Takeaways from Heat’s win over 76ers behind Jimmy Butler, defense to advance to East finals
Five takeaways from the top-seeded Miami Heat’s 99-90 series-clinching win over the fourth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night at Wells Fargo Center. The Heat won the best-of-7 second-round series 4-2 to advance to the Eastern Conference finals:
The Heat is heading back to the East finals.
With Thursday’s win in Philadelphia, the Heat is headed to the East finals for the ninth time in franchise history and for the second time in the last three seasons.
Meanwhile, the 76ers haven’t advanced to the conference finals since 2001.
“You want to acknowledge the steps along the way,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of leading the Heat to the East finals for the sixth time in the last 12 seasons. “We have been doing this 27 years since Pat [Riley] came back to South Florida, nine conference finals. It’s not easy in this league. And I wanted everyone in the locker room to acknowledge that. It’s not everything, but it’s something.”
The Heat’s next opponent will be either the Boston Celtics or Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks currently lead that second-round series 3-2 and will have a chance to close out the Celtics in Game 6 on Friday night in Milwaukee.
If the Bucks can move past the Celtics, they would take on the Heat for a third straight postseason.
In the 2020 playoffs, the fifth-seeded Heat eliminated the top-seeded Bucks in the second round before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.
In the 2021 playoffs, the third-seeded Bucks swept the sixth-seeded Heat in the first round on their way to the NBA championship.
Whether it’s against the Bucks or Celtics, the Heat will open the East finals on Tuesday at FTX Arena.
The full schedule for the East finals: Game 1 on Tuesday at FTX Arena at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN, Game 2 on Thursday at FTX Arena at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN, Game 3 on May 21 on the road at 8:30 p.m. on ABC, Game 4 on May 23 on the road at 8:30 p.m. on ABC, Game 5 on May 25 at FTX Arena at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN, Game 6 on May 27 on the road at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN, and Game 7 on May 29 at FTX Arena at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.
“It’s big for our team,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said of advancing to the conference finals. “This is one of the goals we’ve been working for all year long. Complete team effort. Guys stepped up in a very big way. So proud of my guys and this squad, but we realize the job is not finished.”
The Heat’s elite defense and Butler’s greatness were the stories of the series.
Miami turned in another dominant defensive performance in Game 6, limiting Philadelphia to just 90 points on 41.4 percent shooting from the field and 12-of-37 (32.4 percent) shooting on threes.
The 76ers totaled just 15 points against the Heat’s suffocating defense in Thursday’s third quarter, which Miami won 25-15 to cruise to the nine-point win.
With sharp rotations, well-timed doubles and relentless effort, the Heat allowed just 98.9 points per 100 possessions on Thursday to hold the 76ers to their 11th-worst single-game offensive rating of the season.
“It wasn’t anything strategic,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s defense in Game 6. “It was more just trying to wear on them, do what we do, not let up and just make it tough.”
For the series, the Heat finished with a quality defensive rating of 105 points allowed per 100 possessions, which would have ranked first among NBA teams in the regular season.
This isn’t too surprising, considering the Heat closed the regular season with the NBA’s fourth-best defensive rating. But what Miami has done on that end of the court this postseason is still impressive, as it has posted the league’s second-best defensive rating in the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Butler was the best player on the court in the series and it wasn’t close.
Butler crossed the 30-point threshold on Thursday for the third time in four games. He averaged 27.5 points while shooting 51.3 percent from the field, 7.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.7 steals in the second round.
With Butler on the court, the Heat outscored the 76ers by 12.9 points per 100 possessions in the six-game series. Miami was outscored by 4.1 points per 100 possessions when Butler was on the bench.
“Jimmy is a great competitor,” Spoelstra said. “He’s one of the ultimate competitors in this profession. A lot of things get lost in translation. As this league gets younger, it sometimes ends up being about things that are not about winning. He competes at both ends, is an extremely efficient offensive player.”
Max Strus continues to prove he has become one of the Heat’s best undrafted success stories.
After recording his first NBA double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds in Game 5 on Tuesday, Strus turned in his second career double-double with 20 points while shooting 4 of 10 from deep and a team-high 11 rebounds in Game 6 on Thursday.
Strus said he wanted to be more aggressive after totaling just 29 points on 30 shots through the first four games of the series. He scored 39 points on 27 shots in the last two games of the series.
The Heat outscored the 76ers by a team-best 22.7 points per 100 possessions with Strus on the court in the second round.
