When the Sixers take on the Miami Heat Friday night, fans will be treated to seeing a former first overall pick suit up. The national high school player of the year, he has gone on to play in the league for over ten years since telling his future team “I promise if you draft me, you’ll never regret it.” I’m talking, of course, about Kwame Brown. You need a lot things to break your way to succeed as a franchise in the NBA and one of those things is being bad at the right time. Brown was the consensus best high school player in his class leading up to the 2001 draft. Two years later, the first overall pick in the 2003 draft granted you another high school star, only this one would go on to be the best player of his generation.
It’s no secret that LeBron James is in the midst of a historic stretch of basketball. His streak of of six straight 30-point, 60% shooting games was all over the sports world last month. James’ current PER of 31.40 would rank as the 7th highest season in NBA history, and he’s accumulating those stats playing alongside another future hall-of-famer and another all-star player. After LeBron hit his first game-winning basket of the season Wednesday night against Orlando, the Miami Heat stretched their winning streak to an extraordinary 16 games. To put that in perspective, the Heat have won more games since last losing than the Charlotte Bobcats have won all season.
Besides the outstanding play of James, Miami has been receiving incredible play from Dwyane Wade, the type of production that would be getting MVP consideration if the engravers of the Maurice Podoloff Trophy hadn’t already started the ‘L, E, B,’. Wade is 4th in the league in PER and over the last 10 games, has averaged 24.4 points on 57.8% shooting, 6.0 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 2.2 steals. With two players competing at such elite levels and different role players stepping up every night, what’s hard to believe is that the Heat ever come close to losing.
In the Sixers’ initial game against Miami two weeks ago, the team competed hard but were overwhelmed by the amount of talent the Heat brought to the table. LeBron James recorded a triple-double and Wade dropped 33 points on a remarkable 14-18 shooting. The Sixers actually shot the ball fairly well, going 44.9% from the field and 11-28 from downtown. Philadelphia will have to maintain that level of offensive production while greatly improving their defense if they’re going to stay close with the world champions.
Keys to the Game:
- Get back on defense. The Heat are at their best in transition, when players are throwing up half-court alley-oops to James or Wade. Those plays get the South Beach crowd into the game, help the Miami players find a rhythm, deflate the opposition. Prevent them at all costs.
- Goad LeBron into taking outside shots. James has improved his outside shooting tremendously this season but it’s still your best option as a defense. 41.0% and 42.0% LeBron is 2nd in the league (min. 100 attempts) at 75.5% from within 5 feet of the basket, behind former Sixer Andre Iguodala. He’s shooting a very respectable 41.7% from 10 to 19 feet but you have to live with that, because if he gets to the basket consistently, it’s game over.
- Attack the interior of the Miami defense. If the Heat have a weakness, it’s their lack of size and interior defense with Chris Bosh starting at center. Unfortunately, low post scoring is not the Sixers’ strong suit; Thad Young will have to do some damage down there as will Moultrie on his dives to the bucket when he’s out there.
Prediction:
LeBron and Wade have a minimum of three combined SportsCenter highlights, Sixers fans are treated to a lot of Moultrie, Wilkins, and the bench brigade in the fourth quarter, and Miami extends its winning streak to 17 games in a rout.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
