What Heat's Game 1 Victory Against Philadelphia Means For Rest Of Series
While they put up a good fight in the first-half of Game 1, the Philadelphia 76ers were unable to get past the Miami Heat, losing 106-92 on the road.
Without Joel Embiid, there were a lot of questions surrounding the 76ers and how they would look in this series against one of the best defensive teams in the league. For the first 24 minutes of the game, Philadelphia held their own, but then Miami settled down and were able to break the Sixers.
Now, the 76ers find themselves down 0-1 in this Eastern Conference Semifinals series with still no timetable being laid out for Embiid’s possible return, casting a level of doubt on this team’s ability to contend with the Heat.
Tobias Harris scoring 27 points and Tyrese Maxey continuing to impress in just his second season are both encouraging signs for Philadelphia, but James Harden’s struggles continue to be well-documented.
Scoring 12 points in the first-half on Monday night, Harden finished the game with just 16 points and he failed to score at least 25 points for the 11th straight playoff game, the former league MVP’s longest scoring drought since coming off-the-bench for the Oklahoma City Thunder to start his career, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
Not having one All-Star in Embiid, Harden now needs to be the leader of the Philadelphia 76ers and Game 1 did not necessarily show him being this kind of player.
Can the Sixers bounce-back and actually give the Heat some trouble in this series or will it be over very quickly with Joel Embiid being sidelined.
Here is what we learned from Monday night’s Game 1 in Miami.
DeAndre Jordan Cannot Be The Answer For Philadelphia
Joel Embiid is out indefinitely and after trading Andre Drummond earlier in the year, the 76ers really do not have many options in their frontcourt.
Paul Reed has not played badly in his limited minutes this postseason and his energy is definitely something that 76ers like, yet head coach Doc Rivers decided to start veteran center DeAndre Jordan and will do so again in Game 2 on Wednesday.
In Game 1, Jordan finished with 4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls in about 17 minutes, which is not terrible, but he gave the Sixers absolutely nothing on defense when he was switched onto smaller guards and offensively, the former All-Star is just a shadow of his former self.
He does not move well up-and-down the floor and is a major liability that almost forces the 76ers to play 4-on-5 at times. Against one of the league’s best defenses in the Miami Heat, it is hard to imagine that Philadelphia can find success with Jordan playing.
Outscored by 22 points with DeAndre Jordan on the floor, the 76ers were not successful starting the veteran big man and now, the question that needs to be asked is if they should just simply go small?
Bam Adebayo is a presence down low for the Miami Heat that could create havoc against the Sixers if they did not have a big man guarding him, but Reed is an undersized center that could hold his own against the Heat's All-Star given his physicality. Offensively, going small gives the 76ers a slight advantage over Miami simply because Maxey and Harden are above-average talents when playing isolation basketball.
With DeAndre Jordan on the floor, everything becomes compacted offensively for Philadelphia, especially since the Heat can send help defenders onto Maxey and Harden when they are driving since Jordan is not really a scoring threat.
The 76ers do not have a replacement for Joel Embiid and they cannot truly believe that they can win the series playing Jordan. There was a reason that the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers did not want him.
Miami Has Too Many Weapons For Sixers To Try And Stop
Tyler Herro, Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin, Max Strus, Victor Oladipo, Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and P.J. Tucker are all threats to score with the ball in their hands for the Miami Heat and both Kyle Lowry and Duncan Robinson did not play in Game 1!
The Heat have a ton of depth up-and-down their roster right now and while the 76ers are a strong defensive team, they had no answers for Miami in the second-half on Monday.
Herro’s 25 points off-the-bench proved to be huge, but so did Vincent's 10 points and Oladipo’s 5 points and on-and-on.
Every basket matters for the Heat due to how strong they are defensively and the fact that they have at least ten different players that can score on any given night is kind of ridiculous to think about.
The 76ers without Joel Embiid have Tyrese Maxey, Tobias Harris and James Harden as their primary scoring options, but can anyone else on this roster really be counted on to score in volume?
Danny Green is a veteran that has shown up at times, but DeAndre Jordan, Paul Reed and Paul Millsap gave the 76ers really no offensive production in Game 1, Georges Niang scored 0 points in 22 minutes and Matisse Thybulle is a defensive weapon, not an offensive one.
Three primary scorers for Philadelphia versus at least ten different scorers for Miami does not really make things look good for the 76ers the rest of this series.
When Tyler Herro gets going off-the-bench, there is very little the 76ers are going to be able to do unless they can match Miami shot-for-shot.
Not The Harden Of Old
From 2013-2019 with the Houston Rockets, James Harden was one of the best pure scorers in the entire league and he was named the 2017-18 NBA Most Valuable Player.
Now, Harden has looked like he is nearing the end of the line and just does not play with the same level of passion and aggressiveness he once did.
For the Philadelphia 76ers to have a chance at making this series interesting without Joel Embiid, James Harden is really going to have to dig deep and find the old version of himself, something we have not seen ever since he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets last year.
Having as many turnovers (5) as he did assists (5), the Heat constantly attacked Harden on the defensive-end of the floor, never letting him settle down and get in a groove.
Saying “he has quit” is not necessarily fair to the ten-time All-Star and future Hall-of-Famer, but Harden has not been a real threat in weeks now, which is very concerning for the future of Philadelphia not only in this series, but long-term.
Being aggressive and finding ways to score without Embiid on the floor are vital for James Harden in this series. If he is unable to do either of these two things, then the 76ers should really ask themselves in the offseason how valuable of a player James Harden is to them.
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