Felger: The 76ers might be different
The Boston Celtics fell to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night 106-103 to fall to 5-2 on the season. On Thursday’s Felger and Mazz, Felger gave his thoughts on the 76ers and how this version of the team is different from recent 76ers teams.
Are the Philadelphia 76ers different this year?
Felger: To me, what would scare me if I were a Celtics fan, or the Celtics, is that actually you weren’t bad last night. That we actually played okay and Mazzulla believed that. And he said that multiple times, he thought they played good defense on Embiid. He thought they played good defense on Maxey. He thought they played good offense and they just missed shots. He wasn’t concerned with their effort. You know, he felt they played well. But that’s what would worry me, that they actually weren’t half assed and they actually gave a representative effort and they still weren’t that much better than Philly. Or that Philly somehow has gained on them. And this is what I looked at, and I don’t know why I got the feeling of this but for the first time….I feel Philly is worthy of a little bit of respect. I am now, for the first time, I’m considering making Philly a real threat to you, Milwaukee, to anyone. I feel they might be different. No longer do they have some bum gumming up the works like James Harden or Ben Simmons or someone like that. They don’t have some loser bum in the middle of the thing. Maxey, you know who I felt had taken a step back early in year two, feels like he’s coming of age and now he’s clearly the second guy there and he’s made a big step to All-Star status or All-Star quality. Embiid is in his absolute prime, Maxey’s coming into his prime, they’ve clear the decks of that trash, Nick Nurse obviously knows how to coach. He knows how to coach defense. And with Covington and Batum, those guys that they got back for James Harden, on the wing it just fits better there. And do I look at him more like a real threat?