November 6, 2021: The Philly Sweep

No, this isn’t the new dance sensation sweeping the nation; this is what happens when Joel Embiid plays against our Bulls. He was at it again on Saturday night, this time in the UC, as he lead the 76ers past the Bulls for the 2nd time in 3 days.

He has certainly become one of those guys that kills the Bulls every time we play, a nemesis of sorts. Nobody can cover him. Yeah, it helps that we have Vooch in the past few matchups, but it still doesn’t matter. When he was as hot as he was on Saturday night, don’t think there are many folks that can stop him. Still, the first thought that runs through my head was “what if Patrick Williams was healthy?” Would he have been able to stop the bleeding? Out of everybody on the current roster, I would say he’d have the best chance, but as we all know, he’s out for the year; so now what? Whatever for a regular season game, or in this case “the Philly Sweep” that just occurred in a back to back, but what about the playoffs? Safely assuming the Bulls are in, what if that road includes a matchup with these Sixers? What would our plan be? As the current roster sits, we need to double team him… consistently. Force him to take shots far away from the basket; if he makes those treys, then he makes them. Keep him out of the paint. He did have help yesterday.

Some dude that I never heard of was automatic from 3 point land. He had a lighting quick release, and it felt like every single one went in. It was a nice one two punch that knocked us out, almost what Joel did to Lonzo with his wild swinging fist. What’s up with Ben Simmons? Stacey summed it up nicely; just don’t get why he’s acting like he is. This is a good Sixers team. You can completely understand why they would run the offense through Embiid. And although Ben had a bad playoffs, and maybe can’t recover mentally from the criticism that brought, he would make this squad that much better… which would make them that much tougher to beat if we meet them in the second season.

Shifting gears, what’s up with Vooch? I like him, but… just because he stood at a Holiday Inn last night doesn’t mean he magically turned into Steph Curry. What’s up with all those treys? I don’t mind here and there, but he seemed to live out there, which is not a good thing for us. Get your ass on the blocks Vooch; this is where you need to be. We got other guys to take those shots from beyond the arc. My son even brought up something interesting; would the guy we got rid of to get him be a better fit on this team? Maybe it’s because he’s got a jersey signed by Wendell Carter Jr, but… it was an interesting point, one that my wife co-signed on. Not that the answer to that question really matters, but… it was one that made me think… WCJ was too inconsistent for me, but… he was young too, and hurt a lot, and played under a Boylen offense, and played when it was Zach and only Zach on the offensive end. With this selection of players on the roster, I do think he would have been better; better than Vooch? I like to think not.

One more thing: Zach did not match Embiid tonight. Again, not like he has to, because he has help this year, but… when you have a wide open three late in the game to pull us within 2 and you brick it… big time players make big time plays; we saw that from Joel, we did NOT see that from Zach… at least on this evening. He’s missing free throws too; what’s up with that? Why do I feel like he will be missing some games in the near future due to his injury that he is playing through? Maybe it will be good, but with the stretch we have ahead of us… maybe not the best timing. Until Monday, and a meeting with the Nets, and another team that has a star player missing; we’ll talk about that one too. Go Bulls!!!