Miami Heat Playoffs: James Harden’s Should Anticipate A Lot Of Long Nights
Harden should anticipate his next playoff opponent as one of his most difficult challenges he’s seen and that can be argued, even, with Embiid on the floor. A major reason is that this now allows Heat head coach, Erik Spoelstra, and his elite switching style of defense to key in on the former 2017-18 Most Valuable Player, both physically and mentally.
Bam Adebayo, Miami’s frontline anchor, will share the greatest benefit of Embiid’s absence. Now taking away the rolling and post threat of the Sixers’ big-man, there’s now leeway granted for Bam to switch onto Harden without having to concern himself on the interior.
This method goes the same for P.J. Tucker, who has recently shared minutes as a Small-Ball Five against Atlanta. Not only will this series be difficult for Harden from a defensive perspective, but it’ll most certainly be difficult on the offensive end too.
For the entire year, the Heat have been a team that’s made a living off of exploiting mismatches and with Harden in the lineup, the Sixers will be held to a disadvantage.
Over the last several years, Harden has been heavily criticized as a defender and he won’t see many breaks against Miami. Let’s look at that a bit closer though.