After beating the Hawks 4-1 and the Raptors 4-2, respectively, the Heat, who ranked first in the East in the regular season, and the 76ers, who are fourth, met in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Many fans have given great expectations to this series, after all, both sides have All-Star players in the seat, and they are very close in strength, and it is foreseeable that this series will be very anxious.
But before the series could begin, the 76ers suffered a sunny day, and Embiid was reportedly diagnosed with a fractured right eye socket and a minor concussion after the game due to being elbowed by Siakam in the sixth game of the first series. After being elbowed, Embiid was bleeding from his brow bone, and no fan thought there would be such serious consequences. Embiid does not have a comeback schedule for the time being, but according to players with eye socket fracture injuries in the league's history, such injuries will miss about 10 games. According to the league's concussion regulations, he is likely to miss many games in the second round.
This is undoubtedly a huge blow to the 76ers, after all, in the vast majority of the season's regular season and the first round of the playoffs, the 76ers would be difficult to win without Embiid. In the first round of the series this season, the 76ers, who are fourth in the East, have been challenged by the Raptors, and in the first two games, the 76ers have played a very dominant performance, winning the game by 20 and 15 points respectively, and taking a big 2-0 lead. In the third game, although the game once entered overtime, the 76ers finally won the game with Embiid's three-point kill.
However, although no team in NBA history has been able to complete the reversal without falling behind 0:3, in the next two games, the 76ers, who suddenly lost power, were startled by the Raptors in a cold sweat. In the fourth and fifth games, although the team's main point guard VanVleet missed the game, the Raptors still led Siakam to two consecutive cities, including the fifth game of the Raptors also won the opponent by 15 points. Fortunately, in the sixth game, the two emperors returned in time, and the two scored 55 points to help the team win 132:97, rejecting the embarrassing reversal and thus advancing 4:2.
As can be seen from this series, when Embiid is not performing well, the 76ers are difficult to win the game, and Harden's sluggish performance is a very important reason. In the six games of this series, Ha has only been able to get 19 points, 5 rebounds and 10.2 assists, shooting only 40.5% from the field, and many of the data have set new lows in recent seasons. Harden scored under 20 in two games, a rare phenomenon in the past few seasons. With Embiid suffering from a finger tear injury and his poor hand, Harden did not come forward in time to save the team.
To make matters worse, the 76ers will face a second-round opponent who will be the Heat, who are no. 1 in the East this season, and on the offensive end, the Heat have often been able to play on the offensive side this season with excellent offensive tactics, and on the defensive end, the Heat are one of the top teams in the league. After the ups and downs of the second half of the regular season, many fans were not optimistic about the Heat before the playoffs began. But in the first-round series against the Hawks, the Heat's performance surprised many fans outside.
In the first two home games, the Heat have beaten the Hawks without bloodshed, and although the Hawks have pulled back a city in the third game with Trae Young's throw, the Heat have won a big win in the fourth game, and in the fifth game, it is more difficult to send the Hawks out with Butler and Lowry absent at the same time. Under the Heat's strict defense and orderly attack, even the extremely arrogant Trae Young was beaten to the point of no temper. In addition, Butler can average 30.5 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.8 steals per game in this series explosion, which is also an important reason why they can play a good performance.
So if Embiid ends up playing the first two or more games in the series, the 76ers will face a huge challenge. At present, many fans in the outside world are also more optimistic that the Heat can eliminate them and successfully advance to the next round, as the famous Barkley said in an interview, he is more optimistic about the Heat can advance, because the Heat are very stable in almost every game in the playoffs, and Harden's performance is not so stable. From Barkley's opinion, it can also be seen that Harden's state will become an important factor affecting this series.
Indeed, without Embiid, the most important pillar of interior scoring, the 76ers will be very important if they want to win the game. In the current 76ers lineup, whether Harden can play in normal form will be the key to the 76ers' outside firepower. But the problem is that Harden's sudden fall this season has really worried many fans, whether in the Nets or in the 76ers, Harden has been up and down due to injuries and other factors, and in the first round of the series is very bad.
To make matters worse, he still has to face the Heat, which has strong defensive ability, and when defending outside players, the Heat often take the form of full-court or half-court defense, and even in the blocking and demolition, the Heat can often complete the due change of defense at the first time. In addition, they are also unceremonious when defending, often using larger moves to limit opponents, even if they lose fouls. As a result, such a defense makes it difficult for many outside players to easily break through to the inside line, as evidenced by Trae Young's poor performance in the first round of the series. In such a situation, Harden will face great pressure.
On the inside, judging from the current 76ers lineup, after the lack of Embiid, it will be difficult for them to launch a position attack on the inside, and the Heat's interior core Adebayo will also put their interior defense under pressure. In addition, as an axis of the 76ers' offensive system, Embiid's absence will also put other players under greater defensive pressure. In short, before the game officially begins, the 76ers coaching staff must find a way to solve the problem of Embiid's absence, otherwise their season will end prematurely.