“My mentality, getting the belief back in myself,” Strus said of what changed for him as the series went on. “Games 3 and 4, I was second guessing a lot of the things I was doing. I wasn’t playing my game. Jimmy inspired a lot of us the way he’s been battling, carrying us on his back.”
This two-game stretch to help the Heat close out the 76ers is just a continuation of Strus’ career-best season. He averaged career-highs in points (10.6), rebounds (3), assists (1.4) and minutes (23.3) while shooting a career-best 41 percent on 6.5 three-point attempts per game this season.
Strus, who went undrafted out of DePaul in 2019, spent most of this season playing off the bench. But he replaced Duncan Robinson in the starting lineup with just two weeks left in the regular season and the Heat has been winning games at a high rate ever since.
The Heat is 22-5 this season with Strus in the starting lineup.
It’s safe to say that the Heat will guarantee Strus’ $1.8 million salary for next season to bring him back.
“I love Max so much,” Heat forward P.J. Tucker said. “He’s gotten so much better. He’s definitely our most improved.”
All-Star center Joel Embiid continued to play through pain and was extra aggressive in an effort to save the 76ers’ season. But he just couldn’t do enough against the Heat’s elite defense.
Embiid, playing through a torn ligament in his right thumb and with a protective mask after suffering a right orbital fracture in the first round of the playoffs, finished Game 6 with 20 points on 7-of-24 (29.2 percent) shooting from the field and 2-of-8 (25 percent) shooting on threes, 12 rebounds and two assists in 44 minutes.
Embiid, who missed the first two games of the second round because of the NBA’s concussion protocol, averaged 12.3 shot attempts per game in his first three games of the series. But he turned his offensive aggression up a notch in Game 6, taking 14 shots in the first half and 24 in the game.
But the Heat’s defense continued to make Embiid work for every shot attempt. With Miami switching less to keep center Bam Adebayo on Embiid for most of the night, Adebayo fronted Embiid whenever possible to make all of his catches difficult.
Then when Embiid did get the ball, the Heat often sent an extra defender his way.
“Just making it tough on him,” Adebayo said of his strategy in defending Embiid. “That was the biggest emphasis when he came back. Making his catches tough and making him work for the ball.”
Clearly not 100 percent physically, Embiid averaged 19.8 points while shooting 42.6 percent from the field and 25 percent shooting on threes in the four games he played in the series. Those numbers are a win for the Heat, considering Embiid closed the regular season as the NBA’s scoring champion with 30.6 points per game on 49.9 percent shooting from the field.
Embiid’s co-star James Harden was strangely quiet in Game 6. With forward P.J. Tucker spending most of the game on Harden, he scored just 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field and did not attempt a free throw in 43 minutes.
Harden, who averaged 15.3 shots per game this regular season, took just two shots in the second half.
Every 76ers starter attempted more shots than Harden on Thursday except for Danny Green, who played just three minutes before exiting the game with a left knee injury.
Thursday also marked the first game in Harden’s NBA career that he played at least 40 minutes and didn’t attempt a free throw.
Harden averaged 18.2 points while shooting 40.5 percent from the field and 35.7 percent shooting on threes in the series. The 76ers were outscored by 28 points with Harden on the court in the second round.
“I came to the conclusion at the end of this game that we were just not good enough to beat Miami,” 76ers coach Doc Rivers said.
The Heat again used a 10-man rotation.
After using a nine-man rotation for most of the playoffs, the Heat went with a 10-man rotation for the second straight game on Thursday.
With starting point guard Kyle Lowry missing his second consecutive game with a strained left hamstring, Gabe Vincent again started in his place as part of a lineup that also included Strus, Butler, Tucker and Adebayo.
The Heat’s bench rotation in Game 6: Tyler Herro, Dewayne Dedmon, Victor Oladipo, Caleb Martin and Robinson.
Robinson, who had logged only 55 seconds of playing time through the first four games of the second-round series, was part of the rotation for the second straight game. He played 14 minutes in Game 5 but just four minutes in Game 6, finishing Thursday’s series-clinching win scoreless and missing his only three-point attempt.
Robinson did not play in the second half.
The Heat’s bench was an important strength throughout the series, outscoring the 76ers’ reserves by a combined score of 205-121 in the six second-round games.
The 76ers don’t have much quality depth and it showed. The Heat’s depth shined.
“We’ve been able to win with different rotations all season,” Spoelstra said. “All those experiences helped us prepare for the playoffs.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 10:55 PM.
