With two consecutive unsustainable defeats, Philadelphia has been forced to the edge of the cliff by the Heat. Without Embiid's series, the intensity of the game is much worse than the other three games. There is no tit-for-tat confrontation of the Green Army stag, no strong gunpowder smell of the warrior grizzly bear, and it is a boiled frog in one word.
The opening Heat established an advantage, and then Philadelphia was caught in a long process of chasing points. Instead of killing 76 people with a stick, the Heat cut the flesh with a blunt knife.
Whenever Maxi or Harden chase the point difference, the Heat pull away again with a slight tightness, and the whole game gives people the feeling that these two teams are not a grade team.
Jordan Jr. continues to start today, at least the opening 2 goals in a row on the offensive end is justified. Then on the defensive end, Jordan Jr. quickly sent a 2+1, so his plus-minus was still -1 inside and out.
In the last game, Jordan Jr. played just 17 minutes, delivering a staggering -22 plus-minus. Rivers then said he continued to believe in Jordan Jr. and continued to make him start.
I don't comment on whether Jordan Jr. should start, this question is not worth discussing. There is nothing lao Li can do, can Upper Reed stop Adebayor?
Today, at least on the scene, the 76ers were much better than the last game, and there was no sudden collapse. At least until the final heat closes the game, the 76ers are still in the game.
Maxi is still full of vitality, seizing all the opportunities to counterattack at any time, and the position battle can also break through a few, while the Heat is more like you are casually sudden, and if you win suddenly, I lose. So today, although Maxi scored 34 points, it does not seem to have a decisive impact on the game.
The Heat have only one defensive focus, strangling Harden. Harden scored 16 points on 5-of-13 in the last game, and the whole game was like an outsider, and did not come up with the "Embiid is not in me to support" performance that fans expected.
Today's Harden, at least showed some aggression in the first half. In the half, he shot 5-of-10 and scored 16 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists. The 16 points are Harden's first halftime score of 15+ in the playoffs this season. The 10 shots also tied Harden's record for the highest single half-time shot in the playoffs this year.
On the whole game, Harden can get 20 points, before today I guess Harden's score will definitely not be below 20, Harden proved my guess, but did not prove too much. All I can say is that Harden tried his best.
The Heat's defensive formation for Harden is 1-2-2, as long as Harden approaches the second line of defense with the ball, someone will come to the bag immediately. As long as Harden chooses to break through, the Heat immediately choose to close the door.
Curry should be familiar with this kind of defense, and the same is true of the starting style of the Box-1 defensive formation he often faces. It's just that Curry breaks through the first person and then faces the help of four people. And Harden's current explosive power, breaking through the first line of defense is difficult.
Only against a slow-moving defender like Dedmund will Harden try to find opportunities on the inside. The rest of the time it's basically three-pointers, and the scoring no longer feels like it used to.
In the second half, the Heat also relaxed their defense against Harden, allowing Harden to go and Oladipo single-handedly did not choose the bag clip. However, a degenerated Harden can't even beat the equally degraded Oladipo, and even if it is Oladipo at the peak, Harden is also casual.
Two days ago, I saw a chart, in the top ten scorers in 2019, Harden occupied the top three, and all three times were 60+. Then in the top ten, only Booker and Lillard occupied two seats, and all the others were Harden.
It was one of the greatest scoring performances in NBA history, and Harden was a walking 30+ as long as he played, and it was common to get a 40 points. And now, Harden has done his best to get 16 points in the half, and the 4 points in the second half are exhausted, which is Harden's current situation.
Some people really can't go back in time and you have to accept that. The only turnaround for the Heat and the 76ers series is whether Embiid can come back, and now it seems that the situation is not optimistic.
Embiid was only able to start using his phone yesterday and adapted to the light of the phone. Back in Philadelphia, the 76ers will assess Embiid, and a comeback will be possible until the symptoms of the concussion are completely eliminated.
The first thing Embiid touched his phone was to send a tweet: The Big Reversal, #HalaMadrid. I don't know if Philadelphia, which is 0-2 behind, can complete the reversal like Real Madrid?