The Miami Heat evened the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with a convincing, physical victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in South Philly.
I would have lost a bundle last night. I predicted the Sixers by 20 or more. Boy was I wrong!
The streak is over. The Playoffs have begun.
Give Miami credit. They came out and took it to the Sixers last night. Employing a physical, intimidating defense that had Pat Riley’s fingerprints all over it, the Heat evened the best of seven quarterfinals at one game apiece with a solid 113-103 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. They also seized home-court advantage as the series heads to south Florida for Game 3.
Dwyane Wade was sensational, making his first eight shots from the floor and scoring 28 in 26 minutes. As I mentioned before this series started, the Sixers will have to stop Wade if they are to advance. They had no answer for him in Game 2.
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Miami’s rough-house defense bothered the Sixers badly. They were ice cold, shooting only 7-36 from three-point territory. Compare that to Game 1 where the Sixers shot 18-28 from beyond the arc.
But surprisingly, despite their woeful shooting, and trailing by as many as 16 in the fourth quarter, the Sixers cut Miami’s lead to two with 4:29 left on an Ersan Ilyasova tip in. On their next possession, however, a Dario Saric turnover led to a Dwyane Wade dunk and that was all she wrote. The Sixers never got closer.
Some random thoughts…
A little tip for Ben Simmons – when they body you up like that, pass the ball to a teammate and cut straight to the basket. Then dunk it when you get it back!
The Sixers finally missed Joel Embiid last night.
Sure, they missed his physical presence dominating the paint, but they missed spirit and emotion the most. The fun man-child who gets the fans revved up. The 7-2 force to be reckoned with. And for his part, Embiid put out an expletive charged Instagram post expressing his frustration at not playing. The text was:
“F*****g sick and tired of being babied.”
So whether you approve or disapprove of his use of profanity, you have to admire his fighting spirit. His team needed him and he knew it.
On Thursday night, I’m sure the mask will be on and he’ll be ready to go.
The Sixers were flat, and so were the fans inside the arena. I didn’t hear one chant of, “Let’s go Sixers!” throughout the game, especially when the Sixers fell behind. A young team needs the fans to pick them up sometimes. The fans need to step it up big-time when Game 5 rolls around.
Because Miami isn’t laying down. A street fight broke out last night. The Sixers need to answer the bell in Game 3.
Next: 5 things Sixers must improve for Game 3
And speaking of bells, please get rid of the celebrity bell ringing thing at the beginning of Sixers games. It’s corny and should only be done if the Sixers win – after the game. It’s also disrespectful and a motivator for the other team. Dwyane Wade said as much after the game after jawing with Kevin Hart. I don’t like it.