The Season: Sixers at Heat Round 2, Game 2 -- 5/4 @ 7:30 PM

[Ferry Avenue]

I titled this "the season" because in my opinion a loss in this game will mean the end of the season. This is a must-win.

The Heat are going to neither lose four games in row in the series nor lose game 7 at home.

A loss in game 2 requires the Sixers to either 1) win game 7 in Miami, or 2) to avoid a game 7 in Miami, win four games in a row.

It's extremely unlikely that a respectable NBA team in the second round of the playoffs is going to allow itself to lose four consecutive games to the same team. We saw what the Sixers did when they faced the prospect of losing only three playoff games in a row -- they destroyed the Raptors by 35 points on the Raptors' court.

The Heat aren't losing four games in a row in this series, and they aren't losing game 7 at home. This game is a must-win for the Sixers, and if I'm Doc Rivers I'm outright telling the team that.

The season hangs in the balance, folks.

[Negrodamus]

I don’t think winning a game 7 with Embiid is out of the question. If anything, I think this past game and the previous series allows us to rely on Reed to give us + minutes while Embiid takes breathers. Doc will get a good look at the lineups that benefit Reed most. Hopefully he’s mindful enough to maximize his lineups.

[Bum Adebayo]

Yeah very easy loss.

[Dnt hate]

Yeah very easy loss.

You are so annoying, can u just go join Toronto where u belong

[Hipster Doofus]

Doc needs to have diarrhea one time and let Cassell lead the team.

[ProcessDoctor]

We want Bassey

*clap clap clap clap clap*

[76thBearCub]

Doc can really be credited with getting Millsap and Jordan some run down the stretch of the regular season. Bet they will be nice and limber when called upon.

[HardenGoat]

Make shots and the game will flow in our favor. Reed and Bassey have to play. We had a lot of open looks.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

Guys just missed shots in game one. We were hanging right with them until the momentum shifted in the third. They had I think 6 or 7 offensive rebounds alone in the third quarter. I can't remember how often they scored on them, but I believe it was almost every time. We then took some lazy shots on our end of the floor and that was the nail in the coffin for us. Without Embiid the margin for error with this team is definitely thin. I would continue to do work on Tyler Herro in the next game. Let Maxey, Tobias, Harden just take turns on that guy. He's a scorer no doubt, but he can't guard a corpse to save his own life. It would also be nice to see us not get killed on the boards. We expanded so much energy just trying to get rebounds and we still got outhustled. It's not like our guys weren't fighting so that in itself is very encouraging. They just worked harder then we did last night as crazy as that sounds. They have a ton of depth that they threw at us too. They are easily a ten deep team and that is usually not the case at all in the playoffs. They beat us last night without Kyle Lowry and the all time great Duncan Robinson. Crazy depth on that roster.

[Ferry Avenue]

https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/2022/05/03/jj-redick-offers-advice-to-doc-rivers-sixers-before-game-2-with-heat/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3D-dap1VD3jTDnga6HnqZm3O8nKgAP6OHBowjS_wx2E5mu2jBxZ6hvOck

[Murray_17]

https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/2022/05/03/jj-redick-offers-advice-to-doc-rivers-sixers-before-game-2-with-heat/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3D-dap1VD3jTDnga6HnqZm3O8nKgAP6OHBowjS_wx2E5mu2jBxZ6hvOck

JJ isn't even saying something that surprising or new. We were saying this during the game

[brannigan73]

If DJ plays more then 10 minutes in this game there truly is no hope for Doc Rivers. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

[76ciology]

Harden has to step up on offense and Tobi has to step up on grabbing rebounds.

If Tobi has to again step up on offense because Harden isn’t feeling it, then Harden has to step up on defense.

Harden may not be the scorer that he was, but Harden’s an underrated rebounder and defensive player.

Easier to ask more from our key players than expect Rivers to take his chance on Bassey over DJ.

Fwiw, DJ sucked but it’s not like I was impressed with how Bassey played against Yurtseven and the 3rd unit.

And yes, playing small lead us to have that lead to end the first half but Niang was a total 0 last game with his struggle to shoot and almost 0 rebounds.

Most importantly, we need a big game for BBall Paul. He has some playoff experience with the Raps series. Maybe he needs to change his style to being less aggressive to not get into foul trouble because we need him to play major minutes.

I’d be more confident to win the game, or even the series without Embiid if Paul Reed plays 30+mpg while our shooters do better in making wide open 3s than in G1 when they shot 1 out of 12.

[76ciology]

DJ will start. DJ will play.

But Harden, Tobi and Paul Reed has to step up.
Niang has to make 3s or atleast box Niang the F out.

This ain’t Charles Bassey Victory Tour

[76ciology]

DeAndre Jordan
Regular Season REB% 24% (embiid 19%)
Playoffs (2 games) 7.2%

If DAJ is going to play as certain as death and taxes, then he has to step up on rebounding.

[Jhawk03]

It may not be a Paul Reed victory tour, but it will certainly be a DAJ burial tour.

[76ciology]

It may not be a Paul Reed victory tour, but it will certainly be a DAJ burial tour.

[76ciology]

PHI +8

Hmm??

[ankle420breaker]

Definitely losing game 2. Doc is fully committed to dying on DJ's hill (he'll then snap at the media like a petulant child irrationally defending his decision after the game).

Thybulle will likely play his way out of the rotation and pave the way for Korkmaz to get minutes going forward. Can't understate how disappointing Thybulle's underwhelming postseason campaign has been.

Sent from my SM-S901U using RealGM mobile app

[Ferry Avenue]

PHI +8

Hmm??

Duplicate post.