Pros and Cons: Sixers vs. Heat Game 4

The Harden Game.

Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.

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Looking to ride the momentum from their Game 3 victory, tonight the Sixers hosted the Miami Heat in hopes of evening their second round series at two games each. Here’s what stood out to me tonight:

Pro: Joel Embiid begins to find his footing offensively while dominating on defense

Embiid’s presence was huge for the Sixers in their Game 3 win over Miami on Friday night, but it was mostly because of his excellent defense (which he maintained tonight — more on that in a minute). 

However, for understandable reasons, he was noticeably uncomfortable on the offensive end, posting an inefficient statline and looking particularly averse to scoring from the perimeter.

Having hand and facial injuries as well as having to wear a mask is a recipe for discomfort. But despite the ailments, Embiid persisted, looking a lot more like the dominant scorer we know him to be.

On defense, Embiid was even greater than the standard he has set for himself in the playoffs. Not only did he effectively man the middle while also mostly silencing Bam Adebayo, but frequently switched to the perimeter and smothered Miami ball-handlers.

One would assume that Embiid’s offense will gradually improve as he gets used to the obstacles currently in his way. But there is no question that his defense is exactly as good as it needs to be.

Con: An old friend lights the Sixers up

Throughout these playoffs, we have all praised Tobias Harris and his much-improved defense. After giving his all to defend Pascal Siakam in round one, he has taken the Jimmy Butler assignment during this series.

Butler torched his former team with a brilliant combination of driving, shooting and foul-drawing. All of those forms of offense coalesced into what was a monster performance, as he nearly on his own carried a Miami offense that looked very bland and out of sorts when he didn’t have the ball in his hands.

Butler has been largely excellent all series long, but tonight was truly a masterpiece from him. It wasn’t just his offense, either: Butler was by far Miami’s best defender on James Harden, who Butler locked up and forced turnovers against on multiple occasions throughout the game.

In Games 3 and 4, the Sixers did an excellent job defending Butler’s supporting cast. Now, they must deal with the fulcrum of Miami’s gameplan.

Pro: Harden engineers two runs, lifts Sixers to victory

For much of Harden’s tenure, the predominant subjects of discourse have been his lack of aggression and overall decline as a scorer.

From my point of view, Harden’s biggest issue is that he has lacked performances where he uses his skillset to truly take over, even for portions of games.

Tonight in the second quarter, Harden did exactly that. The Sixers had a small lead, and he gave them some more breathing room as he gashed Miami’s defense en route to excellent looks for himself and his teammates.

Then came the fourth quarter, in which Miami was putting together some mini-runs in hopes of overcoming a deficit that peaked at 14 points. 

Harden, though, was having none of it. He went crazy in the fourth quarter, finally looking like the version of himself that was a perennial MVP candidate in Houston.

Harden obliterated Miami with his signature step-back three, as well as with drives to the basket and nifty assists.

Harden looked like a full-blown superstar tonight. Every wish a Sixers fan could have had about his play in Philadelphia came true, as he relieved Embiid of his duties as closer and let the big man watch as his sidekick dominated down the stretch.

Given the performance and the stage, this was clearly Harden’s best gfame as a Sixer. And it was exactly what his team needed.