The Philadelphia 76ers need a win in Game 3 of their series against the Boston Celtics. While the Sixers are good enough to rip off four straight wins, coming back from 0-3 down has never happened in NBA history, and even if it has, coming back from a hole that big is incredibly difficult.
The good news for the Sixers is Game 3 is in front of their hometown fans, and Philadelphia has been one of the toughest places to play in the NBA this season. It also helps that the Sixers have Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, and both guys are capable of doing things that cause the crowd to become unglued.
Take, for instance, a sequence that occurred in the second quarter while Philadelphia was trailing by one. Simmons got out in transition and had his big man trailing him, so he dumped off a cheeky pass to Embiid to set up a dunk. The issue was Aron Baynes was there to try and take a charge. We say “try” because Embiid dunked on his head, anyway.
Ben Simmons dishes & Joel Embiid DELIVERS! 👀🔨😤
12 straight points for the @sixers!#PhilaUnite pic.twitter.com/gCCVNEtJ54
— NBA (@NBA) May 5, 2018
The slow motion view of the play really highlights how clever of a pass this is out of Simmons, while also making Embiid’s dunk look a little more vicious.
VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED https://t.co/AWpNJuTaPo
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) May 5, 2018
Baynes was standing in the restricted area, so that was going to be a charge no matter what Embiid ended up doing on the play. Embiid is known as something as an entertainer, though, so he made the decision to give the Sixers and their fans a shot in the arm with as mean of a dunk as we’ll see this postseason. As for Baynes, between this and Giannis Antentokounmpo’s repeated attempts to dunk on him, maybe he’ll re-consider his approach to playing defense when someone has an otherwise open lane.
