Takeaways from Heat’s loss to short-handed 76ers, and what went wrong in the fourth quarter
The last time the Miami Heat was in Philadelphia, it managed to earn a win in December despite missing Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro.
On Monday night, the Eastern Conference-leading Heat (47-25) had Adebayo, Butler and Herro but still lost 113-106 to the 76ers (44-27) at Wells Fargo Center in a back-and-forth game that included 18 lead changes and 18 ties. No team led by more than six points until the final minutes of the game.
The loss shrank the Heat’s lead in the East to 2.5 games.
“I just feel like we didn’t bring that intensity that we usually have throughout these games,” Adebayo said. “I feel like we came out lackadaisical.”
The 76ers entered at a disadvantage, as they were playing on the second night of a back-to-back and without the All-Star duo of center Joel Embiid and James Harden.
But Philadelphia still managed to escape with the win behind 28 points from Tyrese Maxey and 20 points from Shake Milton.
It was a close game throughout and the Heat even led 99-96 with 5:10 to play, but the 76ers responded with a run to take control. Philadelphia used a 16-2 surge to pull ahead by 11 points with 1:03 left and come away with the upset victory without Embiid and Harden.
Butler, who returned after missing Friday’s victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder because of a sprained right ankle, led the Heat with 27 points on 8-of-15 shooting, five rebounds and six assists.
Adebayo ended the night with 22 points, nine rebounds and three blocks.
Kyle Lowry finished with 20 points, six rebounds and six assists.
But the Heat was outscored 45-30 from three-point range and 13-5 in second-chance points. Miami shot just 10 of 33 (30.3 percent) from deep in the loss.
“It happens,” Lowry said when asked if Monday’s defeat was worrisome. “You still got to stay even-keeled. They played well today. They played extremely well. They’re a good team. They’re well coached. It’s not worrisome. We just lost.”
Following the quick one game-trip to Philadelphia, the Heat now returns home to begin a four-game homestand on Wednesday against the Golden State Warriors.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the 76ers:
The Heat’s defense has been really good late in games this season, but it was very shaky on Monday.
A 76ers team missing its top two players totaled 33 points on 14-of-20 (70 percent) shooting from the field and 3-of-5 (60 percent) shooting on threes against the Heat in the fourth quarter.
It marked just the ninth fourth quarter this season that the Heat allowed at least 33 points in. Miami owns the NBA’s sixth-best fourth-quarter defensive rating and fourth-best overall defensive rating this season.
Zoom into the final five minutes, and the Heat’s defense was especially rough. During the 76ers’ 17-7 run to close the game over the final 4:47, Philadelphia shot 6 of 8 (75 percent) from the field and 3 of 3 from three-point range.
“They made some tough ones,” Butler said of the 76ers’ fourth-quarter offense. “That’s just part of the league. Good offense is going to beat good defense every time. That’s basically it. I think we got to do a little bit of a better job of being in gaps. They’re seeing way too much space out there. But they’re pros and they’re really good pros at that, and they made shots.”
Maxey scored nine of the 76ers’ 17 points during that stretch, as Maxey consistently hunted Herro on defense and went at him.
“They ran the same play the last four minutes,” Adebayo said. “That’s on us as players to make an adjustment. During the timeout, I feel like we were just so locked in on our offense that we weren’t really trying to fix our defense at the time.”
Teams have isolated Herro’s defense late in games before and had success, but the Heat’s defense is also designed to send extra help defenders to wall ball-handlers away from the paint. Herro had trouble containing the ball and the Heat did not close the gaps on the back end to keep Maxey and others out of the paint.
“Help. Be there,” Lowry said when asked what the other Heat defenders on the court can do when teams try to isolate against Herro. “I think some of the shots they made over him were tough. I think he played his butt off on the defensive end, he tried, and they made some shots. They got two guys, Tobias [Harris] shot over him and Tyrese was just using his speed. A lot of people can’t stay in front of Tyrese with that speed, and Tyler, it is what it is.
“We know the situation is what it’s going be, who teams are gonna go at, and Tyler is gonna take the challenge. At the end of the day, he’s gonna take that challenge as a man to try to man up and we’ll help him as best we can and be in the right spots to help him ourselves.”
