The Miami HEAT splits the season series 2-2 with the Philadelphia 76ers, winning the first two matchups including a meeting on Christmas Day that featured the best performance of the season from Jaime Jaquez Jr. The 76ers won both matchups since adding Kyle Lowry - signed after Miami traded Lowry to Charlotte for Terry Rozier - including the most recent game, April 4, which also marked the only appearance by both Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler in all four meetings.
Game 1, December 25: This might have been a special Christmas Day game, it certainly wound up as one for a certain rookie, but there was nothing unusual about how the start of this one played out.
You’re telling me one team went up double digits only for the other team to lead by the end of the first quarter? Must be HEAT game. Again without Jimmy Butler Miami had four turnovers in the first four minutes as the 76ers jumped out front thanks to the interior stylings of Tobias Harris, but almost as soon as the HEAT went down 18-8 they soon began what would eventually be a 22-1 run stretched across two quarters, during which the 76ers failed to make a shot from the field for eight straight minutes. With Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr. – playing the part of Jimmy Butler again as Miami’s source of rim pressure – handling the volume scoring, Bam Adebayo was electric playing the part of help defender on the other end. When Adebayo sat, Philadelphia couldn’t get into the paint as the HEAT packed it, and there weren’t enough threes from the outside to compensate.
As HEAT eventually took a 63-49 lead into the break, Philadelphia was sitting on an Offensive Rating of 94.2, dropping down to 62.5 in the half-court excluding offensive rebounds. Miami was able to find similar production for their missing star, but the 76ers’ offense, with Tyrese Maxey going scoreless through the first two periods, had no way of finding another inside-out gravitational force.
Less than two minutes into the second half, Miami was up 21 and it was maybe looking like a drama-free holiday. Two minutes after that, back to just 10 again as the 76ers found their shooting. As the HEAT suddenly ran cold with Philadelphia in zone – at times something closer to a 1-3-1 than 2-3, a hybrid style like what Miami uses – the 76ers ran off a 20-4 run to get within five. By the end of the quarter it was all tied, Philadelphia having taken a brief lead.
More zone from Philadelphia to open the fourth, against which Miami random offense’d – cuts, free-throws, offensive boards – their way back into the lead. With Maxey still struggling, 2-of-17 with 6:50 remaining, the question was where Philadelphia was going to find enough offense to put them over the top. Turns out, they wouldn’t, as Miami took this clutch game, 119-113, on the strength of some late Duncan Robinson threes (some missed 76ers free-throws helped, too), with Erik Spoelstra improving to 9-0 on Christmas Day. On the night Philadelphia’s best remaining player in Maxey (12 points on 20 shots) had his worst game of the season, Miami’s rookie had his best (30 points on 15 shots, 10 rebounds, zero turnovers).
Game 2, February 14: If you enjoy early offense, this was the game for you. At least in the first half.
With Miami on a back-to-back following their rousing victory in Milwaukee last night and Philadelphia missing just about half their rotation, this wasn’t a game for defense despite the efforts of both coaches to mix in a variety of coverages. The first open look available was going up and, more often than not, in.
Philadelphia opened up a three-possession lead fairly quickly on the strength of Buddy Hield and Tyrese Maxey getting to their spots and making jumpers, but even as Miami trailed they never appeared to be struggling to find good opportunities. Just as he did against Milwaukee, Tyler Herro was able to walk into pull-up threes or otherwise explore the real estate ahead of him with the 76ers playing a ton of drop coverage – Duncan Robinson also linked up with Bam Adebayo for consecutive lobs against the same look – just about any drive had an open kick option and with Philadelphia’s backline defenders hitting the snooze button there was cut after cut after cut for easy two pointers. It’s not often that Miami goes 14-of-17 at the rim in a half, but all you had to do was watch a handful of possessions to understand why it was happening.
Hield and Maxey never quite slowed down, though, combining for 34 points – Hield even launching 1-on-5 threes before any of his teammates were back and canning them – to keep the home team out front by two at the break. Philadelphia’s attempts weren’t quite as obvious at the HEAT’s with more scattershot possessions mixed in, but talent does as talent does.
Miami opened the second half in zone as the 76ers opened up another seven-point lead, only for the game to change when Maxey had a teammate step on his foot and roll his ankle leading to Maxey going back to the locker room. Miami, cooling off from three, didn’t exactly capitalize on that period with Philadelphia lacking in ballhandling as Paul Reed finished inside, still down three when Maxey returned later in the quarter, but Duncan Robinson’s perfect night (4-of-4 from three at that point) tied it up anyway as part of an 11-0 run. Miami by one at the break, the rhythm of the game broken down but the vulnerability in the interior unchanged, an offense-first game starting to lack in offense.
Plenty of Sixers fouls early in the fourth to put Miami in the bonus even as the Sixers had gained the lead again, all that early offense gone the way of drag-it-out zone. It looked like Miami might cruise in the final minutes as Philadelphia struggled to find looks, Herro creating sufficient offense on the other end, but a quick burst closed things to three with just over 50 seconds to play before Jaime Jaquez Jr. enjoyed a free run to the rim to dunk in a Robinson miss. One Adebayo (23 points on 14 shots, 14 rebounds) offensive rebound later, Miami takes it 109-104 as they head into the All-Star break.
