“Unlucky Philadelphia 76ers Fall Short in Playoffs Once Again”

Luck really wasn’t on the Philadelphia 76ers’ side.

The last time the 76ers won Game 7 in a seven-game four-best series on the road, it must be traced back to the classic game of defeating the Boston Celtics in the 1982 Playoffs Eastern Conference finals (Eastern Conference finals) 41 years ago.

The Celtics are well known for their glory days in the 1980s, when Boston Garden was a nightmare for visiting teams and players, and playing here was almost tantamount to adding a loss to the record sheet. Today’s TD Garden, the home of the Celtics, was completed in 1995 and became the successor venue of Boston Garden. The latter is facing the fate of closure and demolition. Those extraordinary years are only left in photos and memories, washed away with the torrent of history.

In the 1982 round of the series, Celtics won the first game by a point difference. The 76ers responded with a three-game winning streak and took the lead in drawing cards. In Game 6, the 76ers played at Philadelphia Spectrum, the former home court, took a 64-61 lead at the end of the first three quarters, but they were out of order in the final quarter and were scored 27-11. The Celtics resisted tenaciously to tie the game and entered Game 7. In the final game of the series, Andrew Toney and Julius Erving scored 34 points and 29 points respectively, leading the 76ers to beat Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale 120-106 with 20 points and Danny Ainge with 17 points. Sub-performance of the Celtics. It is worth mentioning that the two sides played against each other six times in the regular season, and the Celtics won four games, but the 76ers had the last laugh in the playoffs.

It’s just that the Philadelphia 76ers didn’t make history repeat itself, because luck really wasn’t on the 76ers’ side.

First of all, after the 2023 NBA play-in tournament determines the teams and seeds that advance to the playoffs, the 5th to 8th seeds in the Eastern Conference are Cavaliers, Nets, Hawks, Heat, and the total player salaries of these four teams Ranked 11th, 9th, 16th, and 13th among the thirty teams in the league. Obviously, the 76ers’ opponent, the Nets, has the highest salary among the lower seeds in the Eastern Conference, but the former still defied the odds and advanced with four consecutive victories, becoming the only team to sweep their opponents in the first round of the season.

Secondly, there is the problem of injuries, which is a hidden worry that appeared after the third game of the first round. 2018 playoffs left orbital fracture (left orbital fracture) with concussion (concussion), 2019 playoffs left knee tendinitis (left knee tendinitis), 2021 playoffs right torn meniscus (right knee meniscus tear), 2022 In the 2020 playoffs, he encountered torn right thumb ligament (right thumb ligament tear) and right orbital fracture with concussion. Joel Embiid had no major injuries in the 2020 playoffs when he lost four games in a row and was swept by the Celtics. After the rest of the playoffs The season was not spared, and this season’s playoffs also unfortunately missed the final game of the first round and the first game of the second round due to a right knee sprain (right knee sprain).

When a team’s leading star continues to be injured and returns with injuries, the team has to go through the process of adjustment and adaptation repeatedly, and it is still unable to be in the best state. As a fan, the author is more inclined to interpret Joel Embiid’s frequent injuries in the playoffs as bad luck or a matter of probability because he is not a player who has experienced the game on the spot. However, “injuries are also part of the game.” As an ability, this ability is definitely not what Joel Embiid is good at.

Furthermore, the distribution of home and away games is not conducive to the 76ers. The 76ers had a record of 54 wins and 28 losses in the regular season, ranking third in the league. The Milwaukee Bucks, the league’s No. Even the Golden State Warriors have home court advantage in the second round, but the 76ers did not. According to the article “How Important Is Home-Court Advantage in the NBA?” by Bleacher Report, the statistics of the 20 seasons from 1998 to 2008 show that the regular season home team has a record of 7021 wins and 4569 losses, with a winning percentage of 60.6 %, the record of the home team in the playoffs is 513 wins and 278 losses, and the winning rate has increased to 64.9%. The team with home court advantage in the conference semifinals has an 80% chance of advancing! The home court advantage has a huge impact on the game, but the 76ers have become the contrarian side.