The return of Joel Embiid over the weekend sent a shockwave through the second round matchup between the 76ers and the top seeds Heat. As it turns out, the introduction of an MVP-caliber two-way worldbreaker, even if it was only a week away from a broken orbital bone and concussion, fundamentally changes the rules of engagement and the state of affairs. The Heat had more or less crossed while Embiid was sidelined, outpacing the Sixers on 17.2 points per 100 possessions to take a 2-0 lead. With Embiid back and James Harden briefly looking like the fire of old, full-on Philly, he flipped the script and topped the Heat at 17 points per 100 in Games 3 and 4 to even the series, and like my wrestler -Teammate Rob Mahoney wrote of “putting all the tactical pressure in this series on the Heat.”
Luckily, Miami employs a guy who’s damn good at handling tactical pressure and who’s got the jewelry to prove it. As Game 5 tipped, Erik Spoelstra had the Heat ready to choke out Embiid, Harden and the Sixers, regaining the upper hand in the best-of-seven set and pushing Philadelphia to the brink of another second. round exit.
The Heat looked a lot more like the team that boasted the No. 1 in the NBA. 4 defense in the regular season on Tuesday when in Philadelphia, the Sixers pressured all over the court, forcing turnovers and taking control from the first few minutes. A 16-2 run midway through the first quarter gave Miami a double-digit lead, and Spoelstra and co. never looked back, blasting the visitors’ doors late for a 120-85 past that put the Heat just one win away from their second Eastern Conference finals in three seasons.
“They were just so much more committed and physical and got us out of our stuff,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers told reporters after the game. “There’s a lot of disappointment from all of us tonight.”
Mainly a whiz performance by Embiid. The limping All-NBA center had averaged 21 points on 48 percent shooting from target with 11 rebounds and paint-patrolling defense in 37.3 minutes per game in Philly. On Tuesday, however, he looked a damn similar to a guy who’d been running for a few days on the adrenaline rush of a high-stakes comeback and suddenly began to feel the burden of struggling with a torn thumb ligament. a broken face and the aftermath of a concussion.
Slamming his back into the front row at the baseline to salvage a miss midway through the first quarter probably didn’t help:
Also, Heat reserve center Dewayne Dedmon didn’t accidentally slam the ball right into Embiid’s protective face mask while attempting to set an offensive rebound, dropping Embiid like a sack of bricks and leaving him writhing in pain and apparently under left tears on the baseline:
Embiid stayed in the game but had a significantly more muted impact, struggling to pressure the rim on offense and posed a lesser threat for blocking shots on defense as the game progressed. A short offense in the third Quarters saw him finish with 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting with five rebounds and two assists in 33 minutes, but — fair or unfair — that wasn’t nearly enough for a Sixers team desperate for more of him to feature his season in balance.
“It’s all about pain tolerance,” Embiid told reporters after the game. “It’s a lose-lose situation for me. When I’m not playing I’m probably being called soft. And if I play and I play badly, they’ll probably come up with a lot of things [like] “I guess he’s just not good enough.” … I have to dig deeper than I have before, try to forget what’s going on and play freely. I just have to have that mentality for four quarters. I like our chances to come back here.”
The Heat probably like their own chances after holding Philly at just 36.5 percent shooting as a team, with more turnovers (15) than assists (14). Some of those mistakes, particularly in the early stages, came as Miami was more successful in their attempts to aggressively attack Embiid at the post and lock him in with a helping defender at the back, forcing the big guy’s teammates to have disputed entry passes in make narrow windows. They weren’t exactly up to the challenge:
However, this strategy was nothing new. Miami attempted to lead the post in Games 3 and 4, but Philadelphia had much more success finding approach angles, in part because those input feeds came after the Sixers had already flipped a switch on a ball screen formerly in possession . Philly hit the Heat at home with the two-man game of Harden-Embiid, capitalizing on Miami’s tendency to switch screens. Either Embiid got a deep seal at the post against a smaller defender, or Harden worked upstairs against a slower defender he was comfortable attacking.
