Sixers discuss their struggles against the zone defense in loss to Heat
An old nemesis of the Philadelphia 76ers reared its head again on Thursday when they fell to the Miami Heat 106-94 on the road. The Heat went into a zone defense in the second quarter and the Sixers once again had some issues with it.
Philadelphia only scored 19 points in the second quarter and they shot 36.8% from the floor in the quarter to find themselves down 60-41 at the half. They just could not get any clean looks and they weren’t able to get Seth Curry or Danny Green any open looks from the perimeter and it cost them.
The Heat also employed a lot of traps on the defensive end on Ben Simmons as the Sixers had a tough time getting into any offensive sets at a faster pace. When Simmons can’t push the pace on offense, that is where they get into trouble on that end of the floor.
“I think we’ve been trapped all year so it’s not a concern,” said coach Doc Rivers. “It’s a concern if we’re going to take the ball out every time and have to play against a half-court defense, every single time down the floor. That would probably be a bigger concern for me. Our zone O was horrendous tonight. We didn’t really run it much, we didn’t change sides of the floor on offense tonight a lot. If we play like tonight yeah it would be a concern, but I really don’t think we’ll play that way.”
It was easy for the Heat to get set up into their zone due to the fact that Philadelphia had trouble stopping them on offense. The Heat were getting easy buckets and that allowed them to get back and set up in the zone. Miami’s length with Jimmy Butler, Duncan Robinson, and Trevor Ariza out on the perimeter was a big factor.
“It was easy for them to set up in a zone every time because they were scoring,” said Tobias Harris. “For us, we didn’t do a good enough job of getting enough stops to be able to get out in transition so it was easy for them to setup and on top of that, we didn’t have enough ball movement and being able to get downhill and putting pressure on the zone. It was easy for them all night.”
Veteran Danny Green echoed Harris’ thoughts about Miami being able to get into a set on their defensive end. As mentioned, the pace that the Sixers play with is always a big factor in anything they do.
“We let them get set,” said Green. “We didn’t push the pace. They’re good when they’re set, any team is good when they’re set. We allowed them to double, we didn’t move the ball as quickly. We didn’t make quick decisions like we were supposed to and it was tough.”
Now, it’s time to head home and take on the Orlando Magic on Friday.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
