Busy weekend, don’t have the time to compose my thoughts.
1) I thought that was the best defensive burst at an elite level we’ve done yet. Everyone hit very committed down the stretch in the 4th.
2) Missed free throws in the 4th doomed us. LeBron, Reaves and AD all missed one in the final 5 or so, huge bummer it came down to such a thing.
3) Still, for all that defensive effort we lost track of Harden 3 times for easy scores. While we overcame them to force OT he’s like…the one guy you want to stay in front. Multiple player seemingly got confused on that coverage and hopefully is something that can be ironed out with film and practice.
4) AD needs to be the focus in OT, too, guys. Still, in OT even he seemed content to hang out on the perimeter. Too many early shot clock threes.
5) Start. Reaves. PatBev will understand, it won’t affect his play, he can still get in the ears of guys and will have a chance to see what the other team is doing and help the team adjust like Rondo used to do.
Easy Fiver. Feed AD down the stretch. Make your free throws.
Refs totally gave game to Sixers with their calls on AD.
I thought the defensive breakdowns in transition were the bigger issue. Some of that was LeBron not closing out on a JH 3, another was defensive miscommunication between AD and Reaves and the other was a bad read by PatBev and LBJ. Thats what a full court scramble will do, though, and Philly took advantage. Also, Ham got LeBron playing 44 minutes, led the team by 6 minutes. That’s just way too many. That’s as much on the staff as the player.
Crazy minutes. Everyone, myself included, has to stop thinking LBJ at 38 has to lead us. He is a fine 2nd banana now. Bojan and Turner would be great, but Indy is playing well enough to ride “the Storm out!”
Not to mention guarding a much bigger Joel Embiid much of the game. We would not have been able to stay close were it not for that effort by LeBron. We were just overmatched size wize.