Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Playoff playbook
Heat enter Game 3 knowing 76ers can win minus Embiid.
MIAMI — The inside story in the Miami Heat’s playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers is that the 76ers are doing big things without All-Star center Joel Embiid.
And that has the Heat concerned, even with the status of Embiid in doubt for tonight’s Game 3 at AmericanAirlines Arena.
With the best-ofseven, opening-round NBA playoff series tied 1-1, the 76ers so far have outscored the Heat 102-68 in the paint and 45-21 on second-chance points.”They’re burying us. They’re absolutely burying us on the glass,” coach Erik Spoelstra said after Wednesday’s practice. “They’re burying us. That has to change.”
Guard Dwyane Wade said it is a pickyour-poison situation, that by stifling the 76ers to 7-of-36 shooting in Game 2, it left the paint open for Philadelphia to feast on offensive rebounds.
“Without going all the way through it, it’s not as simple as just go up and get the ball and box out,” Wade said. “I mean, they’re doing a lot of things to pull a lot of triggers that allows them to be able to rebound the ball as great as they have.
“That’s why they’ve done a good job in Philly in putting the perfect roster together. So when you’ve got shooters coming off and you got two guys on the ball, then now, you run out of men.”
Guard Goran Dragic said that it is up to the Heat’s perimeter players to meet the 76ers’ outside challenges straight on, freeing the Heat’s big men to protect the paint.
“Especially the catchand-shoot players, when they come out off the screen, sometimes we got two guys challenging the shot,” he said. “When the big guys challenge the shot, that gives their big guys a straight line to offensive rebounds.
“For our guards, we need to contest those shots better so the big guy doesn’t need to contest them.”
On the other end, the Heat have gotten precious little in the paint, with center Hassan Whiteside with six points in limited minutes through the series’ first two games. Whiteside said it is similar to what the Heat faced in the first round two seasons ago against the Charlotte Hornets.
“People that know basketball, they can kind of see that they really just pack their whole team in the paint. It’s different. It’s similar to Charlotte,” he said. “They pack their whole team in the paint. It’s not really much opportunities for me to get the ball in the paint.
“But we’re going to just keep spacing the floor and looking for guys for open threes. As long as those guys are making the right plays, that’s all I care about. It may not be my game. It may not be my series.”
Dragic said Heat playmakers are eager to get Whiteside involved.
“Everybody is inside the paint,” he said. “It’s really tough to get those clean looks for him, especially those alley-oops he usually gets or pocket passes.”
All the while, the Heat are expecting the return of Embiid to turn the style of the series, a return that could come as soon as Game 3.
“You just touch on a little bit each day,” Spoelstra said. “It would be irresponsible not to. We anticipate he will be back in this series at some point.”
Embiid has missed the past 10 games with the fractured orbital bone near his left eye sustained a March 28 game against the New York Knicks.
“I’m ready for any opponent,” Whiteside said. “Every day I come in and prepare. I’m one of the better defenders in the league, so I like to take pride in my defense.”
Whiteside said he is ready for what Embiid could inject into the mix.
“It doesn’t take me long even if I’ve never seen a guy,” he said. “It takes me a couple of possessions to see what they like and find different ways to guard it.”
Forward James Johnson said it is apparent that Whiteside is itching for the opportunity.
“I think the only person that’s preparing for Joel Embiid is Whiteside,” he said. “He’s so locked in to him and his tendencies and things he likes to do.”