The Sixers, ravaged by injuries, put 36 different starting lineups on the floor, more than any other playoff team. Little wonder they lacked cohesion. Still, the best players got a lot better. Kudos.
was eliminated in the first round is like complaining that Gordon Ramsay’s entrée tasted bad when all he had to use was last week’s leftovers., but there was so much more absence. Starting shooting guard De’Anthony Melton missed 43 of the last 50 games with a bad back. Backup forward Robert Covington, a defensive stopper, missed the last 49 games.
If you watched the Sixers’ first-round series against the Knicks, especially on the defensive end and the defensive glass, you saw lots of mistakes and confusion. You can usually blame poor coaching for such deficits, but, in Nurse’s case, he simply didn’t have enough time with his players to create cohesion. He also lacked significant players: Covington didn’t play at all in the postseason. Melton played seven minutes.
Still, Embiid averaged 34.7 points, a career-high by 1.6 points, which would have led the league for a second straight year. He made 38.8% of his three-pointers and 88.3% of his free throws, both career highs, and shot 52.9% from the field overall, his second-best such showing. His 11.0 rebounds matched his mark from the four previous seasons, and his 1.7 blocks matched his career average.
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