Miami Heat vs Philadelphia 76ers summary: stats and highlights | NBA Playoffs
Miami @ Philadelphia: Headlines
- Miami seal 4-2 series win over Philadelphia
- Butler leads way for Heat with 32 points
- Heat to face Bucks or Celtics in Eastern Conference Finals
Doc Rivers pulls Embiid, Harris and Harden for the last minute. That pretty much sums it up. They went down without a fight tonight a need to have a long think about what direction they want to take this offseason. Jimmy Butler waving 'bye bye' to the remaining Sixers fans in the arena. They will have a big say in the NBA finals.
That’s all she wrote from me and for the Sixers in the postseason. They went big for Harden and it has been a spectacular failure. A lot to figure out for the this offseason. From head coach to their core players. Everything is on the table.
Meanwhile, the Heat march on and with Jimmy Butler playing like he did tonight and has throughout the playoffs, you wouldn’t rule them out getting back to another finals. Butler led the way with 32 points and helped out by Strus with 20.
Doc Rivers pulls Embiid, Harris and Harden for the last minute. That pretty much sums it up. They went down without a fight tonight a need to have a long think about what direction they want to take this offseason.
Harden throws up a three. Misses.
Heat have a 14-point lead with just over 2 minutes to play. Insurmountable, surely?
Another offensive rebound! The Sixers are just beating themselves by not working those boards.
Shake Milton the unlikely source of hope for the Sixers here as he lands a three and gets fouled in the process. Harden only has 11.
The boos are pretty deserved right now as Butler wins an offensive rebound with a bunch of 76er players standing looking at him. That's what it has been like for the entire second half here.
Wow, a lot of 76ers fans already leaving the arena.
Butler with 27 now and turns the lead into a 17 points.
We can hear Doc Rivers' wired mic and he tells his team to 'fight for this' but it's just not happening.
Most have already written off the 76ers coming back here.
Another poor start to a quarter. The Heat now lead by 17. This is out of control.
the deficit has ballooned to 15 now as Maxey and Harden miscommunication leads to another bucket for the Heat.
Doc says 'we have to hang in there, we have plenty of time' and says he is going to tell him team that exact thing. He says they have to get some stops!
The Sixers just can't stop Butler, who has 23. Embiid fouled and he shoots 2 to keep the deficit at 11.
The challenge is successful and there is no foul on Butler.
Spoelstra is challenging the play.
Milton with a three and then a turnover by the Heat. Milton gets fouled by Butler as he shoots a three. Milton keeping the Sixers alive here!
The most recent example was embarrassing. Tucker finishes.
Philly are 2-14 in the third quarter. They have scored four points in this quarter while the Heat have 19.
The Heat have banked on the idea that if they shit down Embiid, they can beat the Sixers. Working so far tonight.
Yet another triple-team on Embiid and he is blocked as Butler goes up the other end and gets fouled as he shoots.
What a turnaround that is. Maxey goes to the rim and wants a foul, doesn't get one. Then Jimmy Butler pump fakes and then shoots and he scores as Embiid crashes into him. That's a five point swing. Butler up to 20 points now.
Bam Adebayo shaken up as Milton fouls him. He stop his ground and Milton dropped the shoulder into him.
The 76ers take a timeout. They haven't started this quarter well at all.
Strus to Tucker for another assist. Heat up by 6.
We are back underway here. Harden fouls Butler as he shoots. And Miami are up by four all of a sudden. Just feels like the Sixers are chasing this one.
Pretty big first half of basketball with Green going down with a knee injury first. The Embiid went down a couple of times. But it was Strus who stole the show with 16 points, 3 assists and 4 rebounds.
Embiid tried to scored at the rim with just second remaining of the half but the ball bounces off his knee as he fumbles it and it's a Heat ball. They'll get one more shot away here in the 1st half.
From Strus to Robinson, the Heat do such a good job of developing players.
Max Strus, the undrafted played who came out of the 2019 draft leads all scorer with 16 points.
Maxey hits a big three now with just over a minutes left in the first half. He has 10 points in the opening two quarter.
Butler and Embiid swap missed jumpers.
Harden responds with his own 3. Tied again!
Strus with another 3 and he has 14 points now!
In 11 minutes, Tyler Herro has 10 points on 5 of 10 shooting.
We are only half way through the second and Embiid is struggling. Let's see how he manages here for the rest of the game.
Might help to explain Embiid's first half performance. The man is completely beat up but keeps plugging away.
Embiid starting to take over here. He is fouled again and on the floor. The man is exhausted and hurt as he stays down this time.
Butler misses a corner three. He hasn't scored since the first quarter.
Tucker takes on Embiid and the Sixers big man hits the ground again. He slipped and Tucker takes a tumble too. That's a foul, his first.
Embiid with a couple from the line. Sixers go ahead by three now.
Embiid from behind the arc. He lands the three. Heat just keeping their noses in front. They lead by 1.
Oh, Maxey with the floater and gets fouled in the process. Robinson the culprit. We are tied again as Maxey hits the free throw.
Spoelstra says Harden and Embiid being very aggressive at the moment and says 'that's part of the deal' with the Sixers two biggest stars.
We end the first quarter with a big Tobias Harris three.
Herro gets in behind Harden and finishes at the rim.
Thybulle had time to shout out his family in the crowd, calibrate his shot and shoot. He misses from the corner.
Wow! Harden with a lovely bounce pass to Embiid and he is stopped by a wall of red jerseys. Even Embiid can't go through that wall.
