Keith Pompey, Philadelphia Inquirer Sixers Reporter

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A U D A C U I. Download it today. Keith how are you man? Yeah I'm doing well man thanks for having me on the show. No doubt about it. Now we spoke right before the series started and we knew that a lot of this came down to the health of Embiid. We saw him go down on Saturday night with the knee. We saw him nursing the knee on the bench yesterday. Look lame at the end of the game and then we also saw some things with his eye.

Holding his head down in the glasses. What's the latest on his health if there is any update? Yeah I mean the thing about the health like you know I think he got scratched in the eye and I think you know that's that's impacting him right now.

And that's you know why he's wearing the glasses and everything like that. In regards to the knee you know at one point I was thinking he was around 80 percent, 90 percent. I mean the way that he moves in the second half it leads you to believe that it's worse or it gets worse you know as the game goes on with the grind you know the wearing care the grinding. And if you look at his stats in the in the first two playoff games he goes on a decline in the second half.

So you know I mean I think that you know he's good enough to play. He's not playing close to his capability but the problem is when he doesn't play they lose a lot. They lose a lot. So you know it's one of those things where you don't want them out there to get injured but and you hope everything works out well but at the same time if you want to win you don't want them on the bench cheering. You know it's a crazy situation.

You certainly don't. Keith Pompey is here with us from the Philadelphia Inquirer. We heard earlier in the day that Maxie was potentially out with an illness, didn't look ill on the court last night as he went out there and dropped 35 points. Nothing to think about going forward huh? I guess he got pumped full of some fluids and he was fine.

Nothing to think about in the future right? Yeah he got pumped. He was pumped with the fluids and you know the thing about it is this was a regular season game. Let's say a regular season game in December or something like that. Yeah he wouldn't play. January he wouldn't play. But with his team down 0-1 in the first round of the playoffs against the Knicks he had to play and he knew it. And the thing about it when you talk to him you can tell that he had a cold right? But he wasn't kind of like when you looked at him you heard it in his voice but you didn't see it.

Like he wouldn't look like somebody that was fatigued or or anything like that. He just you know he just seemed like he had a cough. So Keith we know he had the turnover at the end of the game that led to the multiple chances with the Divacenzo 3. Nick Nurse made it very clear he was attempting to call a timeout. Did we get any word? Did the Sixers get any type of word as to whether or not he should have been granted a timeout? And Bead also made reference to the two-minute report.

Did we get anything? Yeah the two-minute report made a thing that the officials got some stuff wrong you know in there. You know I was actually looking at it you know before I got on the phone you know with you. So yeah the two-minute report you know it picked up a lot of things you know that were wrong.

But I'm gonna be honest with you I'm not a real I'm not a big fan with the two-minute report because if you look at it it's always something right. And you know when you look at that video you know it was really subjective to when you know Nick Nurse called the timeout. And what I mean by that is like the first one that he had it was kind of like at first he had his hands like with the tee and then he took it down a little bit. And then in the second one I think when he turned his back to call the timeout at that particular point Maxie had already lost the ball.

You know what I mean? So it's kind of like it's one of those bang-bang plays and but to me the reason why they lost the game was because you know they didn't guard three-point shooters nor did they box out. And that led to that you know led to the center getting the put back I mean excuse me getting to grab the offensive rebound, Herkenshine and passing it to Dante DiVincenzo. So you know we can go and we could go debate this until you know people are blue in the face. But the facts remain is you got to help yourself too by boxing out and guarding and guarding three-point shooters. Keith Pompeii is here with us from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

You're listening to the JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network Coast to Coast. What did the Sixers hope to get from filing a grievance that they haven't been officiated fairly? Is this kind of just pushing the envelope? They couldn't expect anything from this right? They're just making a fuss to pay attention for the next game. Yeah exactly like you know I mean the game was already decided right. The officials you know at that point it was what 50 minutes after the game officials had already left the building and most likely right. So I mean they're not going to bring them back they're not going to do anything it's just a matter of like look you know we feel as if we're not getting a fair shake. You know we feel like there could be a little bit of bias or something like that. You know so I feel like that's what it was let's put them look and also I looked at it as you know right then and there you have Nick Nurse saying what he said you have Joel Embiid saying what they thought and I feel like the team wanted to also give them support.

It's kind of like all right don't worry about this we'll take care of it right we're going to take it out of your hands and we're going to address the situation. But yeah that's more or less for game three you know they're coming to Philadelphia and they want to make sure that they're going to get you know some nice calls and make sure that the officials pay attention to things and call the game you know closer than they were in games one and two. You know Keith you mentioned game three going to be in Philadelphia on Thursday evening.

