Monday Night
The Sixers and Heat kicked off their second round series on Monday night with no Joel Embiid (concussion, orbital bone fracture), but fans were still being hopeful the Sixers could steal Game 1 in Miami. The team did fight hard and even had the lead at one point, but couldn’t hit shots down the stretch of the game and their were some horrible rotational decisions made. Doc Rivers decided to not only play, but START DeAndre Jordan…in the PLAYOFFS.
Liability
DeAndre Jordan has not been starter in the league for five years and hasn’t been a reliable role player for the past three seasons. But Doc Rivers trotted him out there expecting some resemblance of the old DeAndre to show up for a huge game in the playoffs. Not only was DeAndre not good at his specific job on the court, but was also -22 in only 17 minutes on the court. Which means that basically every single time he stepped on the court, the Sixers would immediately start to give up a run to the Heat.
Time after time, DeAndre would come in and immediately the Heat would go on 9, 10, 11-point runs and all of the sudden the Sixers would be down 20. He has to be one of the worst pick and roll defenders in the league and was constantly caught out of position not only on his man, but also in help defense. The Heat were killing the Sixers on the offensive boards throughout Game 1 and him being 7 foot didn’t stop that at all when he would sub in for Paul Reed.
The Sixers could have easily won that game and been in a great position while Embiid recovers, but instead Doc continued to put in one of the worst players in the NBA to make sure the Heat would win game 1. DeAndre caught a few lobs and set a couple of nice screens, but other than that was the biggest liability on the court. The Sixers were significantly better when using Paul Reed or playing small ball, yet DeAndre continued to check in.
Yet another example of why Doc should have been playing Charles Bassey and Paul Reed more throughout the season, but instead he makes terrible decisions and tells everyone “we all know nothing about basketball”. DeAndre Jordan’s playoff experience is a good asset to have with younger big men on the team, but for mentoring purposes, not starting in a playoff game.
Image: Michael Leff/Getty Images