Harden with his first 3. He has five now and brings the Sixers within five.
Confirmation that Green is out for the rest of the game.
Herro, the NBA's sixth man of the year, with the turnover on Harden's pass and he takes it to the rim. Heat now on a 8-0 run. They lead by 8.
Max Strus with his third 3 of the night. He's fouled this time by Harden. He hit his two prior to that one and he leads the Heat with 9 points (tied with Jimmy Butler).
Thybulle with a block that brings to mind this video on his defensive ability.
Thybulle with a great cut, scores and then is fouled for the potential three-point play. He gets it and we are tied again.
Jimmy Butler fouled by Thybulle after setting up Embiid and leaving him flat-footed.
This is just four minutes old and Embiid has been on the ground four times. He keeps getting tangled up with Heat players. The most recent tussle was with Adebayo. This one is clearly going to be a war of attrition.
Maxey in transition. 76ers brought their A game in transition. So much pace now on three possessions that they have scored on.
Doesn't look great for Green.
Green and Maxey have both tried form three-point land. Green the only one to connect for the Sixers.
Max Strus has tried two for the Heat and landed one.
A lot of contact on Embiid as he takes it to the rim. Adebayo has him down low and help comes from all angles. He scores but lands on Danny Green after the play and he remains down. Looks like his knee buckled and that's never good!
76ers getting out well on the fast break. Harden goes to the rim first and then throws one up for Harris, who finishes. 7-7 here with 9:18 to play in the first.
There we go. The first cheer of the night from the 76ers as Green catches it in the corner and finishes. 3-5.
On the next possession, the Heat turn the ball over.
And now Maxey misses from deep.
0-5 to Miami. This is exactly what the 76ers did not need.
Butler hits his first jumper. Embiid catches the ball at the elbow and launches one across the court to Harris, who steps out of bound.
We are underway here. Heat win the tip and boos ring out around the Wells Fargo Arena.
How Miami built their roster after the Heatles era. You might have to leave that read until half-time because we're about to get started here!
The Heat tied for the league lead with 10 players logging at least 1,000 minutes for the same team this past regular season as they adjusted to extended absences from Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Kyle Lowry and Sixth Man of the Year winner Tyler Herro, who each missed double-digit games this season.
Let's just wait and see. If he scores big tonight, it will have been an omen. If not, we can discard it... #narrative
The Sixers' starting five.
Jimmy Butler's 28.3 points per game this postseason is just behind Dwayne Wade's 2006 postseason and LeBron's 2012 postseason.
Joel Embid is playing 37.9 minutes per game in this season's playoffs. That is the highest total of his career.
The 76ers take to the floor for their warm-ups. Harden trails behind everyone but there's a spring in their step tonight. They know they have to take advantage of home court in an effort to keep this series alive.
Jimmy Butler had a game-high 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting, nine rebounds, six assists and a steal during game 5. They won but he scored 40 points in game 4 and they lost.
The team that has won the first quarter has gone on to win the game each time in this series! So, a good start is vital for both teams tonight.
The Liberty Ballers have written about how the 76ers need to adjust to beat the Heat tonight. Some of the things they need to do are:
Cut out careless passes
Rotation changes
Adapting against Miami’s defensive changes
The 76ers rank 9th in this playoffs with 33.0 shots from downtown per game. The Mavericks are number one with 40.5. That is strange to say about a team with James Harden on it and with Daryl Morey as the GM. This offseason will be fun for the 76ers regardless of what happens in the next couple of weeks.
Jimmy is shooting 36.8% from three in these playoffs, the highest mark since 2017-18 when he played with Minnesota. His 1.6 threes per game is his highest total in the playoffs since then too.
It wasn't long ago that it felt like the Heat's season was unraveling. Jimmy Butler was being Jimmy Butler and it all felt so inevitable. If they could turn it around and beat the 76ers, they'd be a seriously tough opponent for the Celtics or the Bucks in the conference finals.
An excellent read here on the Heat and Spoelsta's defensive adjustments. Will be interesting to keep an eye on this one tonight.
After Harden beat the Heat in Game 4 with 31 points, hints were dropped that adjustments were coming. Generally speaking, Miami was going to pay a little less attention to Embiid, putting more pressure on Bam Adebayo to deal with the bruising, MVP runner-up by himself, and more attention to Harden with blitzes, traps and asking primary defenders to fight through screens rather than calling for switches.
Embiid's as good as he can be.
I have no idea whether the 76ers are going to ball tonight but their pre-game attire is on fleek.
A couple of 76ers on the list. Not a single Heat player among the top 20. Just not good enough or do they spread the ball around more?
Tyrese Maxey, the 76ers breakout guard has spoken about being passed over by the Heat in the 2020 NFL Draft.
“I thought Miami would take me at No. 20,” Maxey told Yahoo Sports. “Look, I was blessed and happy to be drafted, first and foremost. I thank the Lord every day for this opportunity. It was my dream to be drafted. But also looking at it as a competitor, I felt like I was good enough to be drafted at a higher position. When teams pass up on you, you never forget about it.”
Plenty to keep an eye on tonight in Philly. The Heat lead the series 3-2 and the 76ers are trying to avoid losing this one in 6 in front of their home crowd. The 76ers are two-point favorites!
Tip-off at the Wells Fargo Centre is at 7:00 pm (ET) / 01:00 CEST on Friday
Hello and a very warm welcome to our live coverage from Philly as the 76ers welcome Miami Heat for Game 5 of the Playoff series.