MIAMI — To begin the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Philadelphia 76ers are facing a lot of questions after deciding to start veteran DeAndre Jordan in the place of Joel Embiid against the Miami Heat in Game 1 on Monday.
The Jordan minutes were a disaster as Philadelphia was a minus-22 in those 17 minutes he played. The Heat got whatever they wanted at the rim and with Jordan playing a “drop” coverage in pick-and-roll, Miami walked into easy mid-range jumpers with not much defense there.
Coach Doc Rivers was adamant that they will continue to start Jordan in place of Embiid until the big fella returns and he defended Jordan’s play from Game 1 at shootaround on Wednesday morning.
“When you look at the first half, he didn’t have a lot to do with why we were down,” said Rivers. “They scored every time, but he just played freer and not in thought. I thought (Paul) Millsap gave us some good minutes as well, I thought Paul Reed gave us some good minutes, but again when you watch the tape, all three of them is not the reason. Any of those three had very little to why we were losing or ahead in the game, but we’re gonna need more from all of them.”
Give Rivers credit for always going to bat for his players. That is what a good coach does, but Jordan did have a very poor start to that game on Monday and that is something that has to be addressed going into Game 2 on Wednesday.
Even Jordan admitted that he did have a better second half than the first. He was a bit better to start the third quarter and the Sixers built a bit of an advantage early.
“Watching the film from the first half, it was night and day from the second half,” said Jordan. “There was a little bit more energy. Not just from me individually, but just for our team so I feel like if we can harness that, we’ll be alright.”
Rivers and the Sixers know they will be counting on James Harden, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris to score the ball for them. The key for the others out on the floor is to space and make those guys have the room to operate. It will be a big key to earning a split in this series.
“I think the intensity in the second half, even watching clips, it was more of a stance, more active, more alert to different actions and things like that and that’s just defensively,” Jordan added. “Offensively, we know who are scorers are gonna be. It’s not like we’re giving me the ball and asking me to score points for us. I think on offense, it’s just about spacing.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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