Miami Heat Playoffs Roundtable: Philly/Toronto Round 2 Preference- Max’s Take
The Miami Heat have six days to rest up for their second-round matchup with, either, the Philadelphia 76ers or the Toronto Raptors. Philadelphia was up 3-0, but Toronto isn’t going down without a fight just yet.
Max’s Take (@maxmarshall136) – Philadelphia 76ers
Give Credit to Toronto for still playing hard.
If you ask who the Heat should want in the next round though, I want Philadelphia. How could Miami fans not want that fan base and everything that comes with it, namely, Doc Rivers, Joel Embiid, and James Harden.
Two of them, Rivers and Harden, have had their playoff struggles well documented. Just Philadelphia, in general, is fun to beat.
Their media, from television to radio, will have a field day on them if they lose to Toronto, let alone Miami. Also, I didn’t forget Jimmy Butler, who left Philadelphia for Miami, while anyone with a podcast or TV show ripped Butler for doing so.
Some even said that Butler was going to Miami to “retire”. For those reasons, it would be lovely to send Philadelphia home.
You have that, plus the whole James Harden to Miami thing that has always rubbed me the wrong way. To do all of this, while also knocking out Daryl Morey, would be the icing on the cake.
Toronto would be a hard-fought series but I still would expect Miami to win. It’s just not as fun from a storyline perspective.
By the way, Embiid is dealing with a bad thumb as well. We all saw what Miami did to Trae Young on both sides of the ball.
Miami can gameplan against Harden or Embiid. To be fair though, the development of Tyrese Maxey is something to watch out for, but with Gabe Vincent and now Victor Oladipo in the rotation, you can feel better about defending Maxey too.
The Miami Heat have all the tools to beat both teams, however, Toronto doesn’t have quit in them, while Philadelphia does. That means you should already know—it’s Miami Heat in five if Philly.