Wednesday night can be chalked up to another learning experience for the Philadelphia 76ers. It was a night where they got off to a hot start offensively and held a 29-19 lead after one quarter, but then the Miami Heat brought out a 2-3 zone defense and it confused the Sixers all night long.
Philadelphia was outscored 37-19 in the second quarter after they were frustrated offensively and it continued throughout the night as they fell 108-104 at home.
The Sixers shot 12-for-39 from deep with Tobias Harris shooting 2-for-6 and Josh Richardson shooting 3-for-10. On top of that, key reserves James Ennis III and Mike Scott shot a combined 2-for-9 from deep off the bench. Those numbers will not bust a zone in the long run. It’s something that needs to be continued to be worked on.
“To be honest, we kind of hope they do play it, because we know we’re not going to shoot like that,” Harris said. “We make a couple of shots. That’s why teams don’t really play zone. Guys make shots and then they get up out of the zone real quick, especially three-point looks.”
To Harris’ point, the Sixers entered the night shooting 39.0% from deep over their previous 16 games. While they don’t have any shooters who are household names, they showed over the previous stretch that they can knock down the 3-pointer.
“It’s definitely frustrating, but at the end of the day, it’s kind of on us because we essentially missed those shots,” he added. “I don’t think it was until the fourth quarter where we actually started finding ways to break the zone.”
The Sixers had the looks of a team that definitely panicked a bit when the Heat started going into the zone. They had some trouble getting the ball into Joel Embiid early and when they finally were able to get it down to him in the fourth, it was too late.
“I think that we ended up overthinking it too much,” said coach Brett Brown. “I think that we have been quite good against the zone this year, with the fifth-best offense against the zone, so they tell me. It watered us down on both sides of the ball. It was as much a mentality, mood swing, as it was anything. I think that structurally, we got the ball inside and we were 12-for-39 from the three. It watered down our mood.”
This is an oddly constructed team that will have to continue to play together and work out their many kinks if they are to ultimately compete for a championship. Wednesday night offered a new challenge and they will now have to take the growing pains and continue to take steps forward.
Their next matchup is at home against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night. [lawrence-related id=21647,21637,21626]