In the last week of the season, the No. 1 seed continued to trouble the 76ers. The Heat lost 106-94 to the Heat, which kept them away from the Eastern Conference title with only one game left. They still have room to swing, and their playing is like in Miami.

This is what I see.

Kindness

• In Thursday night’s game, Tobias Harris was almost the only good thing. Even he can’t avoid making wrong decisions or forcing a terrible ball from a hard spot on the ground. But he made enough effort so as not to be overwhelmed by his own efforts.

Bad guy

• For the 76ers at the beginning of the season, this is not a big problem (perhaps because they don’t face much), but their incompetence in zone defense may be a formal problem. When the Heat recently shot at them, they were panicked. Although the Heat have always been a team that focuses on the area and is good at it, what is shocking is how long the 76ers have allowed them to sit in the area. Without considering any other factors. plan.

Remember when the coach was completely blamed last season? The worst part is that the general staff excuse is not there this time. Philadelphia and their two main players have three excellent or even excellent shooters on the court, and they all suffer the same stagnant offense anyway. At a certain point, you must look at Simmons and Embiid’s reaction to this coverage (or the reason for this coverage) and point your finger in their direction.

Forget about Embiid’s success (or lack of accomplishment) in the position for a second, and think that they rarely or even can’t get him to catch the ball at first. Miami managed to take the lead before the ball passed to him, sending a second off-the-ball guard to prevent him from entering, and when those things didn’t happen, the automatic doubling was enough to frustrate him. Facing star players in doubles is obviously nothing new, especially for Embiid, but it is frightening that the pressure team feels safe to throw at him before he touches the ball.

Filling up with paint to stop Philly is not a new or creative game plan, which is why it should be a bit worrying. Some people will point out their lack of motivation in this game as an excuse for why they performed so badly, but when you think this is a defensive way, they should be prepared for it, even if it is a B-level, they are also There is no need to work hard to manage a better attack on the area.

All these add up to form a lot of side-by-side basketballs, and the guards are unable or unwilling to try to go downhill with the usual entrance feed. The 76ers did not exert any pressure on the rim or even Miami around the free throw line, so it is hardly necessary for Miami to take any action to achieve a successful area defense.

This is a pathetic effort. Speaking of poor efforts…

• If this is the Joel Embiid that the 76ers will acquire, he hasn’t played his role at all. This is a callback to the past few seasons. You can see that he didn’t have a jumper, and other teams are basically in the forefront.

Rebounding has always been one of Embiid’s important performances, and in many games, Bam Adebayo steals him. Adebayo is an excellent player. His athleticism, toughness and hard work have caused problems for many players, but a positive Embiid can seal him and end possession of the ball after the 76ers stop. That version of Embiid stayed in Philadelphia.

Ironically, a story about Embiid and its increased maturity made the front page headlines on ESPN on Thursday night. There were a lot of discussions about how Rivers delved into him, and he must participate in this year’s competition as an elite. The tone of the team. Embiid has to some extent lost his pursuit of setting the tone for the season. This game could have been the number one seed for Philly, and unless you bought the disease as the only reason, it would be a bad one for him. People go crazy with their best players.

This is the kicker-now they have to decide whether to play with him back-to-back tomorrow night, because he seems to want to motivate his opponents to show. The 76ers should beat the Magic, but to please.

• I am not one of the many media members who write independent stories on the subject, but the 76ers basically only played boxers for several months and were criticized by their opponents. Despite this, they did not seem to show anything special Dominance. This was their first real test in a while, and the 76ers failed the test in an amazing way. How much content you want to read depends on you, but this is definitely not a good thing.

Really, the only reason you are suitable for everyone This Your remaining three games are where you want to rigorously test potential playoff opponents and/or send some information to that opponent. Instead, Miami absolutely brought them to them when they proceeded with the bill, and the Heat will definitely use this as a reason to walk into the Philadelphia showdown without hesitation. Do you blame them?

In recent NBA history, whenever there is a weird or shortened season, for various reasons, the playoffs will produce strange results. The past two NBA lockouts in the first round of the playoffs both ranked 8th with the No. 1 seed dissatisfied, and I certainly can’t predict that the 76ers will lose in the first round (they are much better than anyone in the first round. ) Confusion in the game), we have reason to suspect that their performance is as good as their record, and the position on the leaderboard tells us their situation. Maybe they regained their victory in the playoffs, maybe their several iconic victories this year showed us where they have always been, but most of them are untested and will really make the playoffs.

• I mean to pay due respect to those who believe in this, but if you think that posting more Ben Simmons is the solution to the problem on Thursday night-it seems on Twitter during the game There are many people-I am I am not sure what you have been looking at Ben Simmons for the past four years. He either shoots for a goal or kicks the ball to someone else. There is no mystery and no danger.

There is no mystery and no danger at all,” Basically the story of Ben Simmons in the fourth grade. He is a stable performer, but he is stable to the point of madness. Unlike most of the biggest contract guards (he is out of Must be evaluated as a defender for various reasons), he has no ability or urgency to put the game in his hands and make changes when the game moves south. I don’t even know what it would be like if he tried to do this, not us Need to worry about this happening. If he can’t make up for the difference in passing and defense, it’s not fake.

The lineup combination without any problems should be blamed on this.Remember, the subtext of the conversation about the Simmons-Sibble-Howard lineup is that these problems stem from Simmons Can not do. If you arrange for an ordinary senior guard to replace him-Kyle Lowry, so to speak, because they have been chasing him after the deadline-the 76ers will like to try Lowry Howard 1. -Howard 1-5 pairs.

As the (possible) first seed, this team will have a high level of expectations in the playoffs. If all of this collapses and burns down, during the offseason, the phone calls in the executive suite will become very busy, and one person will be at the core of many such conversations.

• The preemptive striker was eliminated on Thursday, so I am not particularly inclined to lose the bench because of their role in this disaster class. There was a drama that made me roll my eyes-Shake Milton helped Tyler Herro over-assist on a corner kick in the first half, which seemed to be helping Joel Embiid (Joel Embiid) and Bam Adebayo (Bam Adebayo) on the basket. He didn’t close the space to crowd Adebayor, so all he did was give Herro an open three-pointer under his negligence.

He will continue to play an important role in the playoffs, and it should be clear that this type of game lost the playoffs. Tyrese Maxey is not exactly Gary Payton, but with the advent of his rookie season, at least he is actively improving on the defensive end.

ugly

• In the opening season, the 76ers will not get worse. They are on the wrong end of Jimmy Butler’s shooting percentage, which is basically something you will never bet on this season, so you can’t be too angry about that part. However, what is worrying is that many of their problems are manifestations of fear of many key players in the playoffs.

Ben Simmons started the game against Duncan Robinson. He hardly took any action to bring it to a smaller, slower player, and the Heat were speeding past the pass in the hope that he would not enter offensive mode. They proved to be correct.

Seth Curry had an excellent off-court possession earlier, but he did have trouble preventing dribbling penetration from Miami defenders. Kendrick Nunn can basically get any position he wants, and Curry can defend him, which has a lot of negative effects on the 76ers outside the basket and the three-point line.

Then came Joel Embiid’s game report-when he put the guard back to the basket, the Heat basically doubled Embiid automatically, even though he was not a turnover machine, his Passing is not clear, he chose jumpers that resulted in some imbalances, which contributed to the offense.

Follow Kyle on Twitter: @KyleNeubeck