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Keepin' the game thread juju alive. Also need our boys to not smell their own farts after Game 3. This series is still in Miami's hands.

No doubt Sunday will be a different game. Spo is too good a coach not to make small adjustments here and there to change things up, but the keys remain the same - defense, take care of the ball, and please rebound and limit the second chances. Do those things and hit our 3's at a decent % and we're going back to Miami 2-2.

Very encouraging that we dominated w/a 60% Embiid. He should improve every game going forward.

And Reed continues his solid play. Assuming Embiid doesn't miss any more time resulting in Doc playing his boy DAJ, we have a good chance to win the series.

When both teams are at full strength the ebbs and flows of these playoff series are virtually entirely predictable on the bases of home court advantage and swells in team pride. In game 4 the Heat's pride won't let them play anywhere near as poorly as they did last night, and so the game will be far more competitive, but it's unlikely to make them play well enough to overcome the Sixers' home-court advantage and the intensity generated by the Sixers' need not to go down 1-3.

I'm not thinking about winning the series. I just focused on them winning each game they play.

We kept it within reason for the first three quarters of the first two games. Obviously we needed Embiid's scoring, but I do think there is something to be said about Paul Reed playing freely when he's out there and us not needing to rely on him keeping his fouls in check. Not huge production last night, but +12 in the 12 minutes he played with 4 rebs. We need to maintain defensive intensity when Embiid's not on the court and he's going to be one of the main factors in this series for that.

If we get this version of Joel every game I like our chances. He didn't force much, played great defense, rebounded. I don't care about his scoring that much if he's moving the ball, and drawing doubles.

mksp wrote:If we get this version of Joel every game I like our chances. He didn't force much, played great defense, rebounded. I don't care about his scoring that much if he's moving the ball, and drawing doubles.

If we get that kind of defense and smart ball handling from him, we have a shot in the next round as well.

Agreed, that was DPOY level defense he played yesterday, some of the best defense he played his entire career.

Fear the Mask!
Fear the Beard!
Fear the Speed!
Fear the Tobi!
Fear Corner 3 Danny!

Arsenal wrote:Very encouraging that we dominated w/a 60% Embiid. He should improve every game going forward.

And Reed continues his solid play. Assuming Embiid doesn't miss any more time resulting in Doc playing his boy DAJ, we have a good chance to win the series.

Reed hasn't been good, Jordan has just been worse.

spikeslovechild wrote:

Arsenal wrote:Very encouraging that we dominated w/a 60% Embiid. He should improve every game going forward.

And Reed continues his solid play. Assuming Embiid doesn't miss any more time resulting in Doc playing his boy DAJ, we have a good chance to win the series.

Reed hasn't been good, Jordan has just been worse.

Reed has been good enough. Jordan has been abysmal. Replacing those abysmal minutes with Embiid makes a huge difference.

Arsenal wrote:

spikeslovechild wrote:

Arsenal wrote:Very encouraging that we dominated w/a 60% Embiid. He should improve every game going forward.

And Reed continues his solid play. Assuming Embiid doesn't miss any more time resulting in Doc playing his boy DAJ, we have a good chance to win the series.

Reed hasn't been good, Jordan has just been worse.

Reed has been good enough. Jordan has been abysmal. Replacing those abysmal minutes with Embiid makes a huge difference.

The difference in the series may actually be what Embiid’s presence does to Adebayo on both ends of the floor, preventing him from switching on defense and limiting him considerably on offense.

One game at a time. Lets take care of business and run it back to Miami.

I haven't seen one game of the finals yet.

Been on a 12500km work road trip from S.E Victoria, up to Darwin NT, to Cairns North Queensland and back to S.E Vic.

Are there any MUST SEE games from round 1 thru till now?

I'm not doing any work for a week. Just beers, good food (no Roadhouse or drive-thru crap), walking the dogs on my property, beach fishing and watching basketball ✓✓✓

Arsenal wrote:

spikeslovechild wrote:

Arsenal wrote:Very encouraging that we dominated w/a 60% Embiid. He should improve every game going forward.

And Reed continues his solid play. Assuming Embiid doesn't miss any more time resulting in Doc playing his boy DAJ, we have a good chance to win the series.

Reed hasn't been good, Jordan has just been worse.

Reed has been good enough. Jordan has been abysmal. Replacing those abysmal minutes with Embiid makes a huge difference.

I don't think he has been good enough at all particularly as it relates to defensive rebounding. BAM also schooled him on the offensive end. He has been less worse than Jordan who I'll completely agree with has been abysmal.

I do wonder how the team would have fared had we kept Drummond. I am not convinced we win game 1 or 2 but we certainly limit those 2nd opportunities that the Heat have killed us all series on and quite honestly so did the Raptors. Reed like it or not is a big part of that. I tried to convince myself Jordan could be a mini drummond for us but he's completely washed.

It' sort of it what it is. I get why Doc keeps going back to Jordan he knows we need more but he just doesn't have it anymore.

Sixers is impressive with Harden and Embiid.

But I know Heat didn’t play full speed or at their best in G3.

We have to play as sharp as we were in Games 1&2.

In todays NBA being a make or miss league.

It’s 3 point shooting.

And if both teams shooting the same or similar. It comes done to fundamentals
Not giving up offensive rebounds/second chance points. And turnovers.

Key is for embiid just to play with what the defense gives up. Heat want embiid to jack up 10-12 shots from mid range if he’s gonna to shoot 20 times. That’s what they want. He can’t fall for that trap especially with his limited vision.

Attack herro. The key to attacking herro. Is it makes his legs tired quicker and will bother him on offense. The legs get heavier and the shots start falling short.

I do think Spo will give Duncan Robinson a few minutes and see if he can get away with it especially if sixers roll with Paul Reed and thybulle in the lineup. Two non shooters so he can hide Robinson on thybulle.

Third quarter has not been kind to us. They come out with a lot of fire, and they seem to rebound especially well. Assuming that Reed hasn't gotten himself in foul trouble in the first half (last game he played in control), i would run him at the four next to Embiid for 4-8 mins (unless Niang looks hot in his first half stint).

I think the extra size gets us a couple more rebounds and helps shake things up in a positive way for us and maybe shakes the heat in a time that they usually have some fight in them.

Ughghghghgh not looking good