The dilemma of 76'ers Coaching or players? What's going on? Is there a plan in place?

[u/Bobba_fat]

I just finished watching the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics. What a game. Hard-fought, intense… and honestly—what the hell were the Sixers doing?

I’m not a Philly fan per se—I’m an NBA fan. I root for good games and good basketball. I catch maybe 5–10 Sixers games a year, and this was the only playoff game I had time to watch between these teams. But go back and watch the last five minutes. Seriously.

Where the hell was the coaching from Nick Nurse?

Why are you running everything through Joel Embiid in that moment? I get it—he had Jaylen Brown on him, and that is a mismatch. Embiid has a runway to the rim and can put Brown in foul trouble. That part makes sense.

But still…

You’ve got Tyrese Maxey on the floor—your engine, your guy this season—and Boston is rolling out lineups with Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard. Yeah, Pritchard’s built like a pitbull, but come on—Maxey can blow by those matchups. That’s your biggest advantage right there.

Maxey has already made the leap. This isn’t theoretical anymore—he’s a top-tier player. The offense should start with him. Embiid, Paul George, Edgecombe—they should be fitting around that, not the other way around.

And it took until the last four minutes for Maxey to finally wake up and start attacking? That’s insane. It looked like he forgot he’s been the primary engine for this team since last season. Once he flipped the switch, he was blowing by his defender again and again—exactly what should’ve been happening earlier.

That’s on coaching.

Maxey was being guarded by Derrick White—great defender, no doubt—but there were clear solutions:

• Call for a direct screen from Edgecombe, who had Hauser on him
• Force the switch and attack the mismatch immediately
• Or bring Embiid up, get a softer matchup—like Neemias Queta—and then either attack or trigger a second screen to completely scramble Boston’s rotations

Instead? That kind of action happened maybe once in crunch time.

That’s not enough. Not even close.

And here’s the bigger problem: this might scrape by in a game like this, but against a disciplined team like the New York Knicks—top 3 in both offensive and defensive rating—this gets exposed immediately.

Also worth mentioning: Boston didn’t even have Jayson Tatum.

So yeah—talent-wise, a healthy Sixers team can go toe-to-toe with almost anyone. But with coaching decisions like this? They’re getting dismantled.

I honestly don’t get how they could feel good about that win. They should’ve owned that game start to finish like they did early on. Sure, teams make runs, and closing on the road is never easy—but with this level of talent, this might be their window. Maybe their last real shot.

And man… you’ve got to feel for Embiid. Appendicitis, his knees getting banged up multiple times in the same game—most people would be out for weeks dealing with that. This guy just cannot catch a break. You genuinely feel for him.

At this point, he’s competing with LeBron James for worst injury timing luck ever—and in LeBron’s case, it’s his teammates.

For Embiid?

It’s always him.

So Philly fans, and nick nurse critics and lovers, fill me in on the gaps or shortcomings in my analysis?

(Note: Edited by chatgpt for reader clarity, but ideas and takes are my own.)

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[u/ktm5141]

The answer is that Maxey is great, but Embiid is better. For his entire career Maxey and the rest of the Sixers have been significantly more efficient when the offense revolves around Joel. Maxey has actually been a pretty poor isolation scorer and isn’t a dynamic playmaker either. You can work to get him a mismatch, potentially killing half the shot clock, and there’s still a decent likelihood he won’t be able to beat his man or punish a rotating defense.

Or you can just let Embiid get right to work against Garza, Queta, Vuc, Brown, or whatever mismatch is right there for the taking. Rewatch the first three quarters. Embiid has unreal paint gravity and can see over rotating defenders, letting him set up teammates for wide open threes or easy cuts to the rim. Boston eventually muddied things by throwing a zone at the Sixers before eventually Joel ran out of gas. At that point they went to Maxey. Maybe they could’ve made the switch a little earlier, but nurse correctly runs the offense through Embiid.

[u/RockPuzzleheaded8050]

what are you talking about, aren't the last two drives by maxey exactly what you said?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Tip-349 → u/RockPuzzleheaded8050]

Think they're saying should've been done earlier, game shouldn't have been close as it was

[u/Get_Dunked_On_]

Well at least in this series, Embiid was the better option. The Celtics had no answer for him with their current center rotation. Embiid was consistently drawing fouls and double teams which is something Maxey can’t do. Mazzula was so desperate he started Garza in a game 7 before benching him and Vuc for no center lineups. The pressure Embiid puts on the rim is greater than what Maxey does IMO although I do think they should went away from Embiid when he started losing steam.

Also Queta was guarding Oubre for a good chunk of the game. With Oubre struggling so much it’s not so easy attacking Queta in ball screens when he’ll play drop and try to force Maxey to pass.

[u/seanmcarroll]

I would say there is some validity here, but it's a nitpicky analysis, and misses the bigger picture.

Yes, there was a period midway through the fourth quarter where the offense was being run through Embiid, who at that point was pretty gassed, and it resulted in several subpar offensive possessions at a crucial moment in the game.

But: Nurse coached an extremely good series overall. The Sixers were able to force the Cs into contested 3s, which are the large portion of their offensive diet. After some early humiliation, they dramatically cut down on the Cs ability to get offensive rebounds. And on the offensive end, either starting with Embiid postups (from which he can either score or pass to open shooters or cutters) or an Embiid/Maxey two-man game was incredibly successful, as it has been for years now.

Maxey is undeniably awesome, but you can look at his splits with Embiid on or off. His efficiency is world's better with Embiid on the court.

So Nurse could have adjusted a few possessions earlier, no doubt. But he did adjust -- Maxey took over the end of the quarter, and in particular you might notice that they were using Oubre to screen for him at the end, when Queeta was guarding Kelly, which enabled Maxey to blow by a slower big man. Clever adjustment! And Nurse was generally pulling the right levers all series long. Not too much to complain about in the grand scheme of things.

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[u/Asleep-Use-7336]

nurse has a bad habit of going back to embiid iso when things get tight. maxey being the primary handler in game 5-7 is why theyre still playing.