Takeaways, reaction from the Heat’s Game 5 win against Philadelphia 76ers
Five takeaways from the Heat’s 120-85 drubbing of Philadelphia in Game 5, an outcome which left Miami with a 3-2 lead in this series and a chance to eliminate the 76ers on Thursday in Philadelphia (7 p.m., ESPN):
▪ Jimmy Butler continued his stupendous postseason roll. And his teammates did a much better job surviving the minutes when he rested.
After scoring 33 and 40 in the previous two games (both losses), Butler erupted again on Tuesday, scoring 11 in the first quarter and finishing Game 5 with 23 points on efficient 9 for 15 shooting.
Throw in nine rebounds, six assists and a steal, and this was another glorious, complete effort by a player who would be first-team All-NBA if voting were based solely on the playoffs.
“Jimmy is so comfortable right now; he’s doing everything he wants to do,” 76ers coach Doc Rivers said. “There are adjustments we can make, some we really don’t want to have to make but we might have to.”
Butler’s three-point shooting the past few weeks ranks among the pleasant surprises of this Heat run.
At one point this season, he was a brutal 17 for 90 on threes. But he ended the regular season 10-for-26 on threes, hit 7 of 16 in the first round against Atlanta and is 7 for 22 on threes in this series after making 2 of 4 on Tuesday.
And this also helped: In the two games in Philadelphia, the Heat was outscored by 22 points when Butler was off the floor.
In Game 5, it was a virtual wash in those Butler-less minutes. Miami was a plus 36 with Butler on the court, a minus one without him.
Butler entered first in the league in the NBA in steals in postseason (2.38 per game), fourth in the league in scoring during the playoffs (29.0 per game), while averaging 7.3 rebounds and 5.5 assists and shooting 53 percent overall and 35.3 percent on threes (much higher than his 23.3 season average).
His mid-range game - both the footwork creating those shots and the touch on those shots - has been an aesthetic treasure in these playoffs.
“Our whole team feels a great sense of confidence when the ball is in Jimmy’s hands and we leave the decision up to him,” Erik Spoelstra said.
▪ The Heat kept the 76ers MVP in check and didn’t allow the lightning-quick Tyrese Maxey to burn them.
Until the Heat’s lead had grown to 18, Joel Embiid - wearing a mask and dealing with orbital and hand injuries - in no way resembled the player who was an MVP finalist. (Denver’s Nikola Jokic reportedly won the award, though the league hasn’t announced it.)
Embiid, who tormented the Heat with 15 points in the first quarter of Game 4 and 24 for the game, was curiously passive in the first half of Game 5, settling mostly for jumpers and managing just six points on 2 for 6 shooting.
He was stuck on that six-point total until going off on a personal 7-0 run after the 76ers were well behind.
His final numbers: 17 points (13 below his season average), just five rebounds, two assists and two turnovers and no blocked shots in 33 minutes. He seemingly lacked energy at times and never put his imprint on the game until the outcome was largely settled.
“This is a lose-lose situation for me,” Embiid said. “If I don’t play, I’ll probably get called soft. If I played bad, [people] will come up with a bunch of stuff that he’s not good enough... I haven’t been myself. Offensively, I haven’t been aggressive.”
He said the Heat is not “allowing me to catch the ball.”
The 76ers were outscored by 29 points with Embiid on the court, the worst plus/minus of his career in postseason, according to ESPN.
“We have to establish Joel at the beginning of the game,” Rivers said. “I thought we went away from that.”
The Heat’s defense - spearheaded by Bam Adebayo - was a big factor in slowing Embiid. So, presumably, was Embiid’s painful orbital injury.
After Dewayne Dedmon inadvertently smacked Embiid’s face with the ball, Embiid went down, writhing in pain. He stayed in the game but missed his only two first half shots after that.
Rivers said he never considered permanently removing Embiid from the game after that incident.
“He knew there would be a couple times he would be hit in the face [in the playoffs],” Rivers said. “He got up and said he was fine after a while. His hand and the face, it’s a tough stretch for him. He’s a warrior.”
Embiid missed the first two games of the series in concussion protocol, played well for large parts of Games 3 and 4 before tiring, but wasn’t a big factor in Game 5.
Maxey - who scored 34, 21 and 18 in the past three games - had his worst game of this postseason, shooting 2 for 10 on a 9-point night, with two turnovers and an assist.
