Entering Monday’s game with a four game losing streak, the Miami Heat had a tall task of beating the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers entered Monday’s game having won 18 of their last 22 games. Basically, Miami was going to have their hands full. However, Miami was prepared. They played both ends of the floor with high intensity. The ball was moving on the offensive end and the Heat defense made it tough on the Sixers. Miami falted a bit in the fourth quarter, but still were able to pull away with a victory. With the win, Miami moves to 33-29 for the season. Here are my takeaways from Monday’s win over Philadelphia.
Jimmy Time
With so much riding on Monday’s game, the Heat needed playoff Jimmy Butler. And that’s exactly what they got from him. While his other star counterpart was struggling, Butler had it going all game. He was aggressive on both ends of the floor. Butler was able to get into the paint and draw fouls. Down the stretch in the fourth quarter, Butler pulled off a ridiculous circus shot. Just like last year’s playoffs, Butler was thorn on the 76ers side. It didn’t matter who Philadelphia put on him. Miami is going to need more of this Butler down the stretch. Butler finished the night with 23 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists.
We Got Shooters (Finally)
Shooting has been a huge problem for Miami all season. It’s one of the main reasons why they’re in the bottom of league in scoring. It hasn’t been from the lack of open opportunities either. Throughout the season, Miami has had no trouble generating open looks from the outside. The problem is Miami hasn’t been making them. The disappointing part about it is the struggles from their own shooters. On Monday night, it was a different story. The shots were falling for the Heat’s shooters. With the shots falling, it opened up more driving lanes for Butler and others. As a team, Miami shot 40 percent from downtown.
Great Production from the New Guys
While Miami has been losing, they have received great contributions from Kevin Love and Cody Zeller. Starting with Love, he was in great rebounding position at times. He read the floor very well, including one hit ahead pass to Tyler Herro. Even though he’s not a good defender, he did well in blitz coverages and wasn’t a huge defensive liability. Zeller, who was the surprising signing, had a stellar night. He knows where to be on the offensive end and plays his role well. Most importantly, he had good defensive moments and allowed Miami to give Bam Adebayo more time to rest. He even had a Lebronesque chase down block on Joel Embiid on the break. Overall, so far so good for the two Heat newcomers.
Huge Upcoming Homestead
Miami has a six-game homestead coming up. All of them are against playoff caliber teams, including the Sixers team they just beat. Miami needs to stack these wins to stay in the playoff race and avoid the play in tournament. Going 2-4 on this next stretch would not be ideal. The sixth-seeded Brooklyn Nets are at least 2.5 games ahead of them. And there are teams below them gaining ground on them. If Miami does go 2-4, they could find themselves starting a play-in game on the road. So, expect these next upcoming games to have a playoff type feel to them. Miami knows how important these games are. We’ll see how they finish them.
Next up: The Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday. Game tips off at 7:30pm eastern time.