Game 3, March 18: Miami hasn’t seen the full-strength Philadelphia 76ers during the regular season with Joel Embiid having missed all three matchups, and the same goes in the other direction with Jimmy Butler missing each game as well. Those absences may have taken some juice out of the storylines, but these teams came into the night tied in the standings at 37-30 and each contest has been highly competitive.
Tonight was no different, with Tyrese Maxey coming out of the gates firing on his way to 17 first quarter points while Bam Adebayo did his best to match him. Maxey’s run was enough to get his team out to a 31-21 advantage, but the HEAT ran off a 10-0 run of their own stretching into the second quarter using their press-zone to stymie a Sixers bench group that started small and eventually went even smaller with KJ Martin at center. It wasn’t pretty, both sides hovering around an Offensive Rating of 100, and it certainly didn’t feel like a postseason preview, but bodies were flying around with players on both sides making second and third effort plays. Philadelphia, with Kyle Lowry now in uniform, eventually found the creases in the zone and thus their own footing to take back the lead, 51-49, going into the break, but the HEAT, with Adebayo putting up a two-quarter line of 19-9-5, were a couple of bad turnovers and missed shots at the rim away from a decent lead of their own.
The upper hand went to the Sixers early in the third, back-to-back threes from Lowry and Mo Bamba putting them up 63-51 with a 12-2 run as Miami struggled to find good looks on their own end. Another Miami timeout followed just a couple minutes later as the Sixers scored a pair of buckets in scramble situations, the lead up to 17 at that point. Miami, on a back-to-back, stuck with it, a few scores allowing them to set back up in the press-zone again, but Maxey held out the stiff arm to keep Miami at bay even with Adebayo hitting his fifth consecutive three. Still just an 11-point game after a Highsmith three in the corner, but that was short lived, Sixers up 14 going into the fourth with Duncan Robinson out for the game with back discomfort.
A Thomas Bryant three bounced sky high and in to open the fourth to give Miami a little traction, the lead soon after down to seven with the zone again bothering Philadelphia’s bench unit. Back-to-back pullup threes from Terry Rozier followed, Miami hitting jumpers and forcing turnovers, and so it was tied. Clutch minutes followed, Philadelphia jumping up six as the HEAT sent double teams at Maxey, Lowry (16 points on 11 shots) making plays on both sides of the ball as he and Maxey handled the zone with more poise than the backups. Caleb Martin stole the inbounds with the shot clock about to turn off and Jaime Jaquez Jr. had a corner look with Miami down four, but it bounced off and the Sixers closed this one out, 98-81, as Philadelphia moves up to No. 6 in the Eastern Conference.
Game 4, April 4: Miami has had many, many games with Philadelphia in recent seasons and we’ve seen all variety of outcomes, clutch games, late blowouts, early blowouts, the works. But we haven’t seen much in the way of weird, wacky and strange until tonight.
The HEAT couldn’t get much of anything going at the open, shots not falling as nothing going towards the rim – the 76ers swarmed the paint anytime the ball got going downhill – with Philadelphia jumping out to a 17-2 lead with a hot start from Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, who made his return from knee surgery just two days ago. In true Miami fashion, just as soon as things appeared dire they found a new gear, a couple threes getting them back within seven before the Sixers pushed it all the way back to 16.
Then Haywood Highsmith entered the game and Erik Spoelstra dialed up the press-zone, Highsmith forcing two backcourt steals which led to an 8-0 run without Philadelphia even getting the ball across halfcourt. Even more Highsmith – impossibly, incredulously, ludicrously locked in against his former franchise – after that, back-to-back threes, including one off the glass, dropping in, Miami eventually snatching the lead at 46-43. Then Maxey and Embiid (45 first-half points combined) got going again, Embiid working his way into post position and Maxey hunting small-small pick-and-rolls for mismatches, to go all the way backup by 16 again. As is that wasn’t a wild enough ride, the HEAT put together a quick 8-0 run to finish the half, a Bam Adebayo and-one as Embiid pressured him at the top of the arc and a Terry Rozier buzzer beater after a steal mitigating the damage. Still an eight point game after two quarters, but outside of some misses on open threes against the zone Philadelphia had it going in the halfcourt while it was the transition game, particularly those pick-sixes, that kept Miami’s offense afloat.
The second half wasn’t about to cease with the strangeness, Miami still relying – you could sense pace had been emphasized – on their fast-break while Maxey and Embiid worked incredible nights out of more methodical offense. Every time the Sixers made a mistake, the HEAT capitalized. Every time the HEAT made a run, the Sixers answered. Once again, the bench unit and the zone made the greatest impression, finishing the quarter – the end of quarters were their comfort zone tonight –on an 8-0 run, capped off by a Jimmy Butler attack. Miami by one going into the fourth of a livewire, but somewhat stylistically perplexing, contest.
Suddenly, Miami by eight, a 17-0 run in all, which quickly became two after a couple Philadelphia threes against the zone. Then it was the Sixers’ turn to try zone, which Miami was prepared for, scoring on a couple cuts to go up eight again, Spoelstra going with long stretches of Kevin Love and his five-out look. A couple minutes later, following a Kelly Oubre Jr. corner look, Philly was back up one. Back and forth and back and forth. In the end the offense stalled, Maxey extending it just enough, and even though a contested Rozier (22 points on 20 shots) three fell to give Miami life an extended HEAT possession came up empty and that was it. Miami loses an important game in the race to escape the Play-In Tournament, 109-105, as they head to Houston overnight for a back-to-back.