On May 3, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs continued, and Philadelphia lost to the Heat 92-106 in the first leg of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. And the most important reason for Philadelphia's loss in this game is that their interior line is completely exploded. Jordan Jr., in particular, was the darkest time in Philadelphia.
Statistics can prove how bad Jordan Jr.'s performance is. He only played 17 minutes in the game, but lost 22 points when he was on the floor. Although he delivered 2 blocks, he only grabbed 2 rebounds, and in the two time periods when Philadelphia dug holes in the first quarter and collapsed in the last quarter, Jordan Jr. was all on the court.
But what makes people helpless is that even if everyone can see how bad Jordan Little is, Rivers, who once brought him in the Clippers, still supports Little Jordan. He also made it clear in a post-match interview, "Whether you like it or not, we will continue to let Jordan Jr. start because we like him and our players believe in him." ”
Many people believe that Rivers used Jordan Jr. because Philadelphia had no other centers to use after Embiid's injury. But is this really the case? At least in this game, there is an interior lineman who is significantly better than Jordan Jr., he is Reid who played in 13 minutes and got 4 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.
But in Rivers' view, Reed's presence was not as effective as Jordan Jr., and when someone mentioned Reed's name, Rivers also said, "Listen, I don't like to have Reed and Adebayor in alignment, and I like Reed on the court when we play joint defense or infinite change, but unfortunately, it makes us lose control of the rebound." And after I put Jordan Jr. on the line, he could really protect the rebound for us. ”
But Rivers' statement made people very confused. Because of this game, Reed Mingming only took 13 minutes to grab 9 rebounds, and 5 offensive rebounds, while Jordan Jr. only grabbed 2 rebounds in 17 minutes. In this case, is it actually the latter who has better ability to protect the rebound than the former? It's hard to understand.
It must be admitted that in the case of Embiid's injury, even if Reid became a surprise soldier for a short time, he really could not fight Adebayor for a long time, and because he was too young, he received 5 fouls in 13 minutes, which is also a big problem. But at least young players like Reed are significantly more fighting and effective than Jordan Jr. when he was on the floor. But Rivers is hard to reverse black and white, nepotism, in such a situation, because of the lack of Embiid's already inferior Philadelphia, how can we see the hope of victory?