The Philadelphia 76ers pulled out a second straight victory over the injury-riddled Miami Heat.
The Philadelphia 76ers, with several players returning from protocols, swept the home series against the still shorthanded Miami Heat.
The game was Philadelphia’s from nearly beginning to end as they returned Matisse Thybulle, Shake Milton, and Tobias Harris. Miami was missing starters Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler along with several others including Maurice Harkless, Avery Bradley, Meyers Leonard, and Kendrick Nunn.
The first quarter was back and forth as a Max Strus tip shot pushed the score to 29-24. From there, Philadelphia took over. Shake Milton scored seven points and pitched in two assists over the final 2:45 of the quarter as Philadelphia went on a 14-1 run to close the quarter leading 38-30.
The offensive barrage continued for Philadelphia in the second quarter as they poured in 35 points. Another run led by Milton, a 13-2 run, saw him pour in 10 points in just under two minutes.
By halftime, Philadelphia led 73-58.
Like several Philadelphia games this year, and many games across the NBA, the game got out of hand and consisted of rather mundane competitiveness.
Despite that, Philadelphia got strong performances from those who saw more than pure garbage time including Tyrese Maxey scoring 15 points on 10 shots and Dakota Mathias, after his big-time shot the other night, got to celebrate his effort by ringing the bell pregame.
The teams more or less traded baskets with subtle runs until the time petered out as Philadelphia took the game 125-108.
Miami will surely be looking to get their starters back as they face off against Detroit at home on Saturday and Philadelphia will aim to join the Los Angeles Lakers as the only 10-win teams in the league on Saturday as they head to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies.