Series Thread: 1) Miami Heat vs. 4) Philadelphia 76ers

[fightinfunbags]

The Sixers need to run the offense through Maxey, not Harden. Marry is quick and gets things moving before the defense is locked in. Harden walks the ball up, does his hesitation dribbles while everybody watches and the finally passes since he can't break his guy down anymore when all there is left to do is jack up a tough shot. The slow play may work at the strip club, but the Heats defense is much harder to penetrate than a strippers.

Home Maxey and Road Maxey through these playoffs have been too different animals. He's not a natural PG. He just started to play PG minutes for the first time in his life this year. These are the reasons why they went and got Harden. Tough to count on a 21-year-old kid in the playoffs to run your offense and be successful.

It's hard to call out any one player from last night. Not one positive performance from any player. They were all horrid.

 

[logic]

Home Maxey and Road Maxey through these playoffs have been too different animals. He's not a natural PG. He just started to play PG minutes for the first time in his life this year. These are the reasons why they went and got Harden. Tough to count on a 21-year-old kid in the playoffs to run your offense and be successful.

It's hard to call out any one player from last night. Not one positive performance from any player. They were all horrid.

But it isn't just from last night. Harden slows it down every night. Yes, Maxey is young, but he is aware of this and he shares the load. The ball moves better with him running the offense.

 

[raider bill]

I cant believe after game 4, they didn't work on getting Embid a decent entry pass instead of repeatedly chucking it out of bounds.

Embid should be scoring every trip down the floor being fronted by a smaller guy

It's not that fucking difficult LOL. Embid seals and you lob it to the post.

Also, I really dont like to complain about officiating and TBH I don't watch a ton of regular season NBA, and I always liked Butler as a player, but he gets the softest whistles ever, that nobody else ever gets.

 

[fightinfunbags]

But it isn't just from last night. Harden slows it down every night. Yes, Maddy is young, but he is aware of this and he shares the load. The ball moves better with him running the offense.

I don't disagree. The pounding the ball shit at the top of the key is straight infuriating. At the same time, part of that is on Doc not having a plan to break down the zone.

 

[fightinfunbags]

I cant believe after game 4, they didn't work on getting Embid a decent entry pass instead of repeatedly chucking it out of bounds.

It's not that fucking difficult LOL. Embid seals and you lob it to the post.

Also, I really dont like to complain about officiating and TBH I don't watch a ton of regular season NBA, and I always liked Butler as a player, but he gets the softest whistles ever, that nobody else ever gets.

I had no issues with the whistles last night. And ya lose by 35....refs had zero impact on that game.

 

[raider bill]

I had no issues with the whistles last night. And ya lose by 35....refs had zero impact on that game.

He gets a lot of whistles jumping into a guy standing there with his arms straight up, I am not saying it was 35 points of bad officiating but the call on Green was whack. He was just literally standing there with his arms straight up, he didn't reach or rake his arms, he just stood there.

 

[trojanfan12]

I knew it was over when the sideline reporter out of halftime says he talked to Doc and Doc said we aren’t doing any xs or os. Just go play basketball. Dude…everybody here has a role. Harden runs the offense. Embiid carries the team. I run my mouth, talk shit because I forget the Sixers are the Sixers and look foolish and Doc, your job is to do the X’s and O’s shit. This zone is clearly giving them fits. You’re the fucking coach. It’s you and the staff that should have answers for this shit. You’ve seen it plenty now. To have no answers is just unacceptable. And when you have the whole team come with zero energy…I’m usually a that’s on the adults on the court guy when we are talking pro athletes and not college kids. But this has been all season at the worst times. Doc should have been out ahead of last night and the effort.

That really bothered me when Doc said 'It's not about Xs and Os....."

That being said, just like the effort given last night by the Sixers, I got nothing this morning.
3 straight game 5 losses....

To be fair, sometimes it's not about "the X's and O's''. Sometimes it's about energy and effort. That's what last night looked like and there's no X and Oing that's going to fix that.

As everyone pointed out during and after the game, something wasn't right with Embiid, he tried to play through it and his teammates didn't step up.

 

[Sparhawk]

To be fair, sometimes it's not about "the X's and O's''. Sometimes it's about energy and effort. That's what last night looked like and there's no X and Oing that's going to fix that.

As everyone pointed out during and after the game, something wasn't right with Embiid, he tried to play through it and his teammates didn't step up.

That's when you needs Xs and Os to get better looks.
They looked unprepared in the 1st qtr with the turnovers.
They didn't want to rebound.

Just baffling how you can come off Game 4 and do a 180.
I guess something similar happened to Dallas?

