👋 Good morning! The Sixers win, and now we get five very intriguing days of playoff sports in South Philadelphia.

Can’t wait.

You can reach me at [email protected]

🏀 Sixers 111, Boston 97: Just a terrific response from everyone involved.

I do not know what will happen in the rest of the series, but I am happy that the Sixers at least got one. Game 1 was a pretty brutal performance, but I did not think that was representative of this team’s season. These Sixers are far from perfect and have been a pretty darn average team overall, but I thought they battled reasonably well through injuries and very little help from the front office in free agency or at the trade deadline. In my opinion, it would not have been fitting for this group to get straight-up embarrassed for four straight games.

You know what team is embarrassing as hell, though?

⚾ Chicago (NL) 7, Phillies 4: The good news: Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper homered, those guys are both having good seasons. And the Phillies scored in multiple innings.

The bad news: Everything else. Literally everything else.

Seven straight losses.

I did not elect to watch much of the Phils last night, and considering how the two games went, I made the right choice. It seems like they get down 5-1 or 6-1 every single night.

It is unbelievable how bad the Phils are. That said, it is also amazing how many bloop hits they are giving up in key spots. This is Michael Busch’s two-run, two-out single, one where he gets completely jammed and bloops one 67 mph off the bat into no-man’s land. It’s uncanny. The BABIP gods have not been kind.

And look, we all know Alec Bohm has been brutal. Here is a tweet to show you just how brutal. Not even Puddin’ Head Magee or Tin Can Turner had a worse start with the bat in their hands than Ol’ Alec this season. If Aidan Miller’s back was functioning properly, he probably would have been in Philadelphia a week ago.

Two guys who I think are not getting enough blame for this miserable start:

Before the game at Wrigley, Dave Dombrowski told reporters that “there’s nothing to ponder at this point” in terms of a managerial change. Joe Girardi got until June, but then again, I do not remember a stretch of baseball quite this hopeless under Girardi. The players sure hated him, though.

Can we at least get a lineup change to shake something up? To me, there is no argument for staying the course sitting at 27th in runs per game. You have forfeited the right to stay the course. Turner came up as the the tying run with two outs in the 9th last night, and he had a horrible at-bat like he has all year in those spots. How about flipping him and the guy who set the record for leadoff homers two years ago? How about moving Justin Crawford, who actually gets on base at a decent clip, up ahead of these guys that never get on base?

Something, anything!

Once upon a time, the Sixers had a shooting guard that tormented some really good Boston Celtics teams.

Andrew Toney famously went for 30, 39 and 34 points respectively in three Sixers wins in the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals, the last of which was the famous “Beat LA” game. The 80s Celtics were a historically great team, but on the way there, Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge had a whole lot of trouble with Toney… so much so that they went out and traded for Dennis Johnson just to guard him.

And as we all know, Toney got one of the greatest nicknames in the history of sports for his exploits: The Boston Strangler.

If that one is a 10 out of 10 on The Nickname Scale, VJ Maxx is probably a 2.5. But in the second playoff game of his NBA career, just for one night (key phrase there!), the Sixers’ rookie shooting guard put up an effort that was downright Toney-ian. Dagger jumper after dagger jumper, sending the Boston faithful drinking their delicious Sam Adams home sad. The only thing missing was the high socks.

Keep ‘em coming, you asked? Sure.

Heading into a playoff series that the Shorthanded Sixers entered as +900 to win (read: massive underdogs) and that there was little local enthusiasm for, there was one obvious benefit heading in: VJ Edgecombe, who is gonna finish third in a loaded Rookie of the Year race, would get rewarded with some real playoff reps that should be beneficial in the long run no matter how they went.

Remember, NBA rookies generally are not supposed to be good players. Even the ones that become good players are not typically very good. And the ones who are good right away are often on bad teams that do not make the playoffs. All year, playing on a real team, VJ blew away my preseason expectations with what he did as a 19 year old.

Self-creation. Winning plays. Daggers. All of them were on display in Game 2 in Boston, as VJ finished with 30 points (12-20 FG, 6-10 3P) and 10 rebounds.

Erin Grugan, who does a great job at Liberty Ballers, clipped all of VJ’s highlights. The first clip is one of those winning plays. Kelly Oubre gets back-cut and VJ peels off his man to contest Jayson Tatum’s shot, before using his speed to get a layup in transition. Winning play. He also secured 10 total rebounds and six on the defensive glass, which was critical because the Sixers are the single-worst defensive rebounding team since Dr. Naismith put the peach baskets up.

