Beijing time on May 9, the NBA playoffs continued, the Heat away 108-116 lost to the 76ers, the big score was chased to 2-2 draw, although the loss, but this game, Butler really tried his best, he shot 13 of 20, 6 of 3 points, 12 of 13 free throws, cut 40 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists, of which in the second half, Butler alone scored 25 points.
In addition to Butler, the Heat's interior core Adebayo also rebounded this time, the whole game, Adebayor played a total of 33 minutes, shooting 9 of 12, 3 of 3 from the free throw line, with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, as a comparison, in the last game of G3, Adebayo was limited to only 9 points and 3 rebounds in the whole game.
However, in the same game, the other core of the Heat's "Big Three", Kyle Lowry, played a little worse.
Lowry started for 30 minutes, shot a total of 3-of-10, 6-of-6 three-pointers, no free throws, only 6 points, 3 rebounds and 7 assists, and made 4 turnovers, including only 2 minutes of playing time in the fourth quarter.
It should be said that this is not the first time Lowry has played so badly, the last game G3, Lowry came back, played for 25 minutes, 4 shots 0, only 0 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, the Heat also lost 79-99 to the opponent, the fourth quarter at that time was also the same as this G4, Lowry only played for two minutes, Hiro and Oladipo became more trusted defenders.
Zooming in to the entire playoffs, Lowry played in 5 games, averaging 29 minutes per game, with just 6.2 points, 3.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists, shooting 29.7 percent from the field, 20.8 percent from three-point range, and shooting as low as 39.5 percent from the field.
Obviously, very bad.
In contrast, in this year's regular season, Lowry can still average 13.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game, although the score has declined, and the use of the ball has decreased from 20.9% to 17.8%, but Lowry's organizational ability has not diminished at all, and his efficiency is also good, shooting 37.7% from three-point range, and the true shooting rate is the second highest 60.0% in his career.
You can see that at least in the regular season, Lowry is still a capable veteran, and an important reason for the sudden downturn in the playoffs is injury - Lowry suffered a hamstring injury in the first round of the game against the Eagles, so he missed the first round of G4 and G5.
In the second round of G1 and G2, Lowry did not play, G3 Embiid returned, Lowry also came on the field with injury, but unfortunately, from the past two games, the effect after Lowry's comeback was very bad.
It wasn't the worst, it was in this G4 that Lowry strained his hamstring again – when in the second quarter of the game, Lowry committed a foul in a total of breakthroughs, and then the thigh situation recurred, and at one point returned to the locker room for treatment.
After the game, Lowry admitted that his hamstring was strained again: "So to speak, I don't want to play with an injury, but we are playing in the playoffs, and in the opponent's turf, no matter what, we are all together, I am trying to play for my teammates, no matter what happens, no matter what the situation is." 」 ”
When it comes to whether the G5 can play, Lowry said: "Let's see again, this timing is bad, I have never had a soft tissue injury before, my goal now is to play, so if you ask me, I will say I will try to fight for a comeback, yes, I will try to come back." ”
Hamstring injuries, really hard to deal with.
If you remember, in the playoffs last season, Harden also suffered a second-degree hamstring injury, and then Harden insisted on playing with an injury, resulting in a single game of 10.
The injury also had a huge impact on Harden, whose explosiveness was significantly less than before, and he couldn't shake off his opponents when he broke through — Harden scored 31 points in this game, and you can believe it, this is the first time hardened who has scored like a melon and chopped vegetables in the past 30+ in more than a month.
In addition to Harden, Paul also experienced a hamstring injury in the 2018 playoffs, and in the subsequent 2018-19 season, Paul handed over one of the worst performances of his career, so that the Rockets had to send Paul to the Thunder in the first round in order to get Westbrook.
From the historical situation, hamstring injuries are really not a small problem, playing with injuries is likely to make the situation worse, I hope that Lowry will recover from injuries and then come back, blindly playing for the Heat is not necessarily better - Paul recovered from the injury and returned to the peak, I hope Harden, Lowry can gradually return to the level before the big injury.