They focused on demolishing Harden as he was the reason for the game 1 upset against the home team. In game 2, they made sure that Harden would be cold so he would not have the confidence to continue shooting the ball. His performance was very poor, but that will change in game 3.

In game 3, the 76ers will be back on their home court, and the best way to impress the fans is to win the first game. So, I'll probably still ride with the 76ers in game 3, and I like that they remain the underdog.

In game 3, the 76ers are only +1.5, which is nice.

I was expecting restricted minutes from him, but he played 27 minutes and did not go in the 4th quarter due to the huge lead created by the Boston Celtics. If not, then he might be playing at 32-36 minutes which I don't think is a wise idea after the 76ers won game 1 without him.
The good thing is, he is now warmed up for the 2nd round, maybe in Game 3 we will see a different Joel Embiid especially playing at their home with the crowd on their side. That should boost their confidence up and they could put the series in 3 wins against 1 thanks to the heroic performance of Harden in the first game at TD Garden.

They always come back stronger just see the 4th quarter that the run is very huge which means they are capable of coming back they just caught off short that time. I am not really a fan of GS as I am always a fan of LBJ but when it comes to games between GSW I always got nervous as no matter the gap of points if the last quarter they can make runs that they can get into OT or even win the game. My gut for tomorrow's game is that GSW will win that is why I still haven't bet for tomorrow lol

basically, Celtics needed that win, so it does not surprise that the difference was that large
but, next match will be different, 76ers have their break, and now they will try to secure some home wins, not sure they will succeed dough

Lakers and Warriors is really interesting duel, two teams that have waited for play-off to show what they are capable for, and winner could have some chance to reach Finals after all, exciting to follow this one

Embiid probably hasn't fully recovered from his injury, and I think his knee pain was one of the reasons why he didn't perform as MVP in Game 2. By the way, even if Embiid hadn't played, the 76ers probably still would have lost to the Celtics since Harden also had a poor performance in that game. In any case, the next game will be at the 76ers home arena, and it seems to me that they can take advantage of that.

It's understandable because the Lakers and the Warriors have their own huge fan bases, so, whoever wins a game will literally make the team hype as they have their own supporters who will lift their names every win. But thinking about the Lakers to sweep the Warriors or at least 4-1 record? I mean, that is indeed possible but knowing how resistant the Warriors are, they will surely fight for every game even if it will come into Game 7. Saying a 4-1 record in favor of the Lakers is like underestimating the Warriors.

I understand your concerns mate but their 3rd game is going to happen 2 days from now because the Celtics will have to travel first towards the Philly's homecourt and then do some practice before the official game will commence, so maybe by that time, Joel Embiid is already good to go and ready to play on his maximum capacity.

But the whole Sixers squad shouldn't be complacent of the fact that Joel might be back 100% on that day because the Celtics are still hard to contain and every player available that belongs to the Sixers will have to step up their game because James Harden is not that reliable enough to be a scoring machine and help Embiid doing the chores.

Then he shouldn't be playing at game 2 if he still has some pain in his knee otherwise it will be dangerous for him if he aggravate it. So I doubt that it's bothering him, it's that Joel and Harden had a bad game against the Boston and we should give credit to the Celtics for making the adjustment in game 2. And with that, the series shifts to 76ers home court, now we will see how the team are going to play and respond to the big lost they suffer in game 2. And we should be expecting Joel to put a great performance to prove why he is the MVP as you have said. And the good thing is that they are the underdog ML and as someone has said +1.5 handicap.

for my time zone tomorrow there's the Lakers game, the game will be right when I'm sleeping. I don't know if I'll be able to watch the whole game or part of the game, but I think it will be a very difficult task, because if I stay to watch the game then I would have to spend the whole day sleeping, which would also be impossible for me to do that. anyway, I see losing this game, also with the odd in favor of the Golden State Warriors, and not just a small one, the Golden State Warriorst has an odd of @1.39 while the Lakers has an odd of @3.10, it is a very big difference, I see who are greatly underestimating the Lakers who managed to win in the first game, even if the victory was not by a difference of many points, it is still a victory

although I understand that the Warriors will work hard to not allow them to leave this game with a defeat again, I think that the Lakers will also fight to win this game and be more advanced in this confrontation against the Warriors, a victory for the Lakers in this game, would put us in a position where it would put a lot of psychological pressure on the Warriors in game three, which could result in them making more mistakes in game three, but a loss for the Lakers in this game, something tells me that in game three we would lose, and we would run high risk of being eliminated by the Warriors. Anyway, I won't place any bets, I just hope I'm less sleepy at the time of the game because I would have a chance to watch a few minutes of the game