off a shot no matter the defense.

As far as that last shot by Embiid . Half of me wants to believe that Maxeys pass threw him off and he thought he was taking it all the way but the other half of me because we have seen this all of his career believe he's just a choke artist.

He let the Bulls worse defender on the floor startle him into letting the ball slip out of his hands instead of powering his way to the basket or even shooting a short jumper. Even a couple plays before that he drove into the paint and threw the ball off the backboard.
He went from David Robinson for the first 3 quarters to Reggie Evans when the game got tight because maybe that's just his nature.

[Ferry Avenue]

The move to make is exchanging Harris for Siakam.

[Negrodamus]

The move to make is exchanging Harris for Siakam.

What is the incentive for the Raptors.

[the_process]

The reason I believe we are going to need a 3rd shotcreator is I believe the Embiid/Maxey 2 man game will become predictable during a playoff series against good teams. So your going to need another player that can take off some of the pressure and attention they will garner when it matters the most. (Something Tobi has proven he cannot do).

Embiids offense falls off during the playoffs and Maxey is not the shotcreator that can get off a shot no matter the defense.

As far as that last shot by Embiid . Half of me wants to believe that Maxeys pass threw him off and he thought he was taking it all the way but the other half of me because we have seen this all of his career believe he's just a choke artist.

He let the Bulls worse defender on the floor startle him into letting the ball slip out of his hands instead of powering his way to the basket or even shooting a short jumper. Even a couple plays before that he drove into the paint and threw the ball off the backboard.
He went from David Robinson for the first 3 quarters to Reggie Evans when the game got tight because maybe that's just his nature.

Nothing we didn't already know. Maybe some let themselves forget, or wished upon a star it changed.

[phillynative]

Thats why you need to play more games like this.

Mic drop.

You’d think after 8+ years of letting Embiid blow the last-second shot, he’d finally figure out how to get a good, clean look off.

Also, everyone didn’t just start playing basketball this year. They’ve been in close games before.

I agree. This shouldn't be anything new to these guys. I can't actually say that Nurse should have called a timeout. I think he was right in letting them play it out. The play itself was executed perfectly up until Jo went to make his move with Coby White on him. That should have been an easy 1-2 play to the basket for 2 points and the lead. It doesn't get any easier than that in those moments and Jo blew it.

The 2nd option would have been to call a timeout and set up a play to take the last shot of the game.

The 3rd option would have been to just let Maxey make his move on Vucevic who he clearly had beat on the switch. We had three different options to win that game. All of them should have easily worked. This one is on Embiid for choking it away.

Joel Embiid is clearly my favorite player in the game today. He's my third favorite Sixer all-time behind Iverson and Barkley. That doesn't absolve him of criticism though. It's deserved and he's got to get his nerves under control in those moments.

Exactly Embiid is one of my favorite players also but I will also always be a Sixers fan first. If he has shown time and time again he can't get it done under pressure than maybe it's time to try something or someone else as a closer in tight games.

[brannigan73]

Nothing has changed about the outlook for this team because they kicked away a winnable game in December against a bad Chicago team.

I would like to take this opportunity to **** on Tobias, however. No one ever again should say things like “we can’t trade him for that, he’s too good”. Ham ******* sandwich. That is an acceptable return. Get this dude outta here for the love of God.

Ive read in a few places Detroit might be interested in him. Trade him Straight up for Bogey who is only guaranteed 2 million next year. Bogey has no problem being a sniper who takes a ton of spot up threes and will never play 30+ minutes in a game and take only 3 shots because when he gets it and has a sliver of day light its going up. Tobi has never been comfortable in that role. He likes to play around with the ball before he shoots it and has many games where he feels like shooting the rock is cancer causing. Bogey would average 20ppg on the Sixers will all the open threes he would get.