MIAMI–The Philadelphia 76ers were very shorthanded on Saturday night when they paid a visit to the Miami Heat as they were missing star guard James Harden who is obviously a huge part of what they do.
While the team struggled on the offensive end of the floor, they also had a tough time against Heat stars Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro in a 99-82 loss on the road. Butler and Herro had 21 points each and they both made big shots and big plays for Miami in the second half to hold the Sixers off.
Butler finished with 21 points and five assists while Herro had 21 points and seven rebounds off the bench. They both were getting into the paint and the Sixers had a tough time really stopping them.
“Tyler beat us up, both hands,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Jimmy, when he beats us right, that’s on us. It should never happen and it did in the first half four or five times. In the second half, I thought we did a better job of taking that away. I thought our zone was really effective. It got us back in the game.”
Butler is always a tough cover due to his size and his strength and Herro is one of the quicker guards in the league off the bench. He is an explosive player who can go off at any moment on the offensive end of the floor.
“They’re talented, obviously,” said Tyrese Maxey. “We tried to get Jimmy Butler off his right hand as much as possible even though he’s been in the league for a long time going right. He’s an All-Star for a reason and Tyler’s just playing really well. In the fourth quarter, he hit some tough step-back shots in the corner over multiple people, big-time shots.”
The Sixers did employ the zone defense that Rivers mentioned and that seemed to slow Butler down a bit, but he had seven points in the third quarter when he figured out how to attack it.
“We were playing a lot of zone,” said Joel Embiid. “They’re just pretty good at what they do. They exploited the holes in our defense and they got to the paint and if we were helping, they were creating shots for others.”
One of those other guys was Gabe Vincent who had 16 points and knocked down four triples for Miami. The Sixers had a tough time getting to those guys in the zone.
“We went zone, it worked at times, it didn’t in other times,” Embiid added. “We’re gonna learn from it.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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