As the core of the Rockets team with great influence in the country, James Harden has a very high popularity, after leaving Space City for the championship dream, fans hope to see Harden at the peak of his career, as a core player to lead the team to lift the O'Brien Cup, after joining the 76ers, his combination with embiid the emperor also once let the fans see hope, but after passing the first round, Embiid's injury made the overall strength of the team decline significantly. And they encountered the Heat in the regular season to play the best record in the East, in the absence of the Emperor, the 76ers want to win, Harden must do more, after the first game loss, Harden obviously showed stronger aggression in the second game, helpless head coach Rivers's various pit-digging show operations, as well as the Heat's excellent play, so that the 76ers lost to the Heat again 103-119, and the series fell into a 0-2 behind situation!
Rivers is worthy of being the king of the NBA's reversals
The inability of a general to exhaust the three armies has been proven countless times in competitive sports, and Rivers can become the king of the NBA's reversal, which must have a lot to do with his coaching ability and level, in this game with the Heat, Rivers has frequently fainted and become a loser under Spaugh.
In the first game of the two-side series, Jordan Jr., who replaced Embiid, was the main target of the Heat, every time when Jordan Jr. appeared, the Heat always took the opportunity to play a wave of climax, according to the statistics after the game, in the 17 minutes of Jordan Jr.'s play, the Heat scored a total of 51 points, and in the 31 minutes of Jordan Jr.'s rest, the Heat scored only 55 points, and the 76ers netted 8 points!
Knowing that Jordan Jr. would be targeted, Rivers still let Jordan Jr. start in the second game, and the results can be imagined, the game began with the Heat playing a climax, establishing a leading edge, insisting on using Jordan Jr., which was definitely one of Rivers' biggest failures.
In addition, Rivers opened the game, let Maxi play with the ball, and let Harden play without the ball is even more shocking to the fans' jaws, the first quarter of the Heat can end with a 7-point lead, and Rivers self-destruct the Great Wall of platoon deployment has a direct relationship, in the second and third quarters Harden regained possession of the ball, the 76ers' situation on the court has improved significantly, the team lost only 4 points in the two quarters!
Harden has done everything he can
It must be admitted that today's Harden, the dominance is indeed not comparable to the Rockets period, the most obvious is that his physical explosive power has not been as good as before, the first quarter of the game is still 7 minutes and 40 seconds left, Harden with the ball to break through, there is no first step of the speed so that it is completely unable to tear open the Heat's defense line, and finally lost the ball under the three-person bag, the fourth quarter of the game Harden once again held the ball to kill the inside line, but the body is not enough to support him to complete the shot after the confrontation, it can be seen that his body has been much worse than it.
Despite this, Harden still showed his competitive spirit in this game, cutting 16 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 block in the first half of 10 shots, 16 points also set his playoff scoring record this season, and 10 shots also equaled his half-time shooting record, which shows that Harden has shown aggression to the extreme when he knows that his body does not allow it.
But in the NBA league, physical talent is a player's bottom line, but also determines his ceiling, there is no excellent physical support, Harden in the case of hard work, the whole game only contributed 20 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists and 1 block, although Harris and Maxi cut 21 points and 34 points respectively, but as the first core Harden, performance is not as expected, can not help the team win.
The best sixth man 1 to play 5 does not fall behind
Hiro, who just won the best sixth man of the season, this game can be said to be the second team of the 76ers, the whole game Hiro appeared 33.2 minutes, 10 shots hit 6 goals, one person cut 18 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists, while the other Heat substitute Oladipo scored 19 points, while the 76ers' second team combined to only score 19 points, which is why fans ridiculed the best sixth man of The New York.
Without the emperor's restraint, Adebayor was also successful on the inside, scoring 23 points and 9 rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting, while Butler took on the organizational responsibility of the team, playing a full performance of 22 points, 6 rebounds, 12 assists and 2 steals in the game.
For the 76ers who lost two consecutive games at the beginning of the series, the only good news is that according to the news of the reporters accompanying the team, Embiid is very likely to return in the third series between the two sides, hoping that after welcoming back the emperor, Harden's offensive pressure can be alleviated, and the 76ers can also have the strength to face the opponent!