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TABLE TALK: 76ers-Celtics Series Analysis · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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All right, everybody, you're listening to Table Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports
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Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world.
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That's right, ten years strong. We've got a great discussion coming your
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way this week. Man, I gotta tell you, this seventy Sixers and
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Celtics series is like, Oh my gosh, he's killing my heart. Like
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I think my heart's gonna stop so many freaking times during this series. Yeah,
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if you saw me, you'd be like, yeah, of course,
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Jeff, your heart's gonna stop. Anyway, We've got a great discussion on
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Table Talk this week where we're gonna be getting into this series. We've got
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a great guest coming your way, let's get to it and joining us from
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Liberty Ballers. We absolutely love having him on the show to get into this
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Sixers and Celtics series. Here again from Liberty Ballers dot Com, the one
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and only Harrison Graham. How you doing, Harrison, Yes, man,
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how's it going. It's great to be back. And I'm not sure what
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we're going to talk about on this podcast. There's not too much stuff going
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on. I know this series has been phenomenal. There's so much to talk
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about my gosh, very excited to dive into it with you. Absolutely.
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Look, I think that some of us had certain expectations coming into this series
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because it's like, okay against the Celtics, and the Celtics give problems to
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the Sixers in this regard or they're an issue with regard to this specific person
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on offense or on defense. But we are at this point as of us
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recording this on May eighth, Folks series has tied it to too. We're
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gonna see at least a couple more games here for sure, for sure.
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So I really wanted to get into our discussion here Harrison, like rate off
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the bat, just knowing that this series was going to be tough, you
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know, to kind of start off with a two part question here, I
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think is what we've been seeing in four games thus far from both of these
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teams. What is most concerning for you about the Sixers over these next two
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or three games, something that's been persistent that we have been seeing. I
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know I have my answer, What is your answer? What's most concerning for
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you about the Sixers at this point? Yeah, I mean it's a great
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question. I think two areas of concern immediately pop into my mind, the
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first of which is Tyrese, Maxie, Tobias Harris. They've obviously have had
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a really really tough series, especially on the offensive end, and you know
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they're both not lockdown defenders. They've definitely been competing as of late in the
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past gamer so especially Maxie. I thought you had some good defense and moments
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in game four, but they just got to get more production out of those
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guys. Joel and James have been terrific. But even if they can just
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get one of those guys deduce and efficient twenty points, I think it would
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be a huge booth. And then go into the second part of your question
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about what is the most concerning aspect or the number one thing that I'll be
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watching heading into game five, and that's James Harden. Believe it or not,
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now we've seen two tremendous games from James Harden game Game one. In
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Game four he dropped over forty points. Pretty pretty crazy to say. I
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can't speak for you, but if you told me that James Harden was going
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to have two forty point performances against the Celtic heading in I would be ecstatic
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at that news. But those games two and three performances were just they weren't
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just off nights, they were just bad games all around. He wasn't aggressive.
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You saw him pass on multiple shots. And the range in which we've
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seen James Harden playing this series has been so dynamic. And there's good James
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Harden and there's bad James Harden, and there's such a big gap in between
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them. So I'll be watching to see which which version of James Harden are
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we gonna get in Game five? And the truth is the Sixers probably just
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needed to be somewhere in between what we've seen out of those two versions.
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Absolutely, I think for me, you actually kind of nailed what my biggest
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concern is the fact that we're not seeing much gray from James Harden. It's
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so black and white with him. He is going to perform terribly on the
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court, or he is going to perform like, holy crap, James Harden
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from like freaking five six years ago. He's you know, he is.
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He is going to be I think the key for this team to move forward
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to the Eastern Conference Finals. But he is my biggest concern because there is
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absolutely no gray with him. But on the flip side of things, here
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Harrison, what gives you the most hope that they can weather these concerns and
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actually come out and win this series. Yeah, I mean that's a great
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question. I think, believe it or not. I think James Harden has
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also been answering to that because because if he if he's that guy, and
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I'm not saying he's drought forty a game, right, even if even if
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it's an efficient twenty or twenty five points, I think it just lifts this
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team up so much to the point where it gives me some confidence heading in
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the game five. And I think that the six series, and James most
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specifically, just because of his experience, know how pivotal this game is going
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to be. So I hope that they go into this game with some urgency.
