![]() Ultimately, the Nets and Sixers piled up brick after brick in a brutal first half. I mean, nine times out of ten, I’ll still take every look that everybody got.We happened to miss. Royce O’Neale was straightforward in his post-game assessment of his team’s shooting: “We got great looks, open shots. Joe Harris, who finished the contest 0-4 from deep with four points, missed some open shots that were potential momentum-builders. Vaughn tried to switch it up, giving Patty Mills his first run of the playoffs, but Mills missed both of his 3-point attempts. They started 3-of-6 from deep, but finished the half 2-of-13. They scored 19 points in the first six minutes, but it took them 14 more minutes to double their total. Embiid or no Embiid, it was the same story for a Brooklyn offense that’s been cold as ice since the first half of Game 1. His seriousness, his ability to talk, to direct guys, to know how to grow with guys, where to be in the right place.”īut, despite holding the Philadelphia 76ers to just 34% shooting from the floor in the first half, the Nets never threatened to pull away. ![]() To be around a guy that is totally different than when I met him. “I’m looking forward to getting even better this summer and taking my game to the next level.”Ĭlaxton’s head coach, Jacque Vaughn, was full of praise and reflection: “To see his growth this year really makes me realize why I want to do this. ![]() “I think I learned a lot this series, and I got a lot better,” said the rangy center. Claxton was, in an-honest-to-God playoff game, the best player on the floor, just one year after being nearly unplayable in the same situation. Not only did he dominate his matchup with backup Philly center Paul Reed, but he made the Sixers going small an impossibility, using his size, athleticism, and touch to make six of his first seven field goals. He also finished the first half with 15 points and six rebounds, unquestionably the best player on the court to start Saturday’s action. And Clax with a little stare, too: /9vBECsZ4Il- Lucas Kaplan April 22, 2023 Harden, seemingly worried about getting destroyed by Claxton at the rim, gets destroyed by Claxton at the rim. Cam Johnson and Spencer Dinwiddie had combined to hit three of Brooklyn’s first six 3-pointers early, and it appeared Philadelphia was wholly unprepared to score the ball without Joel Embiid.īrooklyn’s staunch defense in the first half was led by none other than Nic Claxton, who finished the first 24 minutes with four blocks, including a brutal rejection of former teammate James Harden. Halfway through the first quarter, the home team took a 19-8 lead over the visiting Sixers, their largest lead in the series to date. ![]() Final score: Philadelphia 96, Brooklyn 88.Īt first, it appeared as if the Brooklyn Nets may ride the sudden worry around Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers to a decisive Game 4 win. It was another root canal of a game for Brooklyn, particularly on the offensive side, a painful and awkward way to end a painful and awkward season. Despite Embiid’s absence, the Nets faced with the same problems they dealt with for the first 75% of this series a lack of shot-creating, shot-making, and defensive rebounding. Was that a faint sign of hope for the Nets to at least get a game off Philly, if not crawl back into the series? Especially after 76er Head Coach Doc Rivers hinted that this Game 4 wouldn't just be precautionary rest for his star center, saying Embiid’s MRI “did not turn out well” prior to Saturday’s game. But Embiid wasn’t going to be available to close out a potential sweep for the favored Sixers. Prior to Game 4, Embiid was ruled out with a right knee sprain suffered in Game 3, a Philadelphia win that felt like the death knell for Brooklyn’s season. Every other factor in the series, to that point, had been a subsequent domino of whatever the Nets threw at Embiid. Brooklyn’s entire game-plan had revolved around limiting the impact of star Sixer Joel Embiid over the first three games: relentless double-teaming of the league’s presumptive MVP on one end, working around around his dominant rim protection on the other. Pre-game expectations for Game 4 of the Brooklyn Nets’ first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers were scarce, if they existed at all.
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