Philadelphia 76ers: Unleash the James Harden-Joel Embiid Pick-and-Roll

It’s here; it’s finally here: Playoffs, we’re talking playoffs.

For the fifth year in a row, your friendly neighborhood Philadelphia 76ers have made it to the big dance, and after securing the top seed last season – a seed that would have earned them a first-round bout against Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks in 2022 – Doc Rivers’ club now find themselves in a 4-5 series against the Toronto Raptors, with as many as three games set to be played at the Scotiabank Arena, an indoor venue that Matisse Thybulle is not eligible to play in due to his vaccination status.

Will the Sixers pull out a win and advance to the second round for the third time in four seasons, or will the Raptors again find themselves on top thanks to their savvy coaching, switchable lineup, and the ghost of a quadruple-doinked shot that still lives rent-free in the minds of more than a few fans?

Only time will tell, but if the Philadelphia 76ers want to have any chance at pulling out the W, they’ll need to unleash arguably the greatest play in their arsenal, the James Harden–Joel Embiid pick-and-roll, regardless of how the Raptors decide to cover it.

The Philadelphia 76ers need to get the most out of their best players offensively.

Defending the pick-and-roll is tough, especially when it’s run by a team like the Philadelphia 76ers with two dominant scorers like Joel Embiid and James Harden. A team can opt to switch, which keeps both defenders closely guarded, stay true while allowing the ball handler’s defender to lose a step, trap the ball handler over the screen, or even play under it in drop coverage, which opens up shots from beyond the arc sans a close on-ball defender.

In previous offensive schemes, picking a way to defend a Harden or Embiid pick-and-roll was largely based on slowing down either star player. The Sixers never had a guard who was a true equal to Embiid, making who to key in on rather obvious, and Harden seldom had a big who was an above-average shooter from anywhere on the court, in addition to having a similar ability to draw contact and get to the stripe. But now, with the duo paired up, stopping Mike D’Antoni‘s signature play is a particularly tough task, especially when surrounded by quick trigger shooters on the wings like Danny Green, Tyrese Maxey, and April Tobias Harris.

Now granted, if there’s a team built to defend the play better than most, it would be the Toronto Raptors, as they have about a dozen players who measure between 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-9 and could very realistically field a lineup capable of switching one-through-five if they play Scottie Barnes at point guard instead of Fred VanVleet, but considering they don’t have a true defensive matchup for Embiid, that might be easier said than done.

If the Raptors opt to trap Embiid once his screen is set, Harden gets a green light to the bucket where he can either core in the paint or kick the ball out if a help defender blitzes in. If they instead swarm Embiid as he drives to the basket, Harden can stop on a dime, step back, and take a shot from anywhere on the court.

Heck, the Sixers could even expand the play out into a double hand-off a la the play they spammed on Tyler Herro in last month’s game versus the Heat to get a surprise win without either of their best players and utilize Maxey’s speed to slice through the Raptors’ collection of defenders like an ax through a tree trunk.

Assuming everyone stays healthy, the Sixers’ offensive ceiling is only as high as Doc Rivers’ creativity and the team’s shooting percentage – two areas that have very much been concerning so far this season.

When the Philadelphia 76ers have their starting lineup on the court, they tend to outscore their foes by a pretty impressive margin – 20.2 points per 100 possessions, according to the Net Rating, to be specific. The presence of two premier scoring guards puts pressure on even good defensive backcourts, the presence of Matisse Thybulle helps to slow down premier perimeter scorers, and Joel Embiid serves as the sun in the middle that the rest of the system orbits around at both ends of the court. If the Sixers can just utilize the two-five pick-and-roll as their end-of-game offense, it’ll go a long way in preventing the end-of-game collapses that have plagued the Doc Rivers era and prevent the series from becoming a series of unfortunate events.