Get the brooms out, it’s a sweep!

  

                                                                                                                          Photo credit: NBA.com

 Before game four started there was a stat floating around that I had not seen before, Kemba Walker had never before today won an NBA playoff series! If you think about it, every team Kemba had in Charlotte either underachieved or wasn’t good enough to actually compete past the first round and now look, he’s teammates with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Kemba by far had his best game of the series against Philadelphia, he finished the game with an impressive, 32 points(team high), 4 rebounds and 4 assists while shooting 8 of 15 FG and 4 of 9 from three(44%). Not only did Kemba have himself an afternoon, he isn’t playing the best basketball we’ve seen out of him since being in Orlando, to his credit before the playoffs began, Walker was on a minutes restriction because of knee soreness. Now with the minutes restriction gone, and being able to not look over his shoulder, he can do what he does best and just ball. Along with Kemba, Jayson Tatum had himself a game, finishing with 28 points, a career high 15 rebounds and 4 assists. Tatum shot a respectable 10 or 18 from the field, 2 of 5 from three(40%), shooting 10 free throws on 6 makes. The Sixers were fighting for their playoff livelihood all game, Embiid had his normal double double(30points and 10rebounds), Josh Richardson did everything he could defensively against Tatum, making him really earn his points. The Sixers second leading scorer was Tobias Harris(20 points) who has seen his name frequently tied with his current underwhelming play and 180,000,000 salary. Harris wasn’t bad for Philadelphia but given the money they are paying him it’s a given to expect more  out of him. Late in the third quarter, Harris and Tatum collided leading to a scary fall on the head of Harris. As long as the camera was on Tobias, his entire body was at a stand still and it looked like he couldn’t move, luckily it was one of those falls where it looks worse than it actually is. With Harris having to leave the game, Boston took the lead, momentum and never looked back!(Harris returned to the game in the 4th). 

 Both teams shot over 40% from the field and in the first half the Sixers had already taken 23 free throws to Boston’s 17. Take that with Boston having 8 turnovers to Philly’s 1, it looked like the perfect game to get their first win and make it a series. Neither teams bench truly contributed offensively, Boston’s bench had a combined total of 11 points while Sixers bench had 16. Alec Burks was the only Sixer in double digits, in fact he scored 13 of the bench’s 16. Enes Kanter had a solid game with 6 points and 5 rebounds, 3 of those boards being on the offensive end. Kanter also finished the game a plus 10 and gave the Cs some quality minutes while Theis was on the bench. Look for the Celtics to really rely on guys like Enes, Wanamaker and others to get collective contributions with Gordon Hayward still out with injury. As for the Sixers, they have a lot to think about in preparation to the NBA draft and upcoming season. A couple quick questions I think Philadelphia needs to answer this off-season, is Brett Brown the coach for this current team? Does Embiid or Simmons get moved or asked to be moved? If Sixers think they need to part with one of their all stars, which one is it? These questions could be answered quicker than we could be expecting, look for major changes to come in Philadelphia as Boston looks to gear up and see who they play( 99% sure it will be the Raptors) in round two of the NBA playoffs.