CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers return home from South Florida facing elimination. After a 120-85 Game 5 drubbing at the hands of the Miami Heat on Tuesday, they now stare down elimination and they will have their hands full on Thursday in Game 6.
The Heat shot 53.6% from the floor and 13-for-33 from deep as their role players stepped up at home. Tyler Herro had 10 off the bench, Max Strus had 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Victor Oladipo and Gabe Vincent had strong games as well.
As Philadelphia heads into Game 6, they know there are some big defensive adjustments that need to be made.
“We would love us to run our defense the right way first,” said coach Doc Rivers on Wednesday. “That always helps in coaching like you’re watching the tape, and it’s like ‘Man, if we had executed this, maybe we would have guarded it better’. It’s hard to make a change when you’re not doing the original way right first. So we have to fix that first and then we’ll be ready for the second part.”
With that being said, the Heat have yet to prove they can knock down shots on the road. Miami shot just 14-for-65 from deep in Games 3 and 4 and it’s not guaranteed that Herro and Strus are going to have big games as they have at home during this series.
“It’s all been said that role players play better at home,” Rivers added. “Last night (Tuesday), the way that game was played, I don’t think it wouldn’t matter where we played. The shots they had last night were wide-open. Their shots, they’re comfortable and there was just no physicality from us. Now, will they miss more in Philadelphia? Let’s hope so, but let’s make them miss is what I would say.”
The Heat were clearly the more forceful group. They played with much more physicality and they were tough all night long. Philadelphia just took it and they will have to respond much better on Thursday.
“That was just too many wide-open shots and not only just 3s, I thought their 2s were…
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