Sixers Must Rethink DeAndre Jordan Plan Against Miami Heat After Game 1 Debacle

Single-game plus-minus can be misleading in the NBA. But in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night, it was not for Sixers center DeAndre Jordan.

With All-Star center Joel Embiid sidelined by an orbital fracture and a concussion, the Sixers started Jordan in his place. In the 106-92 loss, the Sixers were outscored by 22 points during Jordan’s 17 minutes on the floor.

Jordan’s disastrous two-way play wasn’t the only reason why the Sixers got blown out in the second half. They shot a dismal 6-of-34 from three-point range on the night, got outrebounded by 10 and allowed the Heat to take 13 more shot attempts than they had.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the Heat repeatedly broke open the game when Jordan set foot on the floor, though.

Heading into Wednesday’s Game 2, the Sixers need to rethink their distribution of minutes at the center spot. Otherwise, they’ll likely be headed back to Philadelphia in a 2-0 hole.

The Heat jumped out to a 15-6 lead within the first 4:12 of the game after Jordan drawing the start, knocking down seven of their first nine shot attempts. Once backup center Paul Reed subbed into the game and the Sixers shifted to a zone defense, they began steadily chipping away at Miami’s lead.

According to NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, the Heat scored only seven points on 12 possessions in the first quarter after Reed subbed in and the Sixers shifted to a zone. Miami finished with only 26 points during the 36 partial possessions in which the Sixers played zone in Game 1.

Despite spotting the Heat an early double-digit advantage, the Sixers headed into halftime with a one-point lead. As Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer noted, that was largely a testament to Reed and their small-ball looks with Georges Niang manning the 5 spot.

However, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers ran Jordan back out as the starting center in the third quarter.

To Jordan’s credit, that 10-minute stint was his most productive stint of the game. He blocked two shots, grabbed two rebounds, and the Sixers were only a minus-3 with him on the floor. But when Reed picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter and Jordan replaced him, the Heat quickly ripped off an 11-0 run and broke open the game for good.

During Jordan’s 17 minutes, the Sixers had an abysmal offensive rating of 87.9. The Oklahoma City Thunder had the league’s worst offense during the regular season, and even they mustered 103.8 points per 100 possessions.

The Sixers were somehow even worse on the other end with Jordan on the floor in Game 1. They allowed the Heat to score an astrononical 159.4 points per 100 possessions, which would have been more than 40 points worse than the league’s worst defense in the regular season.

Despite all of that, Rivers defiantly told reporters after the game that he plans to stick with Jordan as his starting center until Embiid can return.

“We like DJ,” he said. “We’re gonna keep starting him whether you like it or not. That’s what we’re gonna do, because our guys believe in him.”

Rivers said he spoke with the team’s “key guys” at halftime and asked whether they should switch up their center rotation. However, he said they all wanted to stick with Jordan.

“They wanted a big guy, a big roller,” he added.

That makes sense in theory. During his prime in the mid-2010s, Jordan was an athletic, rim-running lob threat. However, he’s no longer the player he was during his 10-year tenure with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Even in his heyday, Jordan was never much of an offensive weapon unless he was right under the basket. Whenever he’s involved in pick-and-rolls on offense, the Heat can send both defenders as the ball-handler and trust their defensive rotations to pick up Jordan if he rolls to the rim. Meanwhile, stationing him in the dunker’s spot allows Miami to pack the paint and cut off driving lanes for James Harden, Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris.

Jordan can’t keep up on defense anymore, either. He lacks the lateral quickness to defend smaller guards or wings on switches out on the perimeter, so the Sixers tend to play drop coverage with him. However, the Heat can use his primary cover as a screener to create wide-open three-point shots for the likes of Tyler Herro, Gabe Vincent and Max Strus.

Jordan seems to lack defensive awareness and/or the agility to recover on rotations. If he isn’t making up for that by dominating as a rebounder, he serves little purpose on either end of the floor.

Jordan came down with zero offensive rebounds and two defensive rebounds in his 17 minutes, while Reed hauled in five offensive boards and four defensive rebounds in his 13 minutes. Reed also chipped in four assists, a steal and a block, while Jordan had two blocks, zero assists and zero steals.

After the game, Rivers said he prefers to have Reed on the floor when they go to the zone defense or begin switching more on defense. However, he cited Reed’s propensity for fouling as the primary reason why Jordan started ahead of him in Game 1.

“We also love Paul, but we don’t need Paul in foul trouble, and that’s why we don’t want to start him,” Rivers said.

That concern is justified. Reed racked up five fouls in only 13 minutes of playing time in Game 1, and he averaged a comical nine fouls per 36 minutes in the Sixers’ first-round series against the Toronto Raptors. If he continues to bite on pump-fakes, the Heat will play him off the floor in short order.

After the game, Reed told reporters that fouling is a byproduct of his aggressive style of play. However, he added that he needs to learn how to cut down on his mistakes because the team needs him with Embiid sidelined.

“I go out there, I give 125 percent,” Reed said. “Sometimes it doesn’t work out for me. But tonight, one thing I’ve gotta learn is to sometimes let the score. But it’s hard. It’s like, pride.”

In Rivers’ defense, he’s choosing from a number of imperfect options to replace Embiid, the league’s leading scorer and the backbone of the Sixers defense. He can’t count on more than 20 minutes out of Reed before he fouls out. Jordan has the biggest frame, but his lack of speed makes him a glaring liability on defense. Paul Millsap is undersized at 6’7″, which could allow the Heat to continue dominating the glass, although he does add more of a floor-spacing element on offense than Jordan. Rookie center Charles Bassey played only 168 regular-season minutes, although he might be worth a try in Game 2.

The Sixers did go to a small-ball lineup of Maxey, Harden, Harris, Danny Green and Georges Niang for the final few minutes of the first half, and they closed the half on a 10-2 run with that group. However, they inexplicably abandoned that group in the second half until the game was out of reach in the fourth quarter.

Either way, Rivers will need a better game plan in Game 2 beyond “stick with Jordan and hope he plays better.” There’s a half-decade of evidence to suggest that’s likely a pipe dream at this point of his career.

The Sixers are heavy underdogs to beat the Heat in this series, as Embiid’s absence could prove insurmountable if he isn’t able to return by Games 3 or 4. However, Rivers could help his team’s chances of stealing Game 2 in Miami by tweaking his center rotation and not leaning so heavily on Jordan, who looks out of place in this series.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac.