Miami Heat: 3 takeaways from Game 1 vs. Philadelphia 76ers

3. Key starters in a funk

It wasn’t a great night at the office for the starting trio of Josh Richardson, Goran Dragic and Tyler Johnson.

After proving to be possibly their most reliable player over the course of the regular season, Richardson simply laid an egg in registering just four points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field in 27 minutes of play. In fact, his sole field goal came with just 3:08 remaining in the final period.

While Dragic’s final numbers were certainly more impressive in posting 15 points, four assists and four rebounds, his influence on the contest was not what’s expected of a player coming off his first All-Star appearance during the regular season. Overall, he shot just 4-of-14 overall from the field and appeared to be hampered by the larger Sixers opponents he had to contend with over the course of the game.

For his part, Tyler Johnson was a virtual non-factor in playing just 18 minutes to produce nine points on 2-of-6 shooting. This was certainly disappointing, with Johnson’s counterpart, veteran J.J. Redick, scoring a game-high 28 points that featured hitting 4-of-6 from downtown.

As a trio, in 11 minutes of playing time together, they registered a -67.3 net rating, including a 146.3 defensive rating. With the likes of Simmons and Covington being larger than your average perimeter player, this clearly posed problems for this slightly-shorter trio.

On a positive note, Richardson still had his moments at the defensive end of the floor, as can be seen from the following clips:

So as poor their performance was in this opening game, this is just one of a potential seven-game series.