PHILADELPHIA – This could have been a read on where two playoff contenders stand with a month to go until the games will matter most.
It wasn’t close at all.
Not with Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, Nikola Jovic, Kevin Love among those who will compete for the Miami Heat. And not with Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris and other contributors missing for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Instead, it was something closer to mid-March desperation to avoid the play-in round.
A night after a dramatic last-second victory in Detroit, the stakes were upped for the Heat in a game with significant tiebreaker implications.
This time, Erik Spoelstra’s team simply didn’t have enough, with the Heat not only losing 98-91 Monday night to the 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center, but also falling to 8th in the Eastern Conference , a berth that comes with a round-robin road game simply required qualifying for the playoffs.
“Our guys really wanted to win this game,” Spoelstra said. “We just couldn’t do it.
“It’s disappointing but it’s not from an effort standpoint.”
While Bam Adebayo did his part A night after scoring the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer in Detroit, his 20 points, 13 rebounds and six assists weren’t enough, as the Heat lost for the fifth time in their last seven games.
“We struggled to score,” Spoelstra said. “We had a few looks. At this point it becomes a success or a failure.
On a night where the Heat could only muster 16 points in the third quarter, the support just wasn’t there beyond Terry Rozier’s 20 points as Butler watched from the bench.
Remarkably, Adebayo did not attempt a shot in the fourth quarter.
“They were packing the paint like crazy,” Spoelstra said, “almost daring us to shoot from the 3-point line.”
Tyrese Maxey led the 76ers with 30 points, with Philadelphia also getting 22 points from Kelly Oubre Jr. and 16 from former Heat guard Kyle Lowry.
The Heat could have taken a 3-0 lead in the season series. Instead, the playoff tiebreaker could be on the line when the teams meet on April 4 in Miami, with Embiid possibly returning for that game.
Five degrees of heat during Monday night’s game:
1. Closing time: The 76ers led 31-23 at the end of the first half and 51-49 at halftime.
The 76ers then used a 13-0 run in the third period to take a 68-51 lead, en route to a 79-65 lead early in the fourth. The Heat scored 16 points in the third, shooting 5 of 21 in the period.
Sparked by a 3-pointer from backup center Thomas Bryant, guard Patty Mills and Rozier, the Heat eventually tied it 85-85 with 6:54 to play.
Then, with 3:09 left, Lowry made a 3-pointer to give Philadelphia a 91-87 lead, with a Lowry layup with 1:36 left to give Philadelphia a 95-89 lead.
From there, with two errant attempts from Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr., it was over.
“That game was there, anyway,” Spoelstra said. “I thought we had enough defense and stopped going down the stretch to put ourselves in a better position to win this game, but our offense was pretty inconsistent in the second half.”
2. Third corner: After converting 3-pointers from the top of the circle in each of the previous three games, including the game-winning goal at the buzzer Sunday in Detroit, Adebayo this time drained a 3-pointer from the right corner in the first period to extend. his four-game conversion streak.
Then, in the third quarter, he converted his second 3-point attempt of the game from the top of the arc.
Adebayo entered this seventh season without converting in consecutive games. He now has six 3-pointers this season. His previous single-season high was three.
The first-quarter conversion was Adebayo’s first attempt from a corner kick this season.
Ultimately, Adebayo became a non-factor late.
“We just stagnated,” he said, “and the ball wasn’t moving.”
3. Robinson Limited: A day after shooting 7 of 12 from 3-point range and becoming the fastest NBA player to 1,000 career 3-pointers, Robinson was lost for the night in the third quarter with a sore back.
Before being sidelined, Robinson was chased from the 3-point line by the 76ers. He closed 1 of 5 from the field, missing his only 3-point attempt, on what amounted to a three-point night a day after scoring 30 in Detroit.
Spoelstra said Robinson entered the game sick.
“He couldn’t move before the game, just because of the workload, everything that happened last night, the flight, whatever, he just couldn’t move,” Spoelstra said.
Robinson said it finally became too much.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “I was a disadvantage there.”
4. Rozier vs. Lowry: The matchup was the first with Lowry as an opponent after the former Heat guard was traded to the Charlotte Hornets in January for Rozier and then took a buyout to sign with his hometown 76ers.
Lowry shared a pregame hug with Butler at the scorer’s table, then took the initial defensive assignment against Duncan Robinson.
Lowry’s first points came on a 3-point shot against the Heat’s zone, later converting a 3-point play in transition in the second half.
Along the way, Lowry twice used his guile to foul Robinson, who admitted each time that he took Lowry’s bait.
5. Maxey sizzles early: Maxey, picked 21st overall by the 76ers in the 2020 NBA Draft, one pick after the Heat took Precious Achiuwa, had 17 points in the first quarter on 6-of-9 shooting, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range.
The Heat first defended Maxey with Haywood Highsmith, then moved Caleb Martin to assignment, also mixing in zone defense.
“They made some big shots in big moments,” Martin said.