What's going to be different and has your outlook changed any different? Like what do you think about the way the rest of the series is going to look? You know it's weird like typically when in playoff series like in anything they say role players tend to play better at home right so when we when we look at you know we look at the Knicks role players who say a guy like a Deuce McBride you know who had a phenomenal game in in game one he didn't shoot the ball as particularly well in game two but but he did some hustle play things. So then you look at a guy like Buddy Hill right you look at a guy like Kelly Oubre I think that they could be guys because they're going to have the crowd at their back cheering and doing stuff like that that whereas they could ride the crowd and and give them momentum just like Deuce McBride got the momentum when he was in the garden right so that could happen. You know the thing about it is I think that another thing is I think the Sixers have to put full quarters together they really do you know because this past game you know they were up until those last five minutes they were doing everything that you wanted them to do you know they played great defense against Jaylen Brunson right they were they were like even in regards to offensive rebounds they were they were keeping the Knicks off the board so to speak and then all of a sudden within those last couple minutes and especially down the stretch it was as if they forgot how to block out again it was as if they forgot how to guard Jaylen because Jaylen people forget even Chenzel had a big three but Jaylen is the one that started it with his three pointer so to me it's like the Sixers have to learn how to play a complete complete game and hopefully for them they can do that on Thursday. Do you think that oh everybody got a chance until it's done would you favor the Sixers to bounce back and win this series or you think they're cooked? You know what I don't know that's this is one of the bizarre theories like I don't do you think like when you look at Joel Embiid and you see how Joel Embiid is moving you have to say that you think that New York is going to win this series right right you have to say that but when you look at this series these were two games that the Sixers were in but also they they lost these games and Brunson basically struggled right so I do I do believe that the New York Knicks are going to win the series right but I do think that when you're up 2-0 and you're and you know you come in with a little bit of confidence you know I know you're riding high you're doing this you're doing that and when you get in the silly it's going to be a raucous crowd you know I mean and and they know all the chance that they said about um Joel and Paul Reed you know the expletive um uh Joel Embiid so my my thing is I think that this is the big key is going to be how are the Knicks going to be able to weather the storm because I think the storm is coming it's just going to be how can they weather and if they can throw some haymakers and some uppercuts I think they'll be good if not I think the Sixers are going to win this one um game three and then we'll you know have to reevaluate moving forward well Keith Pompeo is here with us from the Philadelphia Inquirer we heard the comments from Joel Embiid after the game said we're the better team we're going to come out and win this in Philadelphia could those words come back to back bite him in the backside you know what I don't know I don't think so you don't you don't know I want to know why because if you think about it now I remember back in the day that was like taboo to say like you don't say that and whenever someone said it like when Joe Namath said that and he and then he did it everyone's like oh Broadway Joe Broadway Joe now you got third string like powerful and everybody's saying it right so it's kind of like it's one of those things if you come back and you say well it's tough I hope we get them and people are looking at you like you don't have any confidence so to me when I hear that yes it's good to talk about you know I mean it's good to write about but at the same time it's like he's just another dude saying we're going to come back and win okay well listen with his health with his uh injury history I don't know if I'd be confident enough to say anything about playing but hey it's to each his own Keith yeah true true well appreciate you thank you again where can people follow you and your work throughout the rest of the series yeah you can follow me and my work you can follow my work in uh um in the philadelphia inquire inquire.com you can follow me on twitter at pompey on six or the same for insta um instagram and and you can uh listen to my uh podcasts locked on 76. Hey well Keith thank you again for taking the time to hop on and we'll certainly see what these Sixers do at minimum over the next two games I know they want to push it to seven so thank you so much for taking the time man thanks for having me I really appreciate you t-mobile has invested billions to light up america's largest 5g network from big cities to small towns including right here in yours and great coverage is just the beginning right now families and small businesses can save up to 20 percent versus at&t and Verizon when they switch visit your local t-mobile store today plan savings with three lines of t-mobile essentials versus comparable available plans plan features and taxes and fees may vary what up y'all it's your boy Danny green three-time NBA champ you either rooted for me or rooted against me join myself and my close Harrison Sanford on the inside the green room podcast it's a podcast that brings you never before told tales from the locker room to candid interviews with basketball legends to breakdowns of what's happening in the NBA right now whether you're a die-hard fan or casual about your hoops this podcast brings you the game like never before follow inside the green room on the odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts