NBA Matchups: April 17

Miami Heat at Philadelphia 76ers

Team Totals: Heat 101, 76ers 106.5

Injury Report: Duncan Robinson (P, back), Terry Rozier (O, neck), De’Anthony Melton (O, back)

Heat projected starters: Tyler Herro, Caleb Martin, Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jovic, Bam Adebayo

76ers projected starters: Tyrese Maxey, Kyle Lowry, Kelly Oubre, Tobias Harris, Joel Embiid

Offensive Ranks:  Heat 21st, 76ers 15th (post-break Heat 17th, 76ers 22nd)

Defensive Ranks: Heat 5th, 76ers 11th (Heat 2nd, 76ers 8th)

Season Series: 2-2 (zero point differential!)

Noteworthy Missed Games: Terry Rozier (2), Jimmy Butler (3), Tyler Herro (3), Joel Embiid (3), Tobias Harris (3), De’Anthony Melton (3)

Spo quotes: Said they don’t know what to expect besides it being a high-level competition, said it’s a big difference to face the 76ers with Embiid because he protects the paint, said he doesn’t have an update on Duncan or Rozier but everyone else is a full go, said Jaquez has been “very poised” and has a capacity to learn, said Jaquez isn’t getting the usage but he has really improved, said they have to swarm more with the way Embiid is going to score, said they are not going to re-invent how they play.

Nurse quotes: Said “I can start anybody” on Wednesday, said he’s not going to have a special message to the team about the play-in game.

Stats and Notes:

*For starters, we are throwing out the season data here. Jimmy Butler and Joel Embiid each missed three games, and we should just throw out a lot of this season’s data anyway. Embiid has been injured and Miami is going to Miami in the postseason anyway. Starting with the Philly side, their offensive ups and downs lately have all been tied to Embiid. Their last three offensive games with Embiid have been solid, but their last two games without him have been bad. In other words, expect the 76ers to have a fairly strong offense today with a lot of the big fella. One consistent thing we’ve seen from the 76ers lately has been their defense. Of course, they have seen nothing but cupcake matchups lately. Basically, I’d still put some stock into the Philly D holding up. Earlier this year, they weren’t really anything with regards to shot type/location, so there’s not too much to look into on the Miami offensive side from a macro standpoint. For the Miami defense side, we’ve seen them really lock down on that end. They have become truly elite at limiting transition and rim scoring while still giving it up from deep. The Heat did also throw out 28 possessions of zone against the 76ers earlier this month, and they even used it 38 times against the 76ers in March and February (no Embiid).