Weekend Rips: Sixers open Round 2 at home, Phillies try to stop sucking

We have officially made it to the end of the longest short week of 2021. A lot went down in the world of Philadelphia sports. Joel Embiid went down with a knee injury, the Sixers closed out the Wizards in 5, and some borderline braindead boomers on Facebook failed to grasp the importance of my legitimate journalism here at The Liberty Line. More on that later.

Regardless, ignore my saltiness and allow me to get you primed for a big weekend in Philly sports. I know it’s been a long workday already, and for some (myself included), it’s nowhere near over. Know that I’m here toiling along with you. So how about you put down the gun, let that family go, and turn yourself into the secure embrace of journalism. It’s time to let it rip.

Sixers welcome the Hawks to the Wells Fargo Center

The Sixers series against the villainous face of male pattern baldness, Trae Young, will be an interesting one. Before Joel Embiid’s small meniscus tear, many had this series as an easy win in 4 or 5 games, and 5 was pushing it. Now without our premier big man, many pundits, including the Big Aristotle himself, Shaquille O’Neal, are saying the Hawks will beat or even make light work of the Sixers.

Now, I am not denying the Hawks had a strong end of the regular season. And they did beat the Knicks in five games. However, I feel like most people are forgetting that the Knicks really are not that good at basketball. They had Taj Gibson starting for a playoff team. In 2021. We still have Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons, plus an increasingly productive Tyrese Maxey. Throw Matisse Thybulle in the mix, and the Hawks are still pretty fucked.

Game 1 of the series is Sunday at 1:00 pm on ABC. I usually hate the early starts, but imagine how dangerous things would be for Trae Young with a Wells Fargo Center crowd at maximum BAC levels. Smart move by Adam Silver on that one.

Keep an eye out for the officiating in this one. Trae Young is the ultimate foul hunter, and the refs in the first round were gulag-worthy.

Phillies try not to get swept lol

Look, I’m finding it increasingly hard to care about the Phillies. They lost by 10 runs to the Reds, then hung 17 on them the next night. It makes no goddamn sense to me. They are not worthy of Flyers-level slander from me. At least not yet.

That being said, they are taking on the Nationals starting tonight. We’ll have Wheeler tonight and then two other guys that are not nearly as good pitching on Saturday and Sunday. At least, I would assume. Wouldn’t that be crazy if he pitched three days in a row? I digress.

It’s a 7:05-4:05-1pm start. As I’ve said before, that series of start times is the best because you can justify drinking earlier and earlier as the weekend progress. I simply will not be watching the 1 o’clock game on Sunday, though. I have a far more pressing reason to drink that day.

Liberty Line Radio

Liberty Line Radio will air on Saturday from 5-6pm on Fox Sports The Gambler. In typical TLL fashion, the lineup for the show has yet to be set after myself and the other guys have carried the weight of the radio airwaves on our shoulders over the last month. It’s a safe bet saying that LLR will be Sixers focused, with game one of the second round on the horizon.

Always good to tune in and show some support for a Philly Sports Talk radio station that is NOT named the Fanatic or WIP. After yet another embarrassing moment from Cataldi this morning, hopefully a change in direction is coming for Philadelphia as we all deserve better than whatever that old man is screaming about every morning.

The Liberty Line

This has been quite the start of the month for TLL. We’ve been cranking out articles, Sam and I had a banger of a Wolves episode (which you can listen to below), and have had mostly good vibes in the chat. “Mostly good” is the operative phrase in that sentence, however.

My Andre Dillard “article” drew some ire in a Facebook group. Not sure how they took it seriously – I literally wrote that it was garbage in the second paragraph – but whatever.

Now, I know that what I write can be controversial to those that don’t remotely understand nuance. I have to thank Drew and Vic for letting me do my thing with pretty much zero restrictions.

At the same time, though, clicks talk. These boomers can bitch all they want. If they clicked, I already won.

Game set match.