Philadelphia 76ers intimidating Miami Heat’s intimidators

The Miami Heat are down 2-1 to the Philadelphia 76ers. Rather than play a clean but physical game, they have tried to intimidate the Philadelphia 76ers. But its Philly who is intimidating the Heat.

When the Miami Heat lost game one, they had to come up with a new strategy on the fly. The team decided the best strategy to counter the Philadelphia 76ers hinged on bullying the 76ers. But in doing so, the coaching staff made a huge error. In the biggest stage of the Philadelphia 76ers’ young players’ careers, the Heat chose to mask the awe, the glitz, and the happenstance of the NBA Playoffs, and convert this series into a brawl.

Bad move.

Bullying shows fear. Someone whose first response is physicality is not someone who is confident. Trying to get into the heads of another team through pranks and antics is an admission of that team already getting into your head. Miami, in choosing to take the low road, risked converting their veteran advantage into a street fight. Now, at the low end of a 1-2 deficit, they have a huge road back.

Miami played into Sixers strengths

In any veteran versus novice, the mental advantage to the veteran team is to enhance the facade that the veteran team is not affected by the hype or the spotlight. Business as usual. Create a calm cool and collected image to the performance, and let the self-doubt and the uncertainty rattle the Philadelphia 76ers. But the Miami Heat chose an alternate route.

Miami elected to assume the role of the NBA bully team. Push the envelope of the rules to the edge. Foul so often that the refs are forced to allow some level of physicality to slip through. And when the Miami Heat stacks up against the Philadelphia 76ers, what choice did the Heat truly have? They can’t outscore the Philadelphia 76ers. And they do not match up well defensively without some edge. The team believes they can bully the 76ers. Or rather did believe.

Bullies risk getting out-bullied

The Miami Heat is a very defensive and physical team. Knowing the team cannot match basket for basket against the Philadelphia 76ers, their playbook now runs on the “hack-a-sixer” scheme. In that second game, the Heat ramped up the physicality all over the basketball court. And they were happy to get called for fouls. Fouls slow down the game. Slow paced games give the Heat an advantage. It was a good, physical lesson for the Philadelphia 76ers. But the Miami Heat took it one step too far.

With the game decided, point guard Goran Dragic drove an uncontested layup for a score against the Philadlephia 76ers. Goran Dragic didn’t need to score last minute layup in game two, with their team well ahead. He did anyways.

But that was game two.  The Heat, believing they had bullied the Philadelphia 76ers, came with the mirror strategy in game three. So the question is, how well did it work for them in game three?

Heat cooled off after getting Sixers hot under the collar

The Miami Heat repeated the same tactics in game three which they used in game two. But in this game, the Philadelphia 76ers squelched the hot hand of veteran Dwyane Wade. And in that setting, a very frustrated Dwyane Wade wanted to intimidate the next Philadelphia 76ers player who crossed his path. So when the referee watched the action, he grabbed 76ers’ Justin Anderson by the wrist and tried to pull his arm out of it’s socket.

Dwyane Wade didn’t need to pull Justin Anderson’s arm out of his shoulder socket. He did anyways.

What did that do?  It angered a hesitant Philadelphia 76ers team.  In fact, shortly thereafter, Anderson launched a huge three-pointer. Anderson scored six points for the Philadelphia 76ers. Wade? Just eight points.

“Justice” Winslow was served

Justise Winslow entered game three coming in off the bench.  By the end of the first quarter, he scored 10 points and appeared to have the makings of an incredible night.  He was up to 19 points in the second quarter.  Running that hot, he had plenty of reason to feel good about his performance.  But he decided to make a statement. He wanted to play bully like his teammates. So when Joel Embiid‘s protective face mask ended up on the basketball court, he stepped on it. Then he picked it up and tried to disfigure it as he walked off the court.  Justise Winslow didn’t need to step on Joel Embiid’s mask and then try to tear it apart. He did anyways.

That was in the second quarter.  So how did Justise Winslow do in the second half of the basketball game?

Justice for Justise

The 19 points Justise Winslow scored in the first half was it. He didn’t score in the second half.  He ended the game at -27.  In fact, after scoring 64 points in the first half, the Miami Heat scored just 44 points in the final two quarters. And in the final quarter, the Heat collapsed and struggled to score 14 points.  The Miami Heat tried to get into the heads of the Philadelphia 76ers players. Instead, they tapped the rage of a team trolled for years. The bullying switched pretty quickly. It was the Heat, and not the 76ers, which wilted in the final minutes of a very important game three.

Next: Philadelphia 76ers unsung hero Dario Saric

In the end, the Philadelphia 76ers are now 2-1. Despite the antics of the Miami Heat, it’s the calm collected response of the Philadelphia 76ers which has turned the tide in their favor. Much like any bully, the Heat are quick to throw the first punch. But when the Philadelphia 76ers put the scrappy likes of Joel Embiid, Justin Anderson, and T.J. McConnell into the contest to match the Heat’s feisty passion, the game settled in quickly for the 76ers favor. Perhaps the Heat will have a new strategy in game four. But they have learned that picking a fight with a pissed-off Sixers team is not a winning strategy.