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76ers 106 - HEAT 102 Game 4 Recap

The Miami HEAT fell to the Philadelphia 76ers 106-102 Saturday afternoon in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round. Dwyane Wade led the way for the HEAT with 25 points. Philadelphia now leads the series 3-1.

1. Wade Does All He Can Late

There’s just something about Wade in crunch time.

Like he’s done multiple times before in his career, Wade led Miami with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting in the fourth quarter and came through with this very tough and-one finish between Dario Šarić and Joel Embiid:

Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough in the end.

In addition to his team and game-high 25 points, Wade also had three rebounds, three steals and an assist.

2. Dragić Keeps Up His Sharp Play

A day after talking about the importance of getting out in transition for some easy buckets, Goran Dragić did just that in the first half of Game 4.

Thanks to some great defense from him and his teammates, the Slovenian took advantage quite often on the break before halftime. While he finished a number of nifty plays, nothing touches this heads-up steal and dunk.

Yes, you read that right. He dunked.

As the game progressed, Dragić started to operate more in the halfcourt and still had a great deal of success.

When it was all said and done, the 31-year-old totaled 20 points, four steals and three assists.

3. J. Rich Active Throughout

From the start, Josh Richardson was so disruptive on the defensive end.

How so?

Well, he set a single-game franchise playoff record with seven steals, including this one in the third quarter that led to an alley-oop for Hassan Whiteside:

In all, Richardson amassed 10 points, a team-high seven assists and five boards to go along with those aforementioned steals.

Other Takeaways:

-Bam Adebayo showed a lot of energy off the bench and came up big with this massive alley-oop jam thanks to Justise Winslow’s good defense and Wade’s perfect lob:

Immediately after, Adebayo drew an offensive foul on Embiid and got the crowd fired up.

As the night went on, the rookie continued to compete hard against Embiid and made things as tough as possible on the 24-year-old.

Need proof?

Just check out this great sequence in the fourth quarter:

That’s Miami HEAT basketball.

Adebayo finished with two points, five rebounds and a block.

-Whiteside blocked out the noise and made some nice plays despite the loss.

In addition to blocking Ben Simmons in the third….

…he also had this heads-up offensive rebound and put-back late in the fourth:

Whiteside ended up with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting and a team-high 13 rebounds to go along with that block above.

Game Note:

-Jordan Mickey and Dion Waiters (left ankle surgery) were inactive.

Looking Ahead:

-The HEAT will head to Philadelphia for Game 5 on Tuesday night. If necessary, Game 6 will be in Miami on Thursday. Tickets for that game at AmericanAirlines Arena can be found here.