The 76ers totaled 18 paint points in the fourth quarter on their way to outscoring the Heat 50-42 in the paint for the game.
“We’re much better than that,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Heat’s late-game defense in Philadelphia. “I don’t want to take anything away from them or how they played. They played a great basketball game and they sealed it at the end. It was a possession game and it got to about two minutes, and Maxey just banged home some big shots and that created that separation.
“But Tyler has been one of our better individual defenders during the course of the year. I’m going to chalk this up, hopefully, as an anomaly. But hopefully it catches our attention, as well.”
How does the Heat match up against a 76ers team with Embiid and Harden? We won’t find out before the playoffs.
In the Heat’s March 5 win over the 76ers in Miami, Harden did not play with that game on the second night of a back-to-back set.
And in Monday’s loss in Philadelphia, Harden and Embiid both were unavailable on the second night of a back-to-back. Harden was listed as out because of left hamstring injury recovery and Embiid was listed as out because of back soreness.
Those were the Heat’s only two games against the 76ers after Philadelphia acquired Harden in a trade on Feb. 10.
“It’s a great fit,” Spoelstra said before Monday’s game when asked about the Embiid-Harden duo. “Their games complement each other. Either guy can make plays, either guy can be the recipient from the other guy and you’re just talking about two MVP-caliber talents.”
76ers coach Doc Rivers said of the Heat: “They’re just good. Deep, a lot of veterans, kind of know how to play, they’ve kind of bought in to the Miami way. All of them. There’s a lot of new guys on their team, as well. Kyle [Lowry] and [P.J. Tucker], they’ve both been great for them.”
The Heat again went small with its bench unit, using Markieff Morris as the backup center over Dewayne Dedmon.
For the second straight game, Morris played in Dedmon’s spot in the Heat’s bench rotation. They have marked Dedmon’s first two DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) of the season.
With the 76ers missing Embiid, the Heat decided to go with the 6-9 Morris over the 7-footer.
Morris, who returned on March 12 after missing four months because of a neck issue, finished with four points on 2-of-4 shooting, one rebound and one assist in 12 minutes.
“This was more matchup based,” Spoelstra said of playing Morris ahead of Dedmon against the 76ers. “That can change game to game. We’re so close to the playoffs right now, it will eventually become just that. He’ll be ready.”
Morris played a chunk of his minutes in a frontcourt alongside Caleb Martin for the second straight game. Morris also played alongside P.J. Tucker in the frontcourt against the 76ers.
The Heat’s bench rotation included Herro, Max Strus, Morris and Martin on Monday. Miami was without guards Victor Oladipo (lower back spasms) and Gabe Vincent (right big toe contusion).
It wasn’t Herro’s best performance, but he did establish an impressive Heat record on Monday.
Herro finished Monday’s loss with 10 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
Herro, who is the NBA’s leading bench scorer with 21 points per game in that role, has now totaled 1,030 points off the bench this season. He surpassed the previous record of 1,028 points set by Dwyane Wade in 2018-19 for the most points scored by a reserve during a single season in Heat history.
Herro is also on his way to becoming the first NBA player to average at least 20 points per game off the bench in a season since Lou Williams averaged 20.1 points for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2018-19.
With 10 games left in its regular season, the Heat is still in good position to finish as the East’s top seed.
Even after Monday’s loss, the Heat still holds a 2.5-game lead over the second-place 76ers, third-place Milwaukee Bucks and fourth-place Boston Celtics.
What will it take for the Heat to fall out of first place? If Miami manages to go just 5-5 over the final 10 games, the Bucks and 76ers would likely need to go 9-2 to move past the Heat.
The Heat is on track to finish with the edge in a two-team tie with the Bucks and 76ers because it owns the better conference record after splitting the season series with both teams. A three-team tie between Miami, Milwaukee and Philadelphia would be more complicated to sort out.
But the Celtics have an advantage over the 76ers and Bucks because they have already clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Heat. Boston would still need to win seven of its final nine games, though, to move into first place if the Heat posts a 5-5 record to close the season.
The Heat is looking to enter the playoffs as the East’s No. 1 seed for the fourth time in franchise history. Miami also pulled it off in the 2012-13, 2004-05 and 1998-99 seasons.
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 9:57 PM.