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A big part of why they won Game four was they had a bit
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of a cushion early on. They had that like fifteen point lead. If
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they can go and establish any kind of cushion in this next game, I
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think that would be huge. We're going to get to that lead. Actually,
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we're going to talk about that in a little bit. I think it's
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interesting how you tweeted out. I think it was earlier today James Harden in
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this Celtics series, averaging forty minutes per game, twenty eight point eight points
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per game, six point three rebounds per game, his assist he's at seven
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point five. These are great numbers, and if he is actually able to
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continue you with this average, it's going to be a good thing for the
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Sixers. You got the consistency of the continuity from James Harden, I think
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is going to pay dividends in terms of getting out of this series and getting
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to the Eastern Conference Finals. But moving along here, Harrison too, we
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have to talk about this subject because it's been pretty terrible in my opinion,
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and that's the officiating in this series. Look, many years ago, we've
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been doing this podcast show, my co host and I for ten years at
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this point, and earlier on we would get on officials for a lot of
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stuff. Over the years, we've kind of just put that to rest.
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But man, I have got to say, in this particular series, the
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officiating has been freaking terrible, god awful. The inconsistency quarter by quarter is
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absolutely baffling and mind boggling, and I'm wondering is there anything the NBA can
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actually do about this? I mean, what have your thoughts been with regards
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to the officiating and whether or not the NBA can actually step in and say,
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hey, guys, you know, let's get some consistency here. Yeah,
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and here's the thing. When it comes to being a ref, I
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do have some sympathy for those guys, just because it is a really hard
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job to do. And when you're talking about NBA athletes, they're going hard,
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they're going fast. It's really hard to get things right sometimes in real
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time. But that being said, I think most of the inconsistency that you're
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seeing is more a problem with the NBA rules than necessarily it is with the
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officials. I think, like like the gray area for example, for a
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charger of block, like there's a lot of gray area with that. There's
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also continuation issues. You don't know what is or isn't going to be an
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and one, and I think the NBA just really needs to go in and
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kind of clean that stuff up. Now, we've seen some rough officiating,
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some officiating that's favored the Celtics over the past few games, most recently in
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that that Game four, that one into overtime, and part of that just
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kind of falls on the Sixers. And I know that's not necessarily what fans
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wants to hear, but you don't want the refs to be in a situation
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where they got to make a tough call that may or may not decide the
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game, right um and and the Sixers in Game four, they they found
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themselves in overtime fighting for their lives because they coughed up that double digit lead.
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So it's all about just executing when you can and hopefully, like I
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said, creating that cushion so it doesn't get to the point where an official
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needs to decide the game. Absolutely. I mean, I think for me,
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part of the enraging aspect of the officiator is the lack of calls too.
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I'm Jason Tatum that push off in game four that that was not called,
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and it was at a pretty key moment of the game, and it's
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like, man, it's like, how does that not get called? And
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I guess to follow up here and look, I'm gonna I'm gonna put on
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a tinfoil hat here and for the listeners, you know, the listeners know
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here that I'm not a conspiracy type of guy or anything like that. I'm
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really not like that at all. Um. But but I'm wondering, like,
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are you one of those individuals who thinks the NBA really wants to see
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certain teams it throughout these series? You know, move ahead, move ahead,
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because it's good for advertising, it's good for intriguing the game, and
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maybe, you know, the league might take it upon themselves to communicate their
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desires with the referees at some point during these series that they'd like these games
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to go a certain way. I'm wondering, do you think there's any validity
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to that? Again, I have my tinfoil hat on here. I'll take
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it off in just a minute. But what are your thoughts here? Harrison?
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Yeah, I mean it's a really interesting question because you know, from
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a number standpoint, the NBA is a business, and obviously businesses want to
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do well, they want to maximize their profit. And you know, whether
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or not it is a real, real or fake thing, that that is
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a factor. And you know, part of me just wants to just spell
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all of that because there's been evidence in the paths of small markets making it
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to the NBA Finals or almost notably the Spurs in twenty fourteen around that time
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area. But there is evidence of it and documentaries of it in the past,
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in the early two thousands, and whether that is or is not a
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thing is up to anyone. But I mean I would lean towards no.
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I would hope it's no. But I hope it's such a difficult question.
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I know, I know. Look, every time, every time the officials,
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you know, make a terrible call against the Sixers, a non call
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or whatever, you know, we get so upset and I find myself thinking,
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you know what, this damn NBA. They just want a Celtics Lakers
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series. That's all they want, Celtics Lakers. Wah. So anyway,
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I'm going to take off the tinfoil hat now at this point as we're moving
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along, and folks, really quick, if you're not following Harrison on Twitter,
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he's absolutely fantastic. He is a great follow at Harrison Underscore Grim.
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Give him a follow, Give Liberty Ballers a follow as well. They do
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great, great work. Let's get into Tyres Maxie because you mentioned him earlier
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and I wanted to talk about him because sometimes he is just such a puzzle
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out there on the floor. And a friend of mine recently said he thinks
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Maxie is actually overrated because of how he performs in the regular season, which
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I really don't necessarily agree with at all, but some people do feel that
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way. I do not feel like Tyrese Maxie is overrated buying stretch of the
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imagination you might you might, So I'm wondering within this series too, why
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does why does Maxie have such a difficult time against the Celtics. We have
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seen it in the regular season as well, but I don't know what's the
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situation and the issue with him that we're seeing out there. Yeah, and
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I think that when you look at Tyrese's playoffs as a whole, I think
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this is the first series where he's really struggled. He was really good in
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the Brooklyn series. He was part of the reason the Sixers got that sleep
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and got Joels some extra rest time. So just focusing in on this series,
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though, I think the Celtics are the most equipped team to go against
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someone like Tyrese. If you just look at the Roffs there obvious. So
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you got the Jay's Tatum and Brown who are athletic, lots of length,
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and while they might not be able to keep up with Tyrese's speed, there's
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so much length and athleticism on that team that it can really bother him,
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and then getting down kind of a bit more into the nitty gritty, the
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Celtics arguably have the best guard rotation in the NBA. You got Marcus Smart,
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who's a defensive player of the Year. You got Derek White, who
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was one of the more underrated players in the league. He's coming off a
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fantastic series against Atlanta where at times he was the best guard in that series.
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With Trey Young and the John Tay Murray. He's a really capable guard.
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He hasn't had the same impact in this series necessarily, but still he's
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someone that can really bother Tyree's a really good anticipation, wingspan, all that
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stuff. And then you also got Malcolm Brogden, who has definitely lost the
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step. I think defensively, we've seen James Harding kind of picking on him
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a little bit. Yeah, but he's another guy who's a big guard with
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lots of weight. He can cause some issues. So I think it just
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ultimately comes down to this series. I think the Celtics are just very equipped
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to handle someone like Ti Reason. You know, hopefully he has a big
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game coming up here in the next game or two because they're really gonna need
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him. They do. Yeah, absolutely, they do. Like you said
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earlier, they need something. They need that little bit more from him or
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even Tobias Harris, who have been extremely disappointed with the end of the half
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yesterday. I think he had two points. It was either two points or
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four points. I think he had, which it's not good enough. It's
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not gonna cut it in this series against the Boston Celtics and Harrison. I
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think one of the bigger stories coming out of Game four is that Philly stopped
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playing into Boston's hands, and I think I wanted to get into this a
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little bit more. You know, letting Harden doing his dribbling for like twenty
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seconds then a step back for three points with Jalen in his face. And
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the success that we saw, and you mentioned it earlier, the success we
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saw in Game four when they moved the ball around the court. You know
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that they allowed Maxie to initiate more, they got the ball to embed earlier.
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That's how they got that big lead in the first half. And we
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need to see a lot more of that. We need to see a lot
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more of that consistently in Game five, Game six, so how did they
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stick to that consistent type of game plan throughout you know, these next how
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many how many quarters that they're going to be playing. What are your thoughts
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here? Yeah, I mean that's a great point that he brought up that
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I don't think really many people notice, is that a lot of times,
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especially in our first half, Maxie was bringing up the balls again, the
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offense rolling. It wasn't just James hard enough there. And I think that's
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such a huge dynamic that you're probably gonna see a lot of in game five,
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just because all these key guys were talking about Harden Maxie inbed. They're
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all going to be playing forty or more minute, So you want James Harden
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to be as fresh as possible down the stretch of what very well might be
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a close game. And that's where you can kind of lean on Tyrese to
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at least dribble the ball kind of hopefully taste some pressure off of James Harden.
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So I think that's going to be a key area to watch. Absolutely.
