Getty Joel Embiid and Paul Reed of the Philadelphia 76ers. Reed discussed the chip on his should he brought to the recent matchup against the Miami Heat.
The Miami Heat were unable to complete a mini-sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers, losing the second leg of their home-and-home series, 119-96. The March 1 matchup wasn’t particularly close. Philadelphia took control early in the second quarter and didn’t look back.
The Sixers’ dominant win over the Heat came despite being without star center Joel Embiid. Unfortunately for Miami, Embiid’s backup, Paul Reed, had a monster night in his absence. Reed tallied 16 points and 14 rebounds in just under 29 minutes.
After his career-night, Reed said that he came into the game with a chip on his shoulder.
“It felt amazing. Honestly, coming into this game I was taking it personal,” he told reporters.” We lost to this team in the playoffs last year, we lost to them the other night. So, I really had a chip on my shoulder tonight and I really wanted to prove a point.”
Bam Adebayo Bashes Heat’s Defense in Loss to Sixers
Miami’s center, Bam Adebayo, wasn’t quite as happy as Reed was, after Wednesday’s game. He called out his teammates’ mental lapses against Philly and pinpointed their lackluster defense.
“We have too many mental lapses in the middle of the game,” Adebayo told reporters via Bally Sports Sun: Heat. “Guys leaving guys open, it was really on the other end tonight. We didn’t get any stops. That’s what hurt us the whole game. We were getting what we wanted on offense, we just couldn’t get any stops.”
He was later asked if he thought the Heat had made any progress towards being able to score against switching defenses at a higher level. Adebayo explained that his team has plenty of room to improve in that category, before going on to say that the Heat needs to play at a higher level overall.
“We still have a long ways to go, as you can see, when it comes to teams who switch. We just have to buy in and really figure it out. It’s the second half of the season and we need to start gearing up for something bigger ahead of us.”
Jimmy Butler Says Heat Miss P.J. Tucker.
When taking on the 76ers this week, Miami squared off against P.J. Tucker. Tucker was a key contributor to last season’s first-place team, before he left for Philadelphia over the summer.
Despite his recent exit from South Beach, Heat star Jimmy Butler still has love for his former teammate.
“He guards incredibly well until he gotta matchup against me,” Butler said after Monday’s win. “But no, I really respect PJ because he always does what you ask him to do. We left him in the corner twice and he knocked them down both times. He’s playing in the passing lane, he’s diving on the floor, he’s a hell of a leader, he’s honest and you can count on him night in and night out to show up and do what you ask him to do.”
Butler then went on to explain that he and his Heat teammates missing having Tucker around.
“I miss him. We miss them here, but they got a good one.”