However, instead of sticking with that Switch Everything script in Game 5, Spoelstra changed course and instructed his charges to make a more concerted effort Battle through the home screen, who went for softer covers, with PJ Tucker ducking under pick to meet Harden on the other side while Bam Adebayo fell back to stay with Embiid. It bit her sometimes: a Harden Stepback 3 here, an open pick-and-pop Embiid 3 there. But for the most part, Adebayo and Tucker (with plenty of help from Miami’s active reserve defenders) held out, preventing Philadelphia’s two best offensive weapons from finding space, penetrating deep in paint, or creating clean looks for teammates:
In Games 3 and 4, Philadelphia averaged nearly 1.24 points per game after Embiid put up a screen for Harden — a rate that Second Spectrum says puts the NBA among high-volume pick-and-roll partnerships in the regular season would have led. In Game 5, however, that number dropped to just 0.73 points per direct pick – which almost reached the bottom of the league.
A change in Miami’s perimeter defense duties made it even harder for Philly to find easy paths at half-court. In four games, point guard Gabe Vincent — who made his third start of the series on Tuesday in place of Kyle Lowry, who reinjured his unruly left hamstring in Game 4 — took over primary duty for equal-sized Tyrese Maxey, while Heat superstar Jimmy Butler spent most of his time defending the taller Tobias Harris. But on Tuesday Spoelstra changed thingsTaking Vincent from Maxey to Danny Green, Max Strus from Green to Harris and Butler to review Philly’s sophomore watch.
The looming presence of the five-time All-Defensive Team pick effectively vaporized Maxey’s touch and impact. After averaging 23 points on 14.5 shot attempts and 6.3 free throws in the first four games of the series, the Sixers’ second-best playoff scorer was only able to make two field goal attempts in the first quarter and finished 2-for with just nine points -10 shooting. Most amazing of all, Maxey had zero points or assists in the 37 games he spent halfway with Butler, according to Second Spectrum tracking.
Putting Butler on Maxey also helped short-circuit Philly’s offense elsewhere; As good as Jimmy can be on the ball, he is disruptive off the beaten path.
Confident he had the pace and length to recover to Maxey when the ball swung his way, Butler made repeated appearances as a helping defender. Lurking behind sixer pick-and-rolls, he helped keep Harden (who had a strong first half but finished with just 14 points on 13 shots with four assists and four turnovers) or Embiid from turning corners with drives to get into the color . He contributed brace coverage on Embiid post-ups, slid over from the weak side to deter lob entry passes over the top, and forced Philly to swing the ball elsewhere. When Philly was able to spray the ball around the perimeter, he made sharp turns and brakes toward would-be shooters on catches, making them think twice about picking the ball up or putting it on the deck.
Butler’s roaming made everything the Sixers wanted to do that much more difficult. Harris (12 points in 5-for-14 shooting) couldn’t do much against a strong and agile defender in Strus. Miami full-backs largely parry dribbling penetration with big lateral moves and foot slides to keep the ball off-color:
And Adebayo went about his new task, shuffling from changing to falling back to stay closer to the edge. He blocked two shots and altered many more while still staying connected to Embiid and preventing him from getting light post-touches:
The icing on the cake: Bam, Butler and the rest of the Heat managed to ramp up their physicality, defensive intensity and general disruption without racking up more fouls. After being called for 22, 22 and 26 personal fouls in the last three games, Miami picked up just 13 fouls in Game 5, limiting Embiid and Harden — who finished the regular season first and third in free-throw attempts per game — to just six total free throws.
Some of the disparity comes from long-term variances — Miami hit 13 3-pointers on Tuesday after scoring 14 combined in Games 3 and 4, while Philadelphia went from 16 3-pointers in each of their home games to nine in Game 5 fell behind – and some can certainly be attributed to Embiid looking significantly worse in the first half as Miami extended their lead. It’s not all luck, though: Spoelstra and his players deserve credit for holding the Sixers to an unsightly 92.1 points per 100, their fifth-worst offensive performance of the season, in the season’s highest pressure moment so far.
“This series is changing quite a bit and you’re dealing with a really experienced offensive team,” said Spoelstra told reporters after the game. “And Harden and Embiid in particular require great detail. You’ve earned that kind of respect from our team, and if you don’t do it with great detail and focus and trust each other [and] Your system, you don’t stand a chance with them.
Above all, this is the often-overlooked secret of the Heat: They take attention to detail, respect, focus and trust for granted. They are table stakes. And if you’ve got that, and the kind of quality depth to withstand Lowry’s absence, and a center that can protect anyone in Adebayo, and Butler, who’s played as well as anyone this postseason… well, pull it not only try against Harden and Embiid. You have a chance against everyone.
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