On Monday night, the 76ers had a good chance of beating the Eagles 3-1 on the road, and Joel Embiid’s halftime was terrible and the poor efforts elsewhere led to a 103-100 loss to Atlanta. This is a brand new series after the fourth disaster.

This is what I saw.

Ok

• Is it possible that we underestimated Seth Curry’s contribution to this team? The Eagles are doing their best to expose Curry on the defensive end, get him through the screen and keep him active on the defensive end. No matter how hard they try, they seem to be unable to weaken his influence. He is now in the offensive zone, and every time the 76ers let him play, good things happen.

Philadelphia did not use the Redick-Embiid combination to play a two-player game against Curry and Embiid as during Brett Brown’s tenure, but they had a lot of success from the routines used by the team at the time. Curry’s shooting ability makes him threatening in all types of moves-curling up from the screen, going downhill in the pick-and-roll, and of course as a fixed target, but he rarely has the opportunity to catch swing passes. People are already in front of him.

The Eagles live in fear of him, so much so that they allow Embiid of all to open their hearts as they try to stay in front of him as Curry tries to shoot. Can you imagine temporarily giving up the MVP finalists in order to stop others? This is how dangerous Curry is when attacking in this series. He can withdraw jumpers and outside defenders layups with equal ease.

Curry’s main responsibility on Monday night is to get the 76ers out of a bad situation. Thankfully, his qualifications are too high, and he helped them stay in front for many nights, even if his teammates are crazy.

• Shake Milton was put into the cold storage after messing up the Wells Fargo Center in the first round, but he soon became one of their most important rotation players again. Without him, they might not win the second game at home, and they would certainly not win the fourth game without him, because “Let Shaq create something” was one of their best offenses on Monday night.

The argument for months has been that Milton would be better off the ball, but due to George Hill’s poor performance and Tyrese Maxi’s distrust in this series, Milton is again the No. The six regained the reins. Philadelphia could have been severely punished for using the bench at the beginning of this quarter, but Milton supported them alone, even if Tobias Harris was in the game and ostensibly ready to perform his duties.

The redemption story collapsed at the last moment, Milton stared at the possible draw three-pointer in the last few seconds and panicked. Even Monday’s outstanding performance was not without major flaws.

•The basketball brand played by the 76ers is recognized in my cab, but there is nothing more interesting in the league than Embiid and Ben Simmons just to impose their will on the game. Embiid blew Clint Capela (Clint Capela) from his defensive position, then pitched a jumper back from the baseline, as if they were no big deal. Simmons fouled early in the shooting clock. He ran the floor and blocked the smaller defenders, then passed the ball to the corners of the floor when he attracted more attention.

In the second quarter, we basically got the best version of this combination, with Embiid cooking Capella on the inside, and Simmons flying around on both ends. In another 24 minutes, Philadelphia may have broken the spirit of Atlanta.

So, about that…

bad

• The shots covered up the 76ers’ rather sloppy first half on Monday night. Perhaps it gave them the wrong impression before the half-time meeting. This is a team that needs to sharpen everything in order to make the game out of reach. There is no doubt that they will continue to move forward. On the contrary, they seem to relax, let the Eagles return to the game and solve the entire field. The whole list of questions.

We have to start with Embiid, who was fully fired at the end of the first half, but insisted on forcing a lot of garbage in the second half. I think this is the disadvantage of allowing a big man to make such a wide range of shots, but it seems to be closer to the “old” Embiid than the MVP-level players we have seen throughout the season. A lot of jump shots, some uninspiring defenses, failures in the penalty area here and there, all these add up to give the Eagles life.

Frankly speaking, the worst part of his performance was Embiid’s lack of trust in his teammates. Throughout the season, he emphasized that his life has become easier. He has confidence in the people around him, passes the ball when the doubles arrive, and knows that the players will make the right game, if not really shooting. The second half brought back Embiid’s worst scene, even if he did not play, he could still hit the hero ball. His frustration is obvious, and he knows it’s best not to let it show in the game.

If you are looking for the reason behind Embiid’s poor physical condition in the second half, maybe the meniscus problem started to really bother him when it was untimely for the 76ers.Embiid Have done In the first half, he withdrew to the locker room for observation, and finally returned while leaning and making faces near the bench. Whether it is the product of injury or not, this is not our expectation for Embiid in 2021. His distrust of his teammates was quickly punished.

(That said, he still has a good chance of winning the game in the last 10 seconds of the game. Rivers played a great game for the 76ers after the last timeout, and Tobias Harris made it right. And Embiid just missed it.)

• When others had a chance to reverse the situation, Embiid did not completely get rid of this behavior. Due to the lack of a starter and an energetic player, the 76ers were crushed by Atlanta in the third quarter, and no one was able or willing to stop the bleeding. After they successfully defeated Simmons in the third game, you might argue that they should try to get back to that state. But they didn’t, and Simmons’ influence on the game came to an abrupt end at the end of halftime.

My biggest blow to Simmons is still that. As the team’s point guard, Simmons has the responsibility to keep things organized and move the pieces quickly on the board when something goes wrong. Jump shots and free throws are not a problem in themselves. They are a problem because if the game is offensively away from Philadelphia, how they will limit his ability to adapt.

Since their best ball handlers can’t make basic pick-and-rolls in the core of the game, it’s up to the rest of the team to solve it. Simmons lost his mind to Embiid and played irresponsibly the worst basketball he played all season, full stop. But he was responsible for the entire offense to some extent, and did not show the ability or willingness to move Philadelphia in the right direction.

Harris, usually the savior of this group in the second half, could not maintain the good momentum in the first half. He played the ability to catch and shoot at the beginning of the game, but as the game approaches the final whistle, he gradually fades out of the game. This is something you can’t often say this year.

• Although their offense in the second half was terrible, there are good reasons to prove that their defense was worse. They faced their old opponents, transitioned defensively, stared into death’s eyes for some reason, and won. Frankly speaking, this is mainly due to bad luck. The Hawks left a lot of points when they made three-pointers.

“This is a make-or-break league” is a cliché that can be used to describe any number of games in the regular season, but it is usually a more complicated story in the playoffs. I’m not sure if this is more complicated than Monday night-if Atlanta could easily complete their talented open shots, they could have won easily, and the 76ers should feel lucky that they are at a critical juncture.They play Maybe A good quarter all night.

• I’m not sure there are more confusing results in these playoffs than George Hill becoming one of the most unstable and error-prone players on the Philadelphia roster. Hill found himself trapped in the air when the pass turned into a mistake, throwing crazy layup attempts under the rim, and trying to find his footing in any way on offense. It seems that after he settled down near the end of the regular season, Hill now finds himself in a very difficult situation.

Hill should be someone who competes with Danny Green for the starting position on the shelf. How can you use his current performance to justify putting him in the starting lineup? Your best situation depends on how bad your performance the next Monday is.

• I am one of the vocal supporters of Furkan Korkmaz, started to enter the game and still believe that in theory this is a good idea. When one plays disastrous playing time in the playoffs, no one cares about the theory, and we will have to wait and see if Rivers will continue to let Cork win the rest of the game.I don’t mean as a starter-when Korkmaz is This Oops, there is a case that can get him out of the rotation altogether.

He did everything Korkmaz could have done wrong in the first half of the fourth game. Missed rotations, missed shots, missed reading opportunities where teammates could easily score, Korkmaz played the first 24 minutes as if he was wearing a blindfold. Although Korkmaz can play with other starters basically every time his number is called in the regular season, this is a good example of how prepared the regular season is compared to the playoffs. The pressure is different. The Hawks play desperate (if very sloppy) basketball, and Korkmaz doesn’t seem to be fully prepared for it.

Korkmaz’s ability to attract attention on the perimeter allowed him to some Any level in the game, even if he struggles like this.butHey, if he wants a character to move forward, they will need a better version of Korkmaz.

• On the day he was selected for his first all-defensive team, Matisse Sebull did some great performances to remind everyone how he got this honor in the first place. Unfortunately, the Eagles also made it clear that they would not spend any energy on defending him on Monday night, and Sebull hardly punished them for this. When they fell on the kick-off teammate, they scored jumpers one by one. .

This will be his fate in the playoffs until he convinces his opponents that they should protect him in any other way. Let him go to the gym this summer, let him go to work.

ugly

• I’m not sure if throughout the season there was a more sloppy quarter than the 76ers and the Eagles played at the beginning of this game. Philadelphia’s back-to-back passes came from the rim. The Eagles missed many undefended lob attempts. Kokmaz tried layups and only hit the rebounds. This has it all. Compared with the basketball game, it is closer to a farce comedy.

Having said that, by the end of the quarter, the 76ers managed to lead 28-20. In the away playoffs, this is more than you would hope in a chaotic start.

• We will finally see what the final cost of this game to the 76ers will be. At the very least, they have to play one more game to end the Eagles, and they put themselves at risk of sideways with Joel Embiid. The big men themselves have great responsibilities there, but now they have to deal with their problems collectively.

They are still a more talented team, and they have a golden opportunity to take the lead in the last 10 seconds they were wasted.

Follow Kyle on Twitter: @Kyle newback