The Celtics are very good, and yeah, they still are pretty solid favorites to win the series. But they have one obvious weakness that they did not have the last few years: Their centers are very limited defenders. When they had Al Horford, who I will never forgive for his brutal season in Philly, they could switch 1 through 5 credibly and force you to play iso ball. Remember the game-winner that James Harden hit in Game 1 at TD Garden back in 2022? That was good defense on a switch by Horford, just a wildly good shot by Harden.

But the luxury tax comes for us all, and Joe Mazzulla now puts his centers — Neemias Queta, Nikola Vucevic and Luka Garza — in a deep drop all game. All of those guys are much better on offense than defense. They are slow, so the Celtics play conservatively to protect the rim. Derrick White does a really good job of chasing around picks on defense, but when the screen hits on a pick-and-roll, the Celtics are in trouble.

Look how far back these guys are! It’s laughable. These are warm-up shots.

I understand why Mazzulla elects to play that way. His 5s do not move all that well. But man, he sat in that deep drop all game and let Edgecombe, Maxey and Paul George shoot practice jumper after practice jumper. When help came from somewhere else outside of the center, the Sixers destroyed that coverage too. Maybe Mazzulla will watch some more tape before Game 3 instead of The Town for the 10,000th time.

VJ’s final dagger, a step-back in Payton Pritchard’s grill, was nasty. That was a Harden-level tough shot. The Sixers had a few of those, but I thought their shot quality was pretty darn good for most of this one. It will be interesting to see how the Celtics react. The Sixers are probably not going to shoot 19-39 from deep again, but if Boston continues to guard pick-and-rolls like that, I would bet they are gonna shoot closer to those numbers than what they shot in their anemic Game 1 effort.

Hey, a little intrigue in this series! That’s fun. Maybe we see The Big Fella at some point this weekend?

Some other quick notes:

The news and notes of the day…

Zack Wheeler: Wheels will mercifully return to the rotation this weekend in his home state of Georgia. That is a great story, even if Wheeler’s fastball velo is down and he is returning to a team that has not won a baseball game in nine days.

On the latest Ringer’s Philly Special, my guy Tony Bunz comped Wheeler with 23 ribs to 2025 Brandon Woodruff, who had a 3.20 ERA a season ago. I think that is right. When the games start mattering, Wheeler is an excellent pitcher with a bunch excellent secondaries, he will figure it out to a degree. Well, at least I hope so, as we stare at eight straight losses.

The Mets lost again: 12 in a row!

The Phillies are the worst baseball team I have ever seen in my life right now, and they are still a game up on those bozos.

One quick Flyers thought for Game 3: So, the crowd is going to be crazy tonight and rightfully so. These fans have been waiting for a while for an opportunity like this one.

But these Flyers also win by playing a more disciplined style. Some neutrals might even call it boring. Not me of course, I am quite entertained by my favorite hockey team stifling my least favorite hockey team. Rick Tocchet and co. do not have to apologize for anything. Even to my untrained eye, it seems like they are owning the neutral zone and forcing the Penguins away from the high-danger areas.

That said, my Negadelphian fear is that the Flyers get too pumped up for tonight’s game and might not play that grind-it-out style we saw in Pittsburgh. Or maybe they will be just the appropriate amount of pumped. Or maybe none of this matters and I should stop worrying until the puck actually drops.

Quick little reminder: At the end of the week, I am locking this baby up. If you would like to still get the newsletter Monday through Friday after that, subscribe here.

The Flyers and Penguins resume their series in Philly tonight (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly), as the good guys go for the knockout blow. I truly am not prepared for how raucous that building is gonna be. Watch Game 3 from Flyers-Pens 2012 to get you in the mood.

And looking to stop the bleeding, the Fightins are turning to none other than Taijuan Walker and his 9.16 ERA (7:40, NBC Sports Philly Plus). But do not fear, the Phils are starting an opener (Kyle Backhus) to avoid Primetime' Tai’s 24.75 ERA in the first inning.

Backhus better go two, because Tai’s second inning ERA is also in double digits.

I have been slacking on the NFL Draft coverage, but we will have a big preview for you tomorrow to get ready for Round 1. I am feeling a meat and potatoes type of draft for Howie.

Let’s make it a good one.

Rich