Takeaways from Heat’s dominant win over top-seeded 76ers on what became Udonis Haslem night
The defending Eastern Conference champions made a statement on Thursday night.
With less than a week remaining in the regular season, the Heat dominated the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers (47-23) in a 106-94 win at AmericanAirlines Arena. Miami has won 11 of its past 14 games, including four straight with the start of the playoffs approaching.
“This is not just something that materialized tonight. We’ve been grinding,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Heat’s winning stretch. “We’ve been at this grind for several weeks and we’ve been trying to improve and take another step as a basketball team.”
Even after the victory, the Heat (39-31) remains in fifth place in the East with two regular-season games left to play. The Atlanta Hawks stand in fourth place and the New York Knicks are in sixth place.
The Heat controlled the game from start to finish, pulling ahead 9-6 with 8:35 remaining in the first quarter and leading the rest of the way.
The Heat’s offense was again sharp, totaling 106 points on 50.6 percent shooting from the field and 13-of-35 (37.1 percent) shooting on threes. Jimmy Butler led the way for the Heat with a team-high 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting on threes, to go with five rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes.
The Heat’s defense limited the 76ers to 43.9 percent shooting through three quarters and 7-of-25 shooting on threes for the game. Philadelphia All-Star center Joel Embiid, a top MVP candidate, finished with just six points on 3-of-9 shooting and two rebounds in 25 minutes as the Heat’s defense swarmed him at every opportunity.
Thursday’s win also included very memorable Udonis Haslem minutes. Haslem made his first appearance of the season Thursday, finishing with four points, one rebound, a drawn charge and two technicals in 2:40 of action.
Haslem was ejected early in the second quarter after a heated exchange with 76ers center Dwight Howard, and the home crowd loved every second of Haslem’s short-lived season debut.
The Heat now hits the road for its final two games of the regular season: Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks and Sunday against the Detroit Pistons.
“We just know what we’re capable of, honestly. We’ve talked about it all year,” Butler said. “I think we’re finally coming around.”
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s impressive win over the 76ers:
The Heat remains at No. 5 in the East standings, with the Hawks and Knicks also winning their games Thursday.
Miami has already clinched a playoff spot and is guaranteed to finish either in the No. 4, 5 or 6 spot in the conference.
With two regular-season games left on the schedule, the Heat remained at No. 5 following Thursday’s win.
The Heat is still one-half game behind the No. 4 Hawks (40-31). If Atlanta wins its final game of the regular season — Sunday vs. the Houston Rockets — it will clinch the No. 4 seed because it owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Miami after winning the season series 2-1.
The No. 6 Knicks (39-31) have the same record as the Heat. But Miami is ahead in the standings because it owns the tiebreaker over New York after winning the season series 3-0.
If Atlanta defeats Houston on Sunday and the Heat wins both of its remaining regular-season games, the Hawks would finish fourth and the Heat would finish fifth. The Knicks’ final two regular-season games come at home Saturday against the Charlotte Hornets and Sunday against the Boston Celtics.
If the current standings hold, the Heat would open the playoffs against the Hawks in Atlanta.
Haslem’s first game action of the season was ... eventful.
Haslem entered Thursday’s contest with 59.3 seconds left in the first quarter to make his season debut in the Heat’s 70th game of the regular season. With Haslem finally getting in a game, it now officially counts as his 18th NBA season.
Haslem’s first minutes since last August were memorable, to say the least. Haslem finished his season debut with four points, one rebound, a drawn charge and two technicals in three minutes of action.
Haslem was ejected with 10:19 remaining in the second quarter after a verbal altercation with Howard. The two first received double technicals, but Haslem didn’t stop shouting at Howard and was called for his second technical.
“The only thing I was waiting for was for him to take his mouth piece out and throw it at [retired official] Joey Crawford,” Spoelstra said with a laugh. “He just didn’t see Joey out there. Otherwise if he was in the stands, that would have been thrown at him. That was my favorite moment of the season so far. Just excessive passion, competitiveness and anger. I just love it and that’s why we roll with UD.”
Before the ejection, Haslem entered the game to a standing ovation from the AmericanAirlines Arena crowd in the Heat’s final home game of the regular season. He made a transition layup off a nice feed from Andre Iguodala with 2.3 seconds left in the first quarter and then hit his trademark baseline jumper with 11:07 left in the second quarter to score his first four points of the season.
“I appreciate the crowd and my teammates when I scored the basket,” Haslem said. “I noticed everybody over there cheering for me. It was a great memory. If this is the last one, then I finished it the only way Udonis Haslem could, with an ejection.”
Haslem, who turns 41 on June 9, became the oldest player to appear in a game for the Heat in franchise history on Thursday. He said earlier this month that he’s still undecided on when retirement will come.
The Heat’s offensive resurgence continued.
The Heat’s scorching offense scored 106 points on 50.6 percent shooting from the field and 13-of-35 shooting on threes behind another balanced effort that included six double-digit scorers. Thursday’s performance came against a 76ers team with the NBA’s second-best defensive rating.
Butler scored a team-high 21 points. Heat center Bam Adebayo finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. Tyler Herro continued his strong stretch with 18 points with the help of 4-of-7 shooting on threes. Goran Dragic scored 15 points and dished out six assists off the bench. Kendrick Nunn finished with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting. And Trevor Ariza contributed 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.
The Heat has now shot better than 50 percent from the field in seven of its past eight games.
The Heat has posted the NBA’s fifth-best offensive rating (scoring 116.6 points per 100 possessions) since the start of April. Miami is shooting an ultra-efficient 49.2 percent from the field and 38.1 percent on threes during this stretch.
This is quite the improvement from the first three months of the season, as the Heat was shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 34.4 percent on threes to arrive to the end of March with the NBA’s sixth-worst offensive rating (107.7 points scored per 100 possessions).
Nunn left Thursday’s win in the second half because of left calf soreness. But Spoelstra said following the game that he expects Nunn to travel with the team Friday to Milwaukee, where he will be re-evaluated prior to Saturday’s matchup against the Bucks.
The Haslem-Howard altercation wasn’t the only one in Thursday’s game.
Ariza had to be held back during a timeout in the first quarter. Ariza was upset at Embiid, who fell into Ariza’s leg a few plays prior.
Double technicals were called on Ariza and Embiid during the timeout with 2:33 remaining in the quarter.
Ariza limped off the court under his own power after Embiid fell into him and was able to re-enter the game with 4:14 remaining in the second quarter. Ariza logged 34 minutes.
Victor Oladipo tried to avoid season-ending surgery. But in the end, the Heat’s recently acquired guard decided surgery was the smartest long-term solution.
Spoelstra said Oladipo underwent successful surgery on the quadriceps tendon in his right knee on Thursday. The surgery was performed by Dr. Jonathan Glashow at the NYU Medical Center in New York, the Heat announced.
Oladipo will miss the rest of the season and there is currently no timetable for his return.
“He was looking at every single possible avenue to be able to continue the season without surgery,” Spoelstra said before Thursday’s game. “But for his career, it made the absolute most sense to take care of this now. You feel for him. He’s where he wanted to be, he could see like a great role and how he could really help us on this run. But it’s not meant to be for this season and he’ll get back and be better and stronger than ever.”
Oladipo, who turned 29 on May 4, ruptured that same tendon in his right knee in January 2019. Oladipo made his return a year later in January 2020.
According to a source, the tendon was not ruptured this time, raising hope that his absence won’t be as long as the previous time he had a surgery on the same quad tendon.
Oladipo, who is earning $21 million this season on an expiring contract, will be an unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
This story was originally published May 13, 2021 at 10:07 PM.
