Sixers Blow It

Knick fan, I didn’t forget about you. You know I love you, you crazy Knick fans. And you know I love a rabid, crazed night at MSG. Even if it comes at the expense of Philly fan, WHO I ALSO LOVE and the Sixers. I just love how out of control crazy Knick fan gets… what’s not to love about these foaming at the mouth.

That was basically the vibe in MSG last night. But despite crazy Knick fan doing crazy Knick fan things and making the atmosphere incredible, the Knicks still had to pull the game out of the fire. Credit to the Sixers, I guess, for having the Knicks on the ropes. But zero credit to the Sixers for the way they finished. Because they didn’t.

And Philly fan, I don’t want to hear about the refs. Just like I don’t want to hear lebag blaming the replay center, I don’t want to hear about the refs not bailing you out with a timeout. 

Look Philly, the Ref Show did not blow a five point lead in 14 seconds in the last minute of that game. Your Sixers did. And your Sixers can protest all they want, they’re never getting that game back. Nor should they. Because they got that game snatched from them.  And it wasn’t by the refs, it was by the Knicks. The Sixers were supposed to be doing the snatching, they were supposed to be snatching home court from the Knicks. And their souls.  And that would have been enormous, it could have easily turned this series. And the Sixers gagged that opportunity away, period.

It wasn’t the refs, it was this crazy sequence, which will go down as one of the best moments in Knicks playoff history and one of the worst moments in Sixers playoff history. 

Big week already for BANGS. A Mike Breen double bang after we just had a Jim Lampley Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reset yesterday. And that play and that call were so epic I might need to hear a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang remix for this one. 

Look, Philly fan, I know why you’re angry. Of course you're angry. Who could possibly sit through that sequence and not be angry. But it's not the ref show's fault. And deep down you all know it. That's just displaced anger. You know just as well as Nick Nurse knows it wasn't on the refs.

You’re all so mad at the ref show because deep down you all know, you had that game. You needed that game and you had that game. Deep down you all thought it was already over. Admit it, Philly fan. 

Admit that all of you were thinking exactly what was being said on the Sixers TV broadcast with 47 seconds left. And I hate to air you out like this, NBC Sports Philly crew, but I have to because it's just too perfect. Philly, you know this is what you were all thinking at this moment. 

Job done. Job done? Yeah, not exactly. Unless the job was to take one of those two games you want to steal on the road and gag it away in epic fashion, then yes, job done. In that case, mission accomplished.

Philly, you should just be thanking the Lake Show for the cover today or you would be getting all the heat. But here’s where I won’t get on the Sixers, I’m not gonna get on Joel Embiid for hanging his head in his locker after the game. 

No, it’s not the ideal body language, but if you listened to him, it’s not like the dude was lacking for confidence. He was actually guaranteeing they’d win the series. 

Yeah, I don’t know about that one Jo, not with you gimping around in what looks like excruciating pain. You’re like if the SEARING PAIN guy was a basketball player. I don’t know if you can make it through 4 more games in this series let alone win four more games in this series. 

You all know I’ll never totally count out Jo and I always love a good guarantee. This is also the spot where I might allow a conspiracy theory. Let me just say, I don't think Jo had his head down in his locker because he was pouting. I think something is up with the dude's eye. That's why his head was down, something weird is going on with his eye as in he got poked.  Maybe more than once. This dude’s out there, in pain, playing his ass off, so I’m not coming at him for his poor body language: he’s probably a little out of shape after missing time, and is completed gassed: oh and someone tried to gouge his eye out so I’ll forget him for less than stellar body language. 

I just hope he's alright. Because he better be alright if he plans to back up that promise he just made. It's a huge guarantee to make after one of the all-time gag jobs. Especially when you're hobbled as hell. It's really the only way to make that humiliating ending even more humiliating. 

So Sixers, y'all better be ready to back up your MVP and make this a series. Or else this disaster won't just go down as one of the worst choke jobs in your history, it'll go down as one of the worst choke jobs and empty guarantees in playoff history. And another early exit that we can’t pin on Doc Rivers, that will probably stick to my dude Troel, while it shouldn’t. That wasn’t a Troel gag, That was a team wide gag. Want to blame someone, don’t blame him.  Blame all of them.  Oh and the Knicks; they had something to do with it as well.