Philadelphia 76ers catch fire in fourth, hold off cold-shooting Heat, to win Game 3
For the first time in this second-round series, everyone got to see the Heat and 76ers at full strength.
What followed was a dreadful display of Heat shooting for 24 minutes, a furious Jimmy Butler-led third quarter rally, but then more errant Heat shooting and ultimately, a loss to a Philadelphia team galvanized by the return of MVP candidate Joel Embiid.
Philadelphia squandered all of a 14-point third quarter lead but never allowed the Heat to pull ahead in the second half of Game 3 and won, 99-79, at Wells Fargo Center on Friday, slicing the Heat’s lead to 2-1 in this best-of-seven series.
Game 4 is at 8 p.m. Sunday night in Philadelphia, on TNT.
Thanks largely to an excellent third quarter from Jimmy Butler, the Heat rode a 16-3 spurt to tie the game in the closing minutes of the third quarter.
But the 76ers, ahead 68-65 after three, scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter, and Miami never again drew closer than eight. Philadelphia outscored the Heat 31-14 in the fourth.
Shooting was again a difference, as it was in Miami’s win in Game 2.
Miami opened 0 for 7 from the field in the fourth quarter and shot just 35 percent for the night and 23.3 percent (7 for 30) on threes.
“We weren’t totally intentional where we were getting the ball and we paid the price for that,” Erik Spoelstra said.
After shooting 14 of 64 on threes in the first two games of the series, Philadelphia made 16 of 33 (48 percent) on Friday, with Danny Green sinking 7 of 9 three-point attempts.
And this was critical: The 76ers made seven of their first 10 shots - mostly jumpers - and three of their five three-pointers over the first eight minutes of the fourth quarter in building a 12-point lead that kept growing.
Tyrese Maxey, after a 23-point second quarter of Game 2, erupted for 21 in the second half of Game 3, after a scoreless first half.
Butler (33 points, 9 rebounds) was brilliant in the third quarter, scoring 14 to help draw the Heat even for a time, then scoring nine more in the fourth.
Aside from Butler, nobody had a particularly good night offensively.
Tyler Herro was 3 for 11 in the first half and 5 for 15 for the game on a 14-point night.
Max Strus (nine points) hit two threes during the third quarter but closed 3 for 11, all of his attempts coming from three-point range.
Kyle Lowry returned after missing four games with a hamstring injury but had an unusually quiet night, going scoreless on 0 for 4 shooting, with just three assists and one turnover and four fouls in 25 minutes.
“I’m healthy as I can be right now,” Lowry said. “I had one good day of working out, kind of a half day. I just got to find a rhythm. I didn’t expect to be amazing tonight. [But] I didn’t expect to have zero points.”
The 76ers got a boost with the return of Embiid, who produced 18 points and 11 rebounds in 36 minutes while wearing a mask to protect his orbital fracture, an injury that sidelined him the first two games of this series. Embiid was able to play because he cleared concussion protocol on Thursday.
“He’s a big impact,” Spoelstra said afterward. “This is what you have to expect. He’s an MVP caliber player.”
His best moment of the night? Embiid hit a jumper, drew a foul on Bam Adebayo, and hit the free throw to put the 76ers up 12 in the fourth.
Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers said Embiid hadn’t run at all this week, but he had the stamina to play the first 10 minutes of the game, giving the 76ers a lift with seven points and four rebounds during those minutes.
His rhythm was off somewhat offensively, especially on his jumper. He closed 5 for 12 from the field and 8 for 10 from the line and made a big impact on the glass, on defense and by drawing attention to help free teammates. The only real blemish were four turnovers.
Embiid avoided shooting threes; he didn’t take any after going 1 for 14 on threes against the Heat this season.
He said afterward that he feels pretty good and always knew he would play in this series, but the Sixers being down 0-2 was a factor in him returning in Game 3.
And even though it wasn’t a vintage night from Embiid - who led the league in scoring at 30.6 per games this season - he nevertheless outplayed Adebayo, who managed just nine points and three rebounds and shot 2 for 9 from the field and 5 for 8 from the line and committed three turnovers in 34 minutes.
The opening of the third quarter, when Philadelphia stretched its lead from seven to 14, was particularly difficult for Adebayo.
He barely grazed the rim on a jumper on one end, was helpless to defend an Embiid jumper on the other, then threw a bad pass that Tobias Harris converted into a transition dunk and then missed a jumper on the other end.
Maxey, who victimized the Heat repeatedly in a 34-point Game 2, went scoreless in the first half (missing his thee shots) but came alive in the second half, hitting seven of his eight second half shots on a 21-point night, to go along with six assists.
Heat starters had only 20 points in the first half, just five more than James Harden’s first-half production.
But after scoring a combined eight points on 2 for 9 shooting in the second half of the first two games of this series, Harden again had a quiet second half, with just two points.
But his one basket was an important one, in the 7-0 fourth quarter run. Harden, who shot 4 for 11, finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, but also seven turnovers.
Danny Green, after shooting 1 for 10 in Game 2, gave Philadelphia a huge lift with his 21 points.
With Lowry back, that squeezed Caleb Martin out of the Heat’s rotation. Spoelstra went with a four-man bench of Gabe Vincent, Herro, Dwayne Dedmon and Victor Oladipo. Martin entered the game late with the outcome decided.
The Heat felt behind 18-8 early, closed to within 21-17 after one quarter, but then watched the 76ers start the second quarter on a 9-0 run.
Miami kept shooting blanks, missing 14 of 16 three-pointers in the first half. Herro went 0 for 6 in the second quarter.
But the Heat hung around, trailing 41-34 after one because Miami’s defense remained disruptive, and the 76ers shot just 34.3 percent in the first half.
The Heat’s 34 first-half points were its second-fewest in a first half this season, and the fewest allowed by Philadelphia this year The 34 points were also the least the Heat has scored in a half of a playoff game since 2013.
The 76ers stretched the lead to 48-34 early in the third before the momentum shifted dramatically.
Philadelphia committed five turnovers, Strus hit two threes, Butler started hitting his mid-range jumper, driving to the basket and picking up fouls, and suddenly Miami had tied the game at 57 before two Maxey baskets - a three-pointer and layup in transition - put Philadelphia ahead for good..
Emotions boiled over a bit in the fourth, when PJ Tucker hit Matisse Thybulle with a forearm during a play, drawing a technical foul. Thybulle drew a technical for getting in Tucker’s face.
From there, Philadelphia kept hitting big shots to put the Heat away.
The Heat has never lost a second round series in which it led 2-0. The 76ers have never won a second-round series that it trailed 0-2.
This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 9:44 PM.