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Absolutely. Maxie is definitely going to be key heading into Game five,
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for sure. It's going to be so interesting to see what happens with him
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again. Folks, talking to Harrison Grim Liberty Ballers dot Com follow on Twitter
15:31
at Harrison underscore Grim. He is a great, great follow and I guess
15:35
too. I finished this out here, buddy. You know, when looking
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at Game four, the Sixers never never win these type of games against the
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Celtics, and I hope it's a sign of good things to come. And
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that's all I could think about. And overtime, they go to overtime,
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and I'm thinking, they don't win these type of games. There's no way
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the Sixers are gonna win this. And man, that score of one hundred
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and six twe hundred and five was so incredibly close. There are a lot
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of things that went long and over time, there were a lot of things
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that went right as well. Again, we talked about Tobias Harris, even
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even d Anthony Melton, you know, he has to contribute some more too.
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The bench has to give a little something as well. What part of
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this team, as we're as we're finishing up our discussion here, what part
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of this team needs to really step up over these next couple of games for
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the Sixers to inevitably win this series. Yeah, I mean, the options
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are going to be limited. The rotation is laying going to get shorter and
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shorter progress. Yeah yeah, And so you know the guys that we talked
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about, Tyreson Tobias, they need to do more offensively, especially Tobias.
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I get he's chasing around Jason Tatum and sometimes Jaylen Brown, and that's a
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big ask im. I'm not taking away from that. But but you know,
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or I think, what, yeah, nine points, nine points is
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just not gonna cut it. It's not you're gonna You're gonna need fifteen to
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twenty uh on decent efficiency. I thought Tyrese was really good in Game one
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just because he stayed aggressive. He didn't shoot well, but I want to
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see that aggression more going into game five, and as you go down the
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bench, you're gonna need one or two guys to step up the Anthony Melton
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was phenomenal in Game one of the Celtics series. He was alright in Game
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three, and like Harden, he's been kind of streaky. But if he's
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just able to come in and you know, make Tatum or Brown work for
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their shots, hit a few threes, maybe have ten points, that that
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alone is such a huge boost for this team. And it takes that pressure
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off James Harden and Joel Embib where they don't have to be amazing like they
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were in Game four. While they're capable of that, you don't want to
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bank on that heading into that game. And I will also include Paul red
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and this who were really good in that game one start where he played a
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large amount of minutes. He steps it up when Joel wasn't available. Since
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then, it's it's been kind of streaky. It's a weird dynamic because I
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think this postseason he's been a whole lot more conservative with his energy. It
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seems like he's afraid to foul a little bit. And while I respect that,
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at this point in the playoffs, he's only gonna be out there for
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give or take ten minutes. And there's a fine line between being two conservatives
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to the point where you're giving up rebounds or you're giving up loose balls and
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being overaggressive and racking up fouls. It's a tough line to walk, and
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I understand that for Paul, but I would love to see him just come
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in, get some offensive boards, get some defensive rebounds, maybe a lot
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or two. Things like that can really play a factor in a game where
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each team is only playing eight and a half players, so those three guys,
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as I think, are really going to need to three or four guys
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are going to really need to step it up for the Sixers to hopefully secure
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the series. Kind of differentiating game. At the end of the day,
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for me, it's all about aggressiveness. They got to continue taking that aggressive
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nature that we have to win mentality like that was in Game one when Joel
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Embiid was not on the court. A must win in Game four to keep
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the series really going because if they had lost and it was a three one
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series, they'd be crap out of luck. So anyway, folks, and
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I just gotta say, Harrison, it's always great talking to you, and
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folks, Harrison's been under the weather and he came on here to do this
19:45
interview and discussion. My friend, I would love to have you on at
19:48
some other point down the road when you're feeling better, when you're feeling healthy,
19:52
get better, come back and join us. We'll talk more Sixers,
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my friend. Absolutely, and hopefully it's good news. Thanks for having me
19:59
on. Fun times talking to Harrison, and it's fun to think about how
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this series again as we're recording this on May eighth, is tied to tow
20:07
the Sixers and Celtics. They're gonna be battling it out these next couple of
20:11
games. For sure. I have a feeling this could go seven games,
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and if it does, dear God, I don't know what's going to happen
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to my heart. My heart is weak, folks, it's weak. Is
20:23
your heart weak out there? Let us know. Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail
20:27
dot com. We'll read about your heart condition that the Sixers have been giving
20:30
you our show, and we'll respond to it. So it's gonna do it
20:34
for us at Philadelphia PST. On Twitter, you can follow me at Jeffrey
20:38
Underscore Warren. Make sure you follow us on Instagram as well. Just search
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on over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com. We've got all of our shows
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over there. Take care, folks, We will catch you next time.