Throughout the third quarter against the Mavs, Joel Embiid seemed to ask himself the question: Where should I be to resume my construction site? At the break, his team was comfortably leading (53-63) and the pivot (18 points and 9 rebounds at this stage) had hurt all the opposing interiors.
” We tried the ice storm, it didn’t work “, laughs Jason Kidd compared to the current time in Texas, before getting more serious: “ He is so talented. […] You can’t let him have a big, big game or you have no chance of winning. The Texan technician, deprived of Kristaps Porzingis and Maxi Kleber for this match, then decided to change defensive gear to start the second period: the floating zone.
” We haven’t used it all season. It was amazing to see people communicate. Speaking, you’re going to do great things on defense, and that’s what we did tonight “, welcomes Luka Doncic. This area actually posed great difficulties for the well-oiled attack of the 76ers in the first period.
We saw Tyrese Maxey direct Joel Embiid to the low post, while Tobias Harris came to position himself high post. The strong winger tried to pass the leather to his pivot, but that relationship was cut by an intervention from Dorian Finney-Smith. On the next possession, the same Tobias Harris found Joel Embiid near the circle but the lack of “spacing” forced the pivot to miss his finish.
The Heat had already used it
Still a little later, the 76ers, trying to quickly move the ball around the periphery to create the lags, were unable to trigger before the end of the 24 seconds.
” On several occasions this year, we have been quite bad against the zone. We have to find ways to attack him. Obviously after tonight we’re gonna face it again “Notes Seth Curry (11 points at 3/6 from afar), whose exterior address could have done more damage against this kind of defense.
Using this defense to counter the 76ers giant is nothing new. Last December, the Heat had already favored it rather than playing the two-man take, which could generate open shots for Philadelphia snipers.
Result: tonight, the 76ers were limited to 15 points in the third quarter, then 20 in the last. Joel Embid? 9 points at 3/8 on shots in the second half. ” The zone destabilized us tonight”, also recognizes Georges Niang. “Even I got into areas where I’m not supposed to be and lost the ball. We may not have been rushed enough in the face of the zone, which slowed our pace and was destabilizing.“
The big teams in the East have taken note.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Luka Doncic | 37 | 35.2 | 44.5 | 31.2 | 73.8 | 0.8 | 8.0 | 8.8 | 8.9 | 4.4 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 26.0 |
| Kristaps Porzingis | 34 | 29.5 | 45.1 | 28.3 | 86.5 | 1.9 | 5.8 | 7.7 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 19.2 |
| Jalen Brunson | 51 | 31.6 | 50.3 | 33.8 | 80.3 | 0.6 | 3.3 | 3.8 | 5.5 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 15.8 |
| Tim Hardaway Jr. | 42 | 29.6 | 39.4 | 33.6 | 75.7 | 0.3 | 3.4 | 3.7 | 2.2 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 14.2 |
| Dorian Finney Smith | 51 | 32.2 | 43.7 | 36.2 | 67.2 | 1.6 | 3.2 | 4.9 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 10.0 |
| Brandon Knight | 3 | 18.2 | 45.0 | 30.8 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 10.0 |
| Maxi Kléber | 37 | 25.2 | 41.9 | 37.1 | 77.1 | 1.2 | 4.7 | 5.9 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 2.3 | 7.6 |
| Reggie Bullock | 44 | 24.1 | 40.5 | 34.1 | 80.8 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 7.2 |
| Dwight Powell | 52 | 19.7 | 63.4 | 40.0 | 74.8 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 4.3 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 7.1 |
| isaiah thomas | 1 | 13.3 | 37.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.0 |
| Marquese Chriss | 19 | 11.2 | 54.0 | 38.9 | 63.2 | 0.8 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 5.9 |
| Trey Burke | 27 | 10.7 | 41.0 | 30.5 | 94.1 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 5.6 |
| Boban Marjanovic | 16 | 6.0 | 62.5 | 33.3 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 4.9 |
| Josh Green | 37 | 13.3 | 54.0 | 32.1 | 69.7 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 4.5 |
| Frank Ntilikina | 41 | 12.8 | 38.7 | 36.0 | 95.7 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 4.5 |
| Sterling Brown | 36 | 14.2 | 39.8 | 34.2 | 90.9 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 3.9 |
| Moses Brown | 25 | 6.6 | 54.0 | 0.0 | 62.8 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 2.4 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 3.2 |
| Willie Cauley-stein | 18 | 9.8 | 45.7 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.9 |
| Theo Pinson | 15 | 7.4 | 30.0 | 26.1 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 1.9 |
| Eugene Omoruyi | 4 | 4.5 | 40.0 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.8 |
| Charlie Brown | 3 | 5.1 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| carlik jones | 3 | 6.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| george king | 4 | 4.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.2 |
| Jaquori McLaughlin | 4 | 2.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
