The Philadelphia 76ers and the Miami Heat lit up their second-round series on Monday night in South Beach. Going into the matchup, both teams had notable injury concerns.
For the Heat, their injury report was littered with key names like Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Kyle Lowry. Outside of Lowry, who has been dealing with a hamstring injury, the Heat had all of their key guys ready to go before the game started.
On the Sixers side, they went to Miami without their top star, Joel Embiid. As Embiid suffered an orbital fracture and minor concussion during their Game 6 win over the Toronto Raptors in the first round, Embiid was not cleared for action in the first two games of the series.
Initially, Embiid’s absence was clear. When the Sixers brought up a starting lineup that contained veteran big man DeAndre Jordan, they had trouble getting out of the gate as the seasoned veteran was down -12 in four minutes.
Although Miami built a 14-point lead in the first quarter, the Sixers got some energy from second-year forward/center Paul Reed. Despite trailing by double figures early on, the Sixers were still very much in the game.
Come the second quarter, Philadelphia outscored the Heat by nine points. When Sixers forward Tobias Harris made four of his eight shots for ten points in 12 minutes, the Sixers held a slim lead before halftime. It was his first clue of the night.
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While the Game 1 matchup was a close battle at halftime, the Sixers needed to make sure to match their first-half energy in the final two quarters. Unfortunately, fatigue started to set in and the shots weren’t falling.
Miami’s Bam Adebayo and Gabe Vincent combined for 16 of the Heat’s 30 points in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Sixers made just 16 shots from the field and shot less than 15 percent of their 3s in the second half.
As the Sixers were completely outplayed in the third quarter, they entered the fourth quarter trailing 80-72. As the fourth quarter rolled around, Miami’s young standout Tyler Herro came to life and rallied for eight of his 25 total points.
The second part was not particularly even. When the Heat outscored Philadelphia 56-41, they built a convincing 106-92 lead to open the second-round series. Strong offensive performances from Herro and Adebayo helped the Heat take over business.
While the Sixers got an inspiring effort from Tobias Harris, who had a game-high 27 points in 36 minutes, the supporting cast struggled to make an impact. James Harden, who ran the offense without Embiid, scored just 16 points on 13 shots. Meanwhile, sophomore standout Tyrese Maxey struggled from the floor as he made just six of his 15 field goal attempts.
Falling behind by one game isn’t the end of the world for the Sixers, but they’ll need to put up a much better overall performance in Game 2 on Wednesday to split the series before it returns to Philadelphia.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.
Reference-www.si.com