This game was something to say the least. An immediate reaction to a crushing loss is never a good idea as they tend to cause overreactions, but we’re going to react anyway. Hopefully without overreacting.
From the start, Miami was hot. They dropped 31 points in the first quarter while the Sixers had 19. After that, it looked like it was going to be a battle, but Miami proved to be too much. Harden couldn’t get it going as he only managed to go 2/6 from 3. Embiid, with a broken face, was 7/12 from the field with 17 points. No Sixers player scored more than 17 points.
Going deeper into the stat sheet does us absolutely no favors so let’s get that out of the way first. The Sixers shot 36.5% compared to Miami’s 53.6% from the field. The Sixers shot 28.1% from three while Miami shot 39.4%. The assist difference is huge with Miami having 26 assists while the Sixers had 14. Miami had less turnovers (11) than the Sixers (16), but the Sixers had more points (23) off of those turnovers than Miami (9). The thing the Sixers have struggled with the most this season has been rebounds and man did that show tonight. The Sixers had 36 while Miami had 46.
Now that the annoying truth in the stat sheet is over with, let’s talk about another truth: it’s a 7 game series. Danny Green said it best when he said “it’s 0-0 and first to two wins, now”. Look, it obviously doesn’t look great. It certainly isn’t ideal, but it is a 7 game series. It’s easy to look at this and say “seasons over” but I’m not giving up until Miami has a fourth W.
I will leave you lovely people with this: Doc, aside from the DeAndre Jordan minutes (that we had to deal with whether we liked it or not), has coached a fine series. Should he have left Embiid in while up 30? Hindsight is 20/20. Embiid could have asked out at the end of the day and you can’t predict injuries. Do we keep him? I don’t know. As finals contenders the past two years under Doc, it’s tough to really say. He’s had a ton of issues, but continuous coaching changes is never good for a team. Goodnight, Sixers fam. Stay positive and I’ll see you on Thursday.
Well done!