1. With word coming out less than an hour before tipoff that Joel Embiid, earlier listed as questionable, would indeed be out for this one, the 76ers quickly shifted to an entirely different look with P.J. Tucker starting at center. Right from the start, nothing felt the same from Monday’s slow, plodding contest. Instead of possessions running up against the shot clock, with both sides throwing zone and every type of double team under the sun at each other, speed was back in style. Defense, a little less so. By the end of the first quarter, Miami had appeared to adapt on the fly just fine, leading 38-34 – both teams running an Offensive Rating of 140-plus at that point – as the Sixers were slow to tighten the screws on a defensive scheme that was suddenly switching most everything. Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Kevin Love were all hunting matchups and the offense – albeit against an extreme smallball look they very rarely see – was humming along. Still, there was the other end of the court. A five-out look is difficult for anyone to defend. It’s practically impossible to shut down the paint without giving up threes to any of the five shooters on the floor. With Tyrese Maxey in the starting group, Philadelphia was stretching Miami’s help rotations to their limits. The difference, however, came early in the second when the bench lineups were in. By then the 76ers were back to a more conventional look, albeit one with plenty of switchability that they stuck to, with Paul Reed – playing maybe his best or at least most complete game of the season – at center. Miami’s offense started dealing with some discombobulation – they almost never lose the turnover battle (12-8 in favor of the visitors) but the Sixers were the ones getting steals and runouts – and Philadelphia ran off a 20-2 run, going up by as much as 20 at one point, 18 at the break after a 37-15 second. Yes, the road team was hitting 11-of-21 from three, but nine of those attempts were corner threes versus the more difficult shot profile the HEAT (4-of-15) were generating).

Without Embiid there remained a sense that the 76ers were going to leave the window open. Indeed it was, though maybe not for the most obvious reasons. Adebayo and Butler’s talent go the lead back to 11. Even as that was happening, it never felt like the 76ers, with Harden and Maxey (50 combined points, 12 assists) running the show, stopped getting good looks. Sure enough, the makes shook free of the ice and the lead quickly grew back to 20, 23 with about seven minutes left in the fourth. Good energy from Caleb Martin taking on the Harden challenge as Miami made one last push, but that was all it was. Philadelphia takes it, 119-96, on top of a 129.7 Offensive Rating.

2. On the second possession of the game, the Sixers miscommunicated a switch – both defenders went to the ball – and Adebayo was handed a free rim run for a dunk. Maybe Philadelphia was going to struggle with their switching, having gone to such a different scheme than the more conventional one they use with Embiid in the middle? Not so much.

The matchups were still there to attack, but Philadelphia grew more connected as the game wore on. They gave up fewer disadvantageous switches. They switched off the ball before the HEAT could deliver the pass to the proper matchup. But not matter how on-a-string you are, lack of size is lack of size and Adebayo and Butler (36 combined points on 21 shots) had plenty of space to work with in the paint – at one point they were a combined 14-of-17 in the middle. Extreme efficiency aside, that tracks given Adebayo and Butler have been two of the best isolation players in the league this season and isolation players tend to be the best way to attack a switching defense. 

Problems arise when your offense is reduced only to two players being able to hunt matchups, though, and at times that was the case tonight with the rest of the team shooting 20-of-56 with 18 assists. With a healthy Embiid the 76ers won’t be going to this scheme as often – one suspects Tucker at center will be seen in the postseason at some point – but part of why this is big-picture relevant is because one of the teams they might see in the playoffs, Boston, switches as much as anyone, and the same goes for Brooklyn and Toronto teams that are in the hunt.

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