Maxey hit 7 of 11 threes in the two games in Philadelphia but was just 1 for 4 on Tuesday.
James Harden’s 16-point eruption in the fourth quarter of Game 4 remained the exception, not the rule, in this series for an aging star well past his prime.
Gabe Vincent and PJ Tucker harassed him on drives to the basket, and some of the threes that he drained in Game 4 bounced off the rim in Game 5.
Harden (14 points) finished 5 for 13 from the field in 37 minutes, with as many assists (four) as turnovers. He has 33 assists and 25 turnovers in this series.
After shooting 16 for 33 on threes both in Game 3 and Game 4, Philadelphia finished 9 from 32 (28 percent) from distance in Game 5.
Conversely, the Heat, which shot 14 for 65 on threes in the two games in Philadelphia, shot 13 for 33 (39.4 percent) on Tuesday.
▪ With Kyle Lowry (hamstring) sidelined, Max Strus (19 points), Gabe Vincent (15 points) and Victor Oladipo (13 points) gave the Heat the scoring punch to complement Butler, compensating for the fact that the 76ers have focused on trying to slow Tyler Herro.
Strus - with Butler - ignited the Heat early with 11 points in the first quarter, then buried the 76ers with a driving layup and a three to start the fourth.
Beyond shooting 7 for 13 overall and 4 for 10 on threes, Strus led everyone with 10 rebounds - twice as many as Embiid corralled.
“Strus gets off and gets them going,” Harden said of how the game played out.
Strus entered averaging just 7.3 points on 9 for 29 three-point shooting in this series (31 percent) after averaging 10.6 points on 41 percent three-point shooting in the regular season and 14 points and 35.5 percent on threes in the first round against Atlanta.
And it wasn’t only threes for Strus. He entered having attempted only one two-pointer in the first four games, even though he’s a career 64 percent shooter on twos.
He made three shots in the basket area in Game 5 and also drew a foul on a driving layup attempt.
The Heat is now 21-5 with Strus starting.
“Max has been playing winning basketball all series,” Spoelstra said. “That’s the shame of it. If you lose or you’re not scoring, people might not recognize it.”
Oladipo, meantime, continued to display variety in his offense, mixing drives to the basket with threes.
He scored 11 in the first half and finished with 13 (5 for 10 shooting) in an efficient 18 minutes.
“Vic, in this role without Kyle, allows Tyler to still be Tyler,” Spoelstra said. “That’s very important to our team.”
As for Herro, the usual big offensive night wasn’t needed. He opened 0 for 3 before hitting two baskets late in the third and finished 4 for 8.
Herro is scoring below his 21 point season average (14, 11 and 10 the past three games) but Miami was a plus 16 with him on the floor.in Game 5.
The 76ers continue to try to take the ball out of his hands, and Butler said Herro is “making the right play out of it.”
Adebayo’s numbers were pedestrian (12 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks), but the box score did not remotely do him justice. Adebayo’s defense was at elite level - no surprise there - and that was his biggest impact on the game.
“Bam did so many things that impacted the win,” Spoelstra said. “He’s the heart and soul of our team.”
As usual, the work of PJ Tucker (10 points, 7 rebounds) also transcended the box score.
▪ Vincent continues to play a mature, tenacious, winning game in the absence of Lowry.
With Lowry sidelined indefinitely with a hamstring injury, Vincent scored all 15 of his points in the second half, dished out two assists, didn’t commit a turnover in 27 minutes, had a steal and played stout defense on Harden and others.
He shot five for six in the second half after missing his only shot in the first half.
More importantly, the Heat improved to 5-0 with Vincent starting this postseason.
During those five starts, the Heat has outscored the opponent by 59 points with Vincent on the floor, including by 20 in Game 5.
Afterward, James Harden praised how Vincent “gets after it.”
▪ There was a Duncan Robinson sighting, and Spoelstra expanded his bench.
Instead of shortening his bench amid the absence of Lowry, Spoelstra instead expanded it.
Robinson made his first appearance of the series, entering to a loud ovation in the second quarter, but that 5:23 stint was his only appearance until extended garbage time late. He went 0 for 1 in the first half, then scored four points late.
Spoelstra went 10 deep in the first half, using Caleb Martin as the 10th to enter.
This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 10:56 PM.
