DGiven how the last weeks of competition had been taking place, it was to be expected, although surprising. The Philadelphia 76ers, a team that had a hard time connecting and make their key players (Harden and Embiid) even more important, passing to the Boston Celtics, the ones that dominated the first part of the course. It happened, and it leaves an East that changes pace after the Milwaukee Bucks and their uncontested dominance.
The Bucks are in another league. The best basketball team of the moment, by Giannis Antetokounmpo as a star and a defense that wins games. But behind them a duel opens, in which Philadelphia wins entire weeks before the Playoffs. At the important moment of the season, both to ensure a better path and to arrive in dynamic winner of the series that give the crown.
The Sixers have eight straight wins. In them, Joel Embiid is placed in numbers that no history of the franchise, with names like Allen Iverson or Moses Malone, has achieved. Nine games with 30 or more points, setting that mark with his 35 (plus eight rebounds) against the Indiana Pacers who they wiped off the map (141-121). In 2023 they are the second team that wins the most, the second that best attacks and has a balanced defense (2nd in the net rating). Spectacular.
Contrast with the Boston Celtics. From being a stone for anyone, to having certain final decision problems and limiting a Jayson Tatum who can’t command as much as before in generating advantages and shots. Against the Utah Jazz (118-117) they lost a 19-point lead and after Talen Horton-Tucker’s basket that placed the Salt Lake City ahead they collapsed on their final play. Grant Williams tried to play it, misread the field and took Kessler’s block.
The East opens. The Celtics, yes, already have a secure place in the Playoffs after the defeat of the Miami Heat on the field of the Chicago Bulls. It seems that their regular season is already valid and they are economizing. Of course, the Sixers plug in and in a hypothetical crossover there is no longer a clear favorite. It may change what Embiid said: “It’s not a rivalry because they always beat us.”