In the first match between the Heat and the 76ers Eastern Conference semifinals, the Heat defeated the 76ers 106-93 to win the Opening Reds in the Eastern Conference Semifinals and lead the series 1-0. In this game, 76ers All-Star center Embiid was unable to play due to injury, because the burden of the team's other star, James Harden, was heavier, but unfortunately, harden played a very bad performance when the team needed Harden to stand up the most.
Harden played 34 minutes in this game, 5 of 13 shots, 7 of 7 three-pointers, 16 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, and 5 turnovers, as the core of the team's organization, Harden's 5 turnovers and 5 assists together, it seems very bad. It is worth mentioning that in this game, the 76ers players shot 0 of 10 from three points after receiving Harden's pass, equaling the worst three-point shooting rate in the league after passing by a single player in the playoffs in the past 8 years. In addition, the 76ers made 6-of-34 three-pointers from the field, shooting 17.6 percent from the field.
There is no doubt that the lack of strength of teammates affects Harden's assist rate to a certain extent, but it must also be admitted that Harden himself has not done well enough, such as some balls are handled very casually, some mistakes are very low-level, all along, Harden is a person who can brush assist data in the regular season, but in the playoffs, when facing the top teams, his organizational ability will often be greatly reduced, and the number of mistakes is constantly rising, that is to say, in the game of top defense and high-intensity confrontation, Harden's organizational abilities are limited.
Especially against a team like the Heat, which likes physical confrontation and excellent defense, Harden undoubtedly played very badly in the game. He himself admits that he needs to fight more aggressively. But in fact, Harden also has his own helplessness, compared with Butler, Adebayo double star shining Heat, the 76ers are now only hardened to support, and in the face of the Heat's defensive intensity, most of the organizers can only eat up, not only Harden, the Heat's first-round opponent Eagles, their organizational core Trae Young, averaging only 6 assists per game, but there are 6.2 mistakes.
Obviously, the Heat are very good at locking up opponents of the organizers, especially this season they introduced PJ Tucker, the defensive tough guy provided the Heat with a very critical defense and offense in this year's playoffs, the first round of low strong eating Trae Young, this game is dead end Harden, the whole game Tucker shot 4 of 9, got 10 points, 7 rebounds and 1 assist, and his teammates praised him after the game.
Spoelstra said: "He was very good on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and that's what winning basketball should look like. Speaking of Tucker, Adebayor said: "He's one of the best defenders in the league. In a way, Tucker made up for Iguodala's position very well, allowing the Heat to change back to the Heat that reached the Finals in 2020, and it is because the Heat frequently let hardened super-organizers like Harden and Trae Young in this year's playoffs, which makes it even more obvious how strong the organization of Lakers star LeBron James is.
Although everyone has always known that James is good at organization, good passing, and has won the NBA's single-season assist king, but how good James's organizational ability is, many people actually have no specific concept. Now take Harden and Trae Young as a comparison, and then look at James's 2020 Finals against the Heat to play an average of 29.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game, combined with that year's Finals, James frequently used the pass to break the Heat defense line, so that the Heat team lost one or the other, you can clearly know that James's organizational ability is not only reflected in the data, but also in the reading of the game, tactical understanding, court command, and finally reflected in the real teammates to become better.