Credit: Robert Mayer-US PRESSWIRE

So the Sixers lost 99-93, sealing a 4-0 series defeat as a part of an 11-game regular season losing streak against the Heat. Again, this is not fun. We’ll go good-bad-ugly for the review, since I didn’t do the preview (thankfully, Stephane did).

The Good: Evan Turner’s outlier game

I know that it doesn’t seem too “good” when I call it an outlier. But statistics suggest that Evan Turner had some good fortune with his performance tonight. Why? Because he’s struggled in the area he dominated to score 10 of his 26 – the short corner, on the right side of the court (when facing the rim from midcourt). Via this CourtVision post from Kirk Goldsberry, Turner shoots only 26% from that range. By my count (and confirmed by ESPN’s shotcharts, though you have to be careful with them because sometimes they add other shots), Turner scored 10 points on 5-9 from this range. Four of the made shots came against the defense of Terrel Harris, who not coincidentally was a -13 on the night. However, he finished o-3 in the fourth, suggesting that it was mostly a situation of getting the right matchup.

Yet I can’t help but feel it’s a good thing he’s trying to be aggressive when he has a good matchup, and that he’s aggressive at getting to the rim, even if he’s still avoiding contact. It’s a good thing that he’s taking 19 shots, because the Sixers desperately need a go-to scorer. And getting some burn defending LeBron James can’t hurt for his future, right?

The Bad: Who are you, and what have you done to Jrue Holiday?

Jrue Holiday has had some bad nights this year, especially against the Heat, but this one will be difficult to top. 6 turnovers offset 6 assists; many were of the WTF variety. He did make some nice plays for teammates, but his mind seemed elsewhere with some of his decisions. Meanwhile, Mario Chalmers significantly outplayed Jrue, which was one of the keys Stephane alluded to pre-game. As it turns out, giving up the advantage to the Heat at the point isn’t going to turn out well for most teams, given the rest of the roster.

The hope is that he can recover from this tomorrow night, when it will be Jose Calderon, a defensively suspect point guard, serving as his primary defender.

The Ugly: Please be okay, Andre

Andre Iguodala, for those of you who don’t know, left the game after getting inadvertently poked in the eye by Chalmers in the third quarter. The stretch immediately following resulted in five quick, easy Miami points, and they held at least a 3 point lead the rest of the way. Eye injuries are nothing to laugh about – Amar’e Stoudemire suffered a detached retina and has worn goggles during games ever since. While Iggy wearing goggles seems like it would be awesome, it won’t be if the injury is serious and long-term. He spoke with reporters after the game and still seemingly had blurry vision, but he hopefully will be okay for the stretch run.

In a related story, following the injury LeBron scored 19 of his 41, including 14 in the fourth quarter. While Andre has struggled against LeBron, he has at least done an adequate job defending him one-on-one. The Sixers threw double teams at LeBron in the fourth quarter to no avail. He was almost unstoppable.

1) Spencer Hawes

Spencer Hawes has yet to play in a game against the Heat for the Sixers this season, and they’ve missed his presence down low. They’ve played their best vs. Miami when they have a low post presence performing well, like Nikola Vucevic did in one of the earlier matchups Sean mentioned yesterday. Hawes needs to have a good game on both ends of the floor to allow the Sixers to win. On offense, he needs to establish himself as a consistent scoring threat so the Sixers aren’t forced to settle for contested jumpers. With the Heat’s outstanding perimeter defense, the Sixers need to be able to get the ball inside. On defense, the Sixers have struggled with defending Chris Bosh down low for much of their earlier meetings. The Sixers have good perimeter defenders, particularly Andre Iguodala (despite his earlier struggles against LeBron James), but they struggle against opposing big men. Hawes will need to play good, physical defense against Chris Bosh down low in an effort to slow the Heat offense.

2) Jrue Holiday

Look at the starting lineups for each team:

Miami: Chalmers-Battier (in for Dwyane Wade)-James-Bosh-Anthony

Philadelphia: Holiday-Turner-Iguodala-Brand-Hawes

The Heat have an extreme advantage at SF and PF. I already highlighted why Spencer Hawes has to step up, but Jrue Holiday needs to have a good game against Mario Chalmers. The Sixers need to exploit the matchups that work to their favor to have any shot of beating the Heat tonight. Holiday is a much better player than Mario Chalmers, but if he doesn’t play like it the Sixers have no shot of winning the game. In the last meeting, Jrue shot 3-16 from the field on mostly jump shots. That simply will not do tonight. He needs to attack the rim and draw defenders to him so he can either finish the play or find an open teammate. Settling for jumpers isn’t an option for him tonight. He needs to facilitate the Sixers offense against a stingy defense and do a good job of both scoring and passing. He also needs to vastly outplay Mario Chalmers along with Spencer Hawes doing the same to Joel Anthony if the Sixers to win the game.

3) The Night Shift

The bench unit is going to be another key to the game as well. When a team is constructed with 3 stars like the Heat, there isn’t much money to go around for the rest of the team. So while Norris Cole, Mike Miller, and Udonis Haslem are nice players, the Sixers’ bench is much better than the Heat’s. When the 2nd unit gets into the game, it must play well because it’s very likely that the Heat starters will have opened up a sizeable lead on the Sixers’ first unit. The key to the bench matchup will be the low post (again). The Heat employ Eddy Curry, Ronny Turiaf and Juwan Howard as backup big men. Thaddeus Young and Nik Vucevic should be able to exploit their lack of basketball-playing ability down low. It doesn’t stop down low, though. The entire bench needs to step up and continue to play well enough to close deficits or even build leads against other teams’ bench units.

This is a big game for the Sixers. The Celtics embarrassed the Heat on national TV Sunday, and hold a 1 game lead over the Sixers for the Atlantic Division lead. The Sixers will be looking to keep pace with the Celtics, while the Heat will be looking to rebound and get back on track. My prediction? The Heat do just that and take this game, 92-75. Hopefully I’m wrong, enjoy the game everyone.