Tobias Harris, Sixers not happy with all-around effort in road loss to Heat
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The Philadelphia 76ers still had something to play for when they entered the American Airlines Arena on Thursday night as the No. 1 seed was still up in the air. They had Joel Embiid back in the lineup and they were set to face a tough opponent in the Miami Heat to get the competitive juices going.
Instead, they came out flat and they fell to the Heat 106-94 on the road as the No. 1 seed will have to wait a bit longer. Miami set the tone early as they shot a blistering 66.7% from the floor in the first quarter as they took an early 38-22 lead after one.
The Sixers, normally a stout defensive team, just did not have it in this one and the Heat were able to get whatever they wanted on the offensive end.
“They’re a team that’s playing with a lot of confidence,” said Tobias Harris. “They’re playing great basketball and their energy from the start hurt us, their physicality as well. They would’ve thought they were the team playing out there to punch the No. 1 seed. We didn’t bring it tonight from the start of the game and on and their energy showed throughout the game.”
Miami then went into a zone defense and the Sixers had struggles attacking that as well. Mainly, because the Heat were able to score so easily on the other end of the floor.
“I just didn’t think we were ready to play the game tonight,” said coach Doc Rivers. “You saw it early, everything hurt us. Their man hurt us, their zone hurt us, our defense hurt us. I don’t think they dipped below 50% shooting the entire night. They got everything they wanted. They moved faster, they ran harder. South Beach is very tough.”
Miami was physical from the jump getting into the airspace of Joel Embiid as well as being chippy with Philadelphia. The Heat made sure this game was played at their pace and the Sixers could not answer correctly.
“From the tip, they kind of set the tone with that,” said Danny Green. “We were on our heels most of the game. So we play passive because we got a couple foul calls, but you can’t let that dictate how we’re gonna play defensively with our aggression.”
Philadelphia will now return home on Friday to host the Orlando Magic looking to finally wrap up the No. 1 seed in the East.
“We just got to get our focus and our energy level up to where it needs to be,” Harris added. “We can’t have games like this at this point of the year, but we have another one tomorrow to get back and get right.”
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