Embiid doubtful for Game 3 in Miami
PHILADELPHIA » Better cuts. More ball movement. More attention to the game plan. Improved spacing. More accurate screens.
Those were some of the things the 76ers were planning to use as they hit Miami for Game 3 of their first-round playoff series Thursday at 7.
Joel Embiid.
That is one thing that they will not necessarily have.
After a workout Wednesday in which he was filmed shooting, Embiid was declared “doubtful” for Game 3. The center has not played since a March 28 on-court collision with Markelle Fultz that left him with a cracked orbital bone. Surgery was successful, but the recovery continues.
The Sixers have yet to declare Embiid medically cleared to play. Yet since the Sixers had declared him “out” before Games 1 and 2, the “doubtful” designation is a slight upgrade. Brett Brown will take the sheer possibility of a return of the All-Star center as a positive.
“If you gave me the choice of
this uncertainty vs. the possibility that he will play,” the Sixers’ coach said, “I’d take ‘possibility’ all day, every day.”
Given the style of their 113-103 loss in Game 2 at the Wells Fargo Center, the Sixers could use the physical presence of Embiid as soon as possible. Playing with a tone that some might call ice hockey, the Heat literally shoved and grabbed the Sixers out of their preferred pace. Since there is no reason for the Heat to become less likely to batter them around, the only thing the Sixers can do in Game 3 is execute with more precision.
“Space, speed, fundamentals of getting open, technique of creating a lead, body-body-ball, being strong, purposeful knowledge of what structure you’re in , those types of things,” Brown said. “And not begging or asking for things from a referee. And you move on.”
Fundamentals will help. Shooting better will help more. After shooting a mystical 18-for28 from three-point range in a 130-103 Game 1 victory, the Sixers were at risk of a law-of-averages correction in Game 2. So it would happen, as they shot 7-for36 from distance. Much of that was due to the Heat’s increased defensive presence. Some was due to a slower pace. All of it, says Ben Simmons, can be corrected with more efficient ball-movement, a task he has promised to accept.
“You just try to get the best shots you can and eventually they will fall,” he said. “You’re not going to make every shot. That’s the way the game is played.”
Though the Sixers had an 18game winning streak stopped Monday, they oddly won the first, third and fourth quarters. Yet they were outscored, 34-13, in the second, inspiring Brown to dedicate almost all of his day-after film-session to those second 12 minutes.
“We watched the whole second period,” he said. “If we were all adults in the room, and it needs to be led by me, we would say, ‘How can we take this and make it a positive?’”
Positively, Embiid would help. If not, Brown must choose a starting center. In Game 1, that was Amir Johnson. In Game 2, it was Ersan Ilyasova. That the Sixers have won 18 of their last 19 leaves them in something less than a panic situation. But they do not want to return from Miami down, 3-1, in the series. Game 4 is Saturday afternoon at 2:30.