The Sixers Are Done, There’s No Other Way To Say This
The Joel Embiid injury gives them no shot at winning against the Heat
Heat are up 2–0
The Heat are now up 2–0. The official injury report has Joel Embiid ahead of tomorrow’s 7:00 PM ET game. He has yet to play in this matchup against the Miami Heat. He has a fractured orbital and a torn ligament in his thumb. He could be out for the rest of the playoffs after getting injured in the Raptors series.
That means that the team has had to start the 33-year-old veteran DeAndre Jordan at center. Paul “B-Ball Paul” Reed, a player drafted in the 2020 Draft and playing in his second season had to play more minutes than usual as he played 25 minutes in Game 2 against the Miami Heat. He only scored four points so they’re not really getting any extra help in the absence of Embiid. DeAndre Jordan only played 17 minutes and scored four points as well.
The Sixers needed the production of their star to have a chance
The Sixers absolutely miss the scoring presence of MVP finalist Joel Embiid. He scored 30.6 points per game in 33.8 minutes per game on 49.9% field goal efficiency in the regular season. In the first round, he averaged 20.7 points per game in the six-game series against Toronto. This was well below his season average but he did in fact get hurt at first in Game 3 of the series.
Other players that should need to step up and some have
In his absence, the Sixers have had to look for scoring from their other superstar, James Harden, forward Tobias Harris, and guard Tyrese Maxey. James Harden has had an underwhelming performance given the circumstances. He scored 16 points in Game 1 and 20 points in Game 2. He is averaging 18.0 points per game so far in the series, below his 22.5 points per game this season with Brooklyn and Philadelphia. He needs to step it up to help this team without Embiid.
Tobias Harris did score 17.2 points per game in 34.8 minutes this season but without their best scorer, they’ve needed more from him in the Heat series. He’s increased his scoring output a bit with efforts of 27 points in Game 1 and 21 points in Game 2 so he’s not the biggest one to blame for the struggles of this team right now.
Tyrese Maxey has also played his part by scoring 19 points in Game 1 and a game-high 34 points in Game 2 loss. Maxey also averaged about 17.5 points per game in the regular season in about 35.3 minutes per game, elevating his game in his second year in the league. The Heat is so worried about Maxey right now that they’re trying to devise a game plan to slow him down to stop any chance of a Sixers comeback in this series.
The rest of the role players have been struggling
That speaks to the lack of production of the rest of the Sixers team that has needed to score in the absence of their superstar. Danny Green and Georges Niang have been inefficient in this series as the go-to long-distance options. After shooting lights-out from long-distance in the Raptors series, Georges Niang didn’t make a 3-pointer in Game 1 and was 33% from long distance in Game 2. They’re definitely going to need him to play more like the Raptors series to have a shot at winning at least one game.
Danny Green was 1–5 from long-distance in Game 1 and 1–9 in Game 2. In the regular season, he shot a respectable 38.0% from long-distance. This is definitely a huge departure from his regular-season performance.
Team long-distance shooting has been awful and the Heat are playing like the best team
Given that they are missing both Embiid’s long-distance range, defense, and scoring, they are showing their weaknesses at this point in all three categories. Their long-distance shooting in the series is 14–64 (21.9%), well below their season number of 36.4% from deep, ranking them 7th in the league in that efficiency.
I’ll give them some credit. They are facing a great defensive team in the Miami Heat, as the Heat finished with the fifth-best defensive efficiency and they themselves finished with the best three-point shooting in the NBA at 37.9%. They’re clearly showing early on that they are the best team in this series, if not the one remaining in the postseason altogether. The Sixers were already going to face a tough challenge even with Joel Embiid. Being without him has made it a much harder battle to even gain a win against the team that finished with the best regular-season record in the Eastern Conference.
He’s still going to be out for Game 3 and a look at the rest of the series
Joel Embiid is already listed as out for Game 3. With the series going to Philadelphia, I could possibly see them take a game there but without their number one option, this is going to be a tough battle to win and tougher yet to crawl back into this series and have a chance to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
At this point, it looks bleak and it looks like the Heat could even potentially sweep the Sixers at this point. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised at that outcome. Unless the guys I mentioned for the Sixers can all play up to their potential and have the games they need to, there’s a fighting chance. Until they can show that, I’m calling this series already, an optimistic five-game call for the Heat, although it will likely be a series sweep.