 

[logic]

To be fair, sometimes it's not about "the X's and O's''. Sometimes it's about energy and effort. That's what last night looked like and there's no X and Oing that's going to fix that.

As everyone pointed out during and after the game, something wasn't right with Embiid, he tried to play through it and his teammates didn't step up.

And it is Doc, maybe one of the most over rated coaches of all time. Garnett is the one that led that team to ring.

 

[Iggloo]

Not gonna lie, I turned it off shortly after halftime. It was clear they mailed this in, which is extremely disappointing to me.

While I like Embiid, it's always something with this guy. He is hurt every year. I don't think the Sixers can count on Embiid to carry them through the playoffs, ever.

Even before he pulled out his back chasing a ball going out of bounds, he didn't look right. I think he must have strained it beforehand. That's no excuse for the rest of the team looking flat though.

 

[Sparhawk]

To be fair, sometimes it's not about "the X's and O's''. Sometimes it's about energy and effort. That's what last night looked like and there's no X and Oing that's going to fix that.

As everyone pointed out during and after the game, something wasn't right with Embiid, he tried to play through it and his teammates didn't step up.

And it is Doc, maybe one of the most over rated coaches of all time. Garnett is the one that led that team to ring.

FWIW, pretty good analysis here on what Spoelstra did with his Xs and Os :

The Heat Regain the Upper Hand by Unraveling the Sixers

Miami brought Philadelphia’s momentum to a screeching halt in Game 5, shutting down Joel Embiid and baffling their opponents on defense. Have the Heat found their blueprint to advance?

www.theringer.com

 

[trojanfan12]

That's when you needs Xs and Os to get better looks.

X's and O's don't result in better looks when the energy and effort aren't there. The Heat didn't come out with some new defensive strategy that they needed to adjust to. They just played with no energy.

They looked unprepared in the 1st qtr with the turnovers.
They didn't want to rebound.

Both of those were about effort and energy, especially the rebounding.

Just baffling how you can come off Game 4 and do a 180.

That's why something not being right with Embiid and/or something happening within the team makes sense. Something was off with Embiid and that's where Harden should be expected to step up and give the team energy...he didn't and the rest of the team followed along.

 

[trojanfan12]

And it is Doc, maybe one of the most over rated coaches of all time. Garnett is the one that led that team to ring.

Yeah, I didn't see what Doc was saying to them during timeouts and at halftime, but whatever it was, it didn't work.

And yeah, Doc is basically an average coach who got lucky with a veteran team that, while I won't say they won in spite of him, he didn't really have a lot to do with them winning.

He sure has milked that one title though. lol

 

[Sparhawk]

X's and O's don't result in better looks when the energy and effort aren't there. The Heat didn't come out with some new defensive strategy that they needed to adjust to. They just played with no energy.

Check out the Ringer article I posted.

 

[trojanfan12]

Check out the Ringer article I posted.

They adjusted their defense, but the adjustments weren't anything that looked they would explain the lack of energy the Sixers played with. They looked like they were going through the motions from the opening tip.

Miami's defensive adjustments certainly didn't help the Sixers, but I think if they brought more effort and energy, it would have been a much better game.

 

[bksballer89]

You’re right. Spo should change nothing and just hope the shots fall this time.

He shouldn't. The most he should change is his rotations/substitution pattern. You don't make a crazy adjustment if you are getting the looks

Checking in quickly just to lmao @fightinfunbags

AS I FUCKING SAID!!!

 

[fightinfunbags]

Checking in quickly just to lmao @fightinfunbags

AS I FUCKING SAID!!!

You did. Heat are a different animal at home. Your squad brought the anticipated effort and energy the playoffs demand. Sixers didn’t match (under statement of the year). Congrats and enjoy that wedding.

 

[Sparhawk]

You did. Heat are a different animal at home. Your squad brought the anticipated effort and energy the playoffs demand. Sixers didn’t match (under statement of the year). Congrats and enjoy that wedding.

 

[Shanemansj13]

But it isn't just from last night. Harden slows it down every night. Yes, Maxey is young, but he is aware of this and he shares the load. The ball moves better with him running the offense.

That's what you pay $40M+/year for and he isn't getting any younger. Those strip clubs miles are wearing

 

[Shanemansj13]

And it is Doc, maybe one of the most over rated coaches of all time. Garnett is the one that led that team to ring.

Agree, Doc is the most overrated coach in the NBA but Pierce won MVP and if he doesn't have 41 in G7 vs the Cavs, the Celtics don't even make it to the conference finals let alone beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals.