Danny Green happy to finally be able to help Sixers beat Heat in Game 3
PHILADELPHIA — Danny Green is a guy who spreads the floor for the Philadelphia 76ers on a nightly basis. He is a guy who knocks down open looks from deep and he is somebody who demands attention every single time.
To begin this second-round series with the Miami Heat, Green shot a combined 2-for-14 from deep. Those resulted in two losses and the Sixers really struggled on the offensive end.
In a 99-79 win in Game 3, Green shot a ridiculous 7-for-9 from deep and he had 21 points in order to lead Philadelphia to a much-needed win. However, he has been in this league long enough to where he understands that this one win isn’t going to change anything for him and the rest of the team.
“It felt good to be able to help my team and do my job, that’s it,” said Green. “I’m not in any way, shape, or form satisfied. We are not taking any deep breaths or exhaling. We know we have to win another game so we have to stay locked in and focused, taking it one game at a time. Hopefully, we can keep that rhythm and have another decent shooting night on Sunday.”
When Green is able to step up and knock down those open looks, it makes Philadelphia a much different team. That opens up space for both Joel Embiid and James Harden to be able to do their thing out there on offense and kick it out to the open Green to get the job done.
“The first two games, we really didn’t make any shots,” laughed Harden. “So it made it difficult offensively and then defensively, it’s tough when you’re trying to get back in transition so many times. We make shots, we get our defense set, and we see if they can score on our half-court defense as many times as we can.”
This was really Green’s first good game since the Game 6 clincher against the Toronto Raptors. To be fair, this was the first game anyone on the Sixers looked really good since that game, but Green especially.
“We forget Danny played well in Game 6 in Toronto,” said coach Doc Rivers. “There’s nothing he’s not seen or faced. He’s never going too fast because he can’t so he’s actually just a very calm force for us. He understands who he is and we understand who he is.”
Having Green is a big help for this team out on the floor. They missed him in the semifinals in 2021 against the Atlanta Hawks when he got injured in Game 3 of that series.
“We forget last year, we didn’t have Danny in that Hawks series and that hurt us,” Rivers added. “We needed that. We still got a lot of, we call youngins out there, so having that experience is good for us.”
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Joel Embiid reacts to his big return after Sixers beat Heat in Game 3
