After losing to the Heat in the first two games of the series, the 76ers returned home with a 2-0 score, forcing Embiid to play with an injury.
Embiid's return was immediate, with the 76ers winning a 20-point victory at G3 under his leadership, successfully rewriting the series score to 1-2 and rejecting the sweep.
And from the G3 game, Embiid's return has brought 3 major transformations to the team, and the official has accidentally spoiled the MVP ownership, and Harden has become a big winner.
The first big metamorphosis: defensive performance on the inside
During Embiid's absence, the 76ers had to let Jordan Jr. play as the starting center, because the team's substitute center was only available to Jordan Jr. and Reid, who had poor defensive habits, often got into foul trouble, and could only be used at key moments.
This led to the Heat's on-the-line giving, especially Adebayor, who shot 9-of-10 from the field against Jordan Jr.'s defense and hit a terrifying 90 percent shooting percentage.
As a result, after Embiid's return, Adebayor was completely crushed in this game, shooting only 2 of 9, and the shooting percentage fell to 22%.
The second major metamorphosis: the difficulty of attack is greatly reduced
Due to injury and missing the first two games of the series, Embiid returned from this game, and his performance on the offensive end was not impressive.
On 5-of-12 shooting, he only got 18 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block, which is not a small gap with his real strength.
Even so, Embiid's return completely disrupted the Heat's defensive system, freeing the rest of the team on the offensive end.
Harden, in particular, became the big winner after Embiid's return, and in the absence of Embiid in the first two games, Harden had to face the Heat's targeted defense.
But with Embiid returning, the Heat can only focus more on Embiid on the inside, avoid embiid giving on the inside, and give Harden the opportunity to fully show his personal organizational skills.
In turn, it led to Danny Green, Maxi and other players, because of the presence of Embiid, the Heat's defense could not be expanded, and Danny Green, who had iron for two games, shot 7 of 9 from three-pointers and 5 from three-pointers.
Harden's offensive efficiency in the second half was still very inefficient, scoring 15 points in the first half, only 2 points in the second half, 4 of 11 shooting, handing over 17 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 block, and as many as 7 turnovers.
Even so, Harden's role on the court is still irreplaceable, when he is on the court, the ball can always reach the right person in the first time, so Harden's plus-minus is the highest +27 in the game.
Obviously, Harden's style of play is closer to that of players like Paul, playing more of a second-in-command role, and needs to be at the side of Embiid's strong boss to play a role.
The third major transformation: the momentum of the team
Harden has never been a player who can play against the wind, and his personality is not ostentatious enough, often resulting in poor performances in key moments and key games.
But Embiid is just the opposite, he has always been very publicity, and has the capital of publicity, after his return in this game, the players around him are obviously different.
Because they know that the inside line has Embiid's bottom, they can safely shoot three points, and the change of mentality makes the shot more decisive, and the shooting rate naturally increases.
Embiid's performance was also praised by various media after the game, and the NBA official directly wrote Embiid as an "MVP winner" when announcing the war report, which seemed to spoil the ownership of the MVP.
But since then, officials have also discovered this problem, and quickly rewritten the term MVP winner to "MVP final candidate".
Although it is not clear whether this is a spoiler or a clerical error by the author, this incident can fully reflect the dominance that Embiid showed on the field.