Philadelphia 76ers best Miami Heat 109-105 in biggest game of season

In one of their biggest games of the season, the Philadelphia 76ers took down the Miami Heat 109-105. The 76ers won their third consecutive game, something they haven’t done since Joel Embiid dropped 70 points on the San Antonio Spurs and improved to 42-35 on the season. 

Philadelphia is now 0.5 games behind Miami for 7th place in the Eastern Conference and trails the Indiana Pacers by one game for the 6th seed.  

The 76ers were deprived of Mo Bamba (illness), Robert Covington (knee), Tobias Harris (knee), and De’Anthony Melton (back). The Heat were without Tyler Herro (foot) and Josh Richardson (shoulder). 

Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid shined for 76ers

Without the services of Harris, the 76ers rolled out a starting line-up consisting of Kyle Lowry, Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre Jr, Nicolas Batum, and Joel Embiid and it worked to perfection as the offense flowed through the two-man game between Embiid and Maxey. 

The spacing of Oubre and Batum freed up the paint for the two stars and Maxey was able to work off the ball more with Lowry’s facilitating. This unit was locked in defensively as if this had been the starting lineup since October and the 76ers played exceptionally fast. Philadelphia’s starting five worked so well that the 76ers got off to a quick 17-2 lead.

Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid played basketball together for the first time since January 25th and the star duo picked up right where they left off. Maxey and Embiid combined for 66 points, which was 60% of Philadelphia’s 109 points.

Win percentage this season:

.794 — Embiid and Maxey
.789 — Best team in the league pic.twitter.com/nYyHJH0Vk1

— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 5, 2024

Kelly Oubre Jr. supported them with 18 points and 8 rebounds on 8-14 shooting from the field. Oubre once again stepped up in the clutch as he scored five consecutive points, all of which were assisted by Maxey, to regain the 76ers lead with 3:30 left in the game and gave Caleb Martin a nasty stare in the process.

However, it was Maxey’s near triple-double of 37 points, 11 assists, and 9 rebounds on 15-26 shooting from the field that stole the show. There’s no other way to put it besides that Maxey simply got buckets. Whether it was against Miami’s infamous zone defense, in isolation, or off the pick-and-roll, Maxey’s three-level scoring ability shined. 

Maxey ran the two-man game with Embiid to perfection, using his screens to get to the rim off dribble hand-offs and ball-screens to drain pull-up threes against a foolishly dropped Bam Adebayo. Maxey not only snaked off screens and scored in a plethora of ways, but also created offense for the screener in Embiid and Reed as Maxey drew defenders coming off the pick.

Joel Embiid had a strong sequel to his highly anticipated return, dropping 29 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists on 11-25 field shooting. To start the game, Embiid looked sharp, hitting a series of face-up jumpers against single coverage and drilled spot-up threes off of Maxey’s rim gravity. Embiid provided sound rim protection with stellar one-on-one defense against Adebayo and deterred dribble penetration with help-side rotations.

However, Embiid started to run out of gas as the game dragged on with Embiid scoring just 8 points in the 2nd half. Miami’s zone defense was effective against Embiid, despite him beautifully passing to weak-side shooters in Oubre, Lowry, and Hield, who were all cold from three. Embiid, later on, started forcing jumpers around the nail that misfired against zone coverage. 

Joel Embiid: “I was much better today, imagine what we can do.”

Tyrese Maxey: “Yeah, Cmon now.”

THIS COULD BE VERY SPECIAL, PHILLY pic.twitter.com/1L6ZJjI7D8

— Justin Lever ❤️⚾️ (@JustinLever3) April 5, 2024

76ers’ struggles

Despite the stardom of Maxey and Embiid, the 76ers were unable to pull away from Miami regardless of being uo by double-digits on multiple occasions. Simply put, Philadelphia couldn’t close out quarters without a series of head-scratching errors including defensive lapses, poorly executed passes and 2-for-1 possessions, and shooting fouls resulting in and-ones. 

By my math, the Heat have outscored the Sixers by 17 points in just the final minute of each of the first three quarters. The Sixers have outscored the Heat by 16 across the game’s other 33 minutes.

— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) April 5, 2024

The Heat crushed Philadelphia off the offensive glass, winning the offensive boards battle 16-8, especially in the non-Embiid minutes with Kevin Love playing a huge role in that. Miami scored 14 second-chance points that were highlighted by Love and Adebayo’s put-backs.

Like most teams, the 76ers were troubled by Miami’s zone defense with Embiid getting swarmed by multiple defenders, Philadelphia struggled to give him weak-side shooting help and often turned the ball over off of poor entry passes enabling the Heat to get out in early led by Haywood Highsmith (12 points on 2-4 perimeter shooting) and Terry Rozier’s (22 points on 6-13 shooting from three) quick offense. 

Regardless, the 76ers were repeatedly able to fight back when Miami temporarily regained the lead in crucial parts of the 2nd and 3rd quarters led by quality defense full of great interior rotations from Embiid especially, and great screen navigation on pick-and-rolls including Kyle Lowry against Jimmy Butler (20 points and 5 assists on 7-17 field shooting) as well as pure superstar performance from Maxey.

The 76ers will continue their road trip on Saturday against the Memphis Grizzlies at 8:00 p.m. EST on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Mandatory Credit: Copyright 2024 NBAE (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images)