NBA Playoffs: Miami Heat's season comes to an end after another bad second half
%20(3).JPG "Miami Heat's Goran Dragic, center, of Slovania, gets his shot blocked by Philadelphia 76ers' Ben Simmons, right, of Australia, with Ersan Ilyasova, left, of Turkey, defending during the first half in Game 5 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in Philadelphia.")
FINAL: Philadelphia 104, Miami 91
The series — and the Heat's season — has come to an end.
Despite a last-ditch effort to spark any sort of momentum midway through the fourth quarter, the deficit Miami found itself in was too much to recover.
Kelly Olynyk scored a team-high 18 points and tacked on 8 rebounds and 7 assists off the bench. Tyler Johnson scored 16 points before fouling out with 4:53 left to play. Goran Dragic added 15 points of his own. But their performances were futile with the Heat's starting front court contributing all of 4 points in the defeat.
Meanwhile, Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and JJ Redick combined to score 60 points for the 76ers, who won their first playoff series since 2012.
Thanks for following along. We'll have more stories posted to the website throughout the night.
End of third quarter: Philadelphia 80, Miami 66
What was once a close game has turned into a blowout in Philadelphia's favor. ... We've written that story before this series. Miami never strung together a run of more than three points for the duration of the quarter.
Barring a comeback, Miami is 12 minutes away from seeing its season come to an end.
Goran Dragic has a team-high 13 points. Justise Winslow has 12 off the bench.
6:22 3Q: Philadelphia 66, Miami 54
The Heat has been outscored 20-8 so far in the third quarter. That's not good.
Foul trouble is going to become a problem for Miami as well. The Heat has already racked up 20 personal fouls. Tyler Johnson has 4. Hassan Whiteside and Josh Richardson have 3 each.
9:16 3Q: Philadelphia 54, Miami 48
The Heat opened the half with a jump shot from Tyler Johnson. Philadelphia responded with eight straight points.
Goran Dragic was hit with a technical foul, as well.
HALFTIME: Miami 46, Philadelphia 46
For the first time this series, Miami will not go to the locker room with a halftime lead.
A couple numbers to digest:
28: Points from five bench players. Justise Winslow leads that group with 9. Goran Dragic leads all Heat players with 10.
0: Points from the starting frontcourt (Josh Richardson, James Johnson, Hassan Whiteside). Richardson racked up three fouls in less than two minutes. Whiteside played just six minutes overall. James Johnson did not attempt a shot from the field in 13 minutes on the floor.
3:25 2Q: Miami 40, Philadelphia 36
The Heat is on a 9-2 run, with five of those points coming from the free throw line.
6:38 2Q: Philadelphia 34, Miami 31
Just like the rest of the series, this one is close late in the first half. Back-and-forth with no real runs so far in the second quarter. Wayne Ellington with a pair of 3s for Miami, though. 22 of Miami's points have come from the bench.
End of first quarter: Philadelphia 23, Miami 21
Dwyane Wade checked into the game with 3:31 left in the first quarter ... and scored Miami's next four points. A pair of Justise Winslow free throws capped a 6-0 run to give Miami its final points of the quarter. A Joel Embiid dunk with 28.4 seconds left in the quarter gave the lead back to Philadelphia.
Tyler Johnson leads the Heat with six points. Philadelphia's Ben Simmons leads all scorers with 8 points.
Miami already has nine personal fouls.
Hassan Whiteside played just four minutes before going to the bench with two fouls.. He missed all four of his shots from the field and both free throw attempts.
4:07 1Q: Philadelphia 17, Miami 15
The Heat used an 8-0 run out of the timeout, fueled by a pair of threes from Justise Winslow and Kelly Olynyk, to take its first lead of the game. The Heat was just 1 for 5 from downtown before those makes. The lead was short-lived.
6:44 1Q: Philadelphia 12 Miami 7
Miami shooting just 30 percent early on. Philadelphia at just 36.4 percent.
Three fouls in the first 75 seconds, including two on Josh Richardson, don't help the Heat, either.
8:11 p.m.: Game on.
8:05 p.m.: Meek Mill rang the bell. Tipoff is coming.
7:20 p.m.: Miami's starting lineup: Goran Dragić, Tyler Johnson, Josh Richardson, James Johnson and Whiteside. Richardson was questionable for the game after suffering a shoulder injury in Game 4 on Saturday.
Original post: This could be it.
If the Miami Heat doesn't leave Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center with a win over the 76ers on Tuesday, its season will come to an end.
That's the nature of the beast when trailing 3-1 in a best-of-7 NBA playoffs series.
After splitting the first two games of the series in this same road arena, the Heat followed up with back-to-back losses on its homecourt. Miami lost Game 3 in the series 128-108 on Thursday. The Heat lost Game 4 106-102 on Saturday despite forcing 27 turnovers and getting 25 points from Dwyane Wade.
Tipoff for Game 5 is set for 8 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on TNT and locally on Fox Sports Sun. We will provide updates and analysis here throughout the game.
Until then, here's a look back at our coverage to get you ready for the action:
▪ Meek Mill will be released from prison. His next stop: The Heat-76ers playoff game
▪ Here's how the Heat can become the 12th team in NBA history to rally from a 3-1 deficit.
▪ An update on Josh Richardson's playing status.
▪ Udonis Haslem says he and Dwyane Wade 'will figure out' retirement and future on golf course this summer.
▪ Playoff intensity breeds mutual respect. In the Sixers' eyes, the Heat has theirs.
This story was originally published April 24, 2018 at 6:29 PM with the headline "NBA Playoffs: Miami Heat's season comes to an end after another bad second half."