The defending Eastern Conference champions made a statement on Thursday night.
With less than a week remaining in the regular season, the Heat dominated the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers (47-23) in a 106-94 win at AmericanAirlines Arena. Miami has won 11 of its past 14 games, including four straight as the start of the playoffs loom.
Even after the victory, the Heat (39-31) remains in fifth place in the East with two regular-season games left to play. The Atlanta Hawks are in fourth place and the New York Knicks are in sixth place.
The controlled the game from start to finish, pulling ahead 9-6 with 8:35 remaining in the first quarter and leading the rest of the way.
The Heat’s offense was sharp, totaling 106 points on 50.6 percent shooting from the field. Jimmy Butler led the way for the Heat with a team-high 21 points on 6-of-10 shooitng, to go with five rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes.
And the Heat’s defense good, too, limiting the 76ers to 43.9 percent shooting through three quarters and 7-of-25 shooting on threes for the game. Philadelphia All-Star center Joel Embiid, a top MVP candidate, finished with just six points on 3-of-9 shooting and two rebounds as the Heat’s defense swarmed him at every opportunity.
The Heat’s win also included very memorable Udonis Haslem minutes. Haslem made his first appearance of the season Thursday, finishing with four points, one rebound, a drawn charge and two technicals in three minutes of action.
Haslem was ejected early in the second quarter after a heated exchange with 76ers center Dwight Howard.
The Heat now hits the road for its final two games of the regular season: Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks and Sunday against the Detroit Pistons. Miami will open the playoffs on either May 22 or 23.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the 76ers:
— The Heat remains at No. 5 in the East standings, with the Hawks and Knicks also winning their games Thursday.
Miami has already clinched a playoff spot and is guaranteed to finish anywhere between the No. 4 and No. 6 spots in the conference.
With two regular-season games left on the schedule, the Heat remained at No. 5 following Thursday’s win.
The Hawks (40-31) also won Thursday, and the Heat is still one-half game behind the Hawks. But if Atlanta wins its final game of the regular season — Sunday vs. Houston Rockets — it will clinch the No. 4 seed because it owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Miami after winning the season series 2-1.
The No. 6 Knicks (39-31) also won Thursday, and have the same record as the Heat. But Miami is ahead in the standings because it owns the tiebreaker over New York after winning the season series 3-0.
If Atlanta defeats Houston on Sunday and the Heat wins both of its remaining regular-season games (Saturday at Bucks and Sunday at Detroit Pistons), the Hawks would finish in fourth place and the Heat would finish in fifth place. The Knicks’ final two regular-season games come at home Saturday against the Charlotte Hornets and Sunday against Boston Celtics.
If the current standings hold, the Heat would open the playoffs against the Hawks in Atlanta.
— Veteran forward and team captain Udonis Haslem’s first game action of the season was ... eventful.
“He hasn’t been pressuring me,” coach Erik Spoelstra said before Thursday’s game when asked whether Haslem has been pushing to play in a game. “But I’m aware of it and I want to make it happen. It’s going to happen before the season ends and we’ll see.”
It happened on Thursday, with Haslem entering with 59.3 seconds left in the first quarter for his first game minutes of the season. With Haslem finally appearing in a game, it now officially counts as his 18th NBA season.
But Haslem squeezed every bit out of his first bit of playing time since last August in the Walt Disney World bubble. Haslem finished his season debut with four points, one rebound, a drawn charge and two technicals in three minutes of action.
Haslem was ejected with 10:19 remaining in the second quarter after a heated exchange with 76ers center Dwight Howard. The two first received double technicals, but Haslem did not stop shouting at Howard and was called for his second technical.
Before the ejection, Haslem entered the game to a standing ovation from the AmericanAirlines Arena crowd in the Heat’s final home game of the regular season. He also made a transition layup off a nice feed from Andre Iguodala with 2.3 seconds left in the first quarter and then hit his trademark baseline jumper with 11:07 left in the second quarter.
Haslem, who turns 41 on June 9, became the oldest player to appear in a game for the Heat in franchise history on Thursday.
The franchise’s all-time leading rebounder has played less of an on-court role and more of a leadership role in recent seasons, and that trend has continued. Thursday not only marked the first game that he has played in this season, but just the 29th game he has played in since the start of the 2017-18 season.
And Haslem, who signed a one-year, $2.6 million veteran minimum contract with the Heat this past offseason, could be back for a 19th season. He said earlier this month that he’s still undecided on when retirement will come.
The Miami native, who attended Miami High, has spent his entire NBA career with the Heat and currently holds the longest streak by any active player with only one team in the league.
— After spending most of the season among the league’s worst units, the Heat’s offense continued its best stretch of the season.
The Heat’s scorching offense scored 106 points on 50.6 percent shooting from the field and 13-of-35 shooting on threes behind another balanced attack that included six double-digit scorers. Thursday’s performance came against a 76ers team that entered with the NBA’s second-best defensive rating.
Heat center Bam Adebayo finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
The Heat has now shot better than 50 percent from the field in seven of its past eight games.
The Heat entered with the NBA’s fifth-best offensive rating (scoring 116.5 points per 100 possessions) since the start of April. Miami is shooting an ultra-efficient 49.2 percent from the field and 38.2 percent on threes during this stretch.
This is quite the improvement from the first three months of the season, as the Heat was shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 34.4 percent on threes to arrive to the end of March with the NBA’s sixth-worst offensive rating (107.7 points scored per 100 possessions).
Miami has looked more like the well-oiled offensive team that made the NBA Finals last season, as it recorded the seventh-best offensive rating last regular season. And this season’s offensive resurgence is coming just in time for the start of the playoffs.
— The Haslem-Howard altercation wasn’t the only one in Tuesday’s game.
Heat starting forward Trevor Ariza had to be held back during a timeout in the first quarter. Ariza was upset at Embiid, who fell into Ariza’s leg a few plays prior.
Double technicals were called on Ariza and Embiid during the timeout with 2:33 remaining in the
Ariza limped off the court under his own power after Embiid fell into him and was able to re-enter the game with 4:14 remaining in the second quarter.
Ariza finished with 10 points, five rebounds and four assists in 34 minutes.
If Thursday was any indication, a playoff series between the Heat and 76ers would definitely be interesting.
— Victor Oladipo tried to avoid season-ending surgery. But in the end, the Heat’s recently acquired guard decided surgery was the smartest long-term solution.
Coach Erik Spoelstra said Oladipo underwent successful surgery on the quadriceps tendon in his right knee on Thursday. The surgery was performed by Dr. Jonathan Glashow at the NYU Medical Center in New York.
Oladipo will miss the rest of the season and there is currently no timetable for his return.
“He was looking at every single possible avenue to be able to continue the season without surgery,” Spoelstra said before Thursday’s game. “But for his career, it made the absolute most sense to take care of this now. You feel for him. He’s where he wanted to be, he could see like a great role and how he could really help us on this run. But it’s not meant to be for this season and he’ll get back and be better and stronger than ever.”
Oladipo, who turned 29 on May 4, ruptured that same tendon in his right knee in January 2019. Oladipo made his return a year later in January 2020, but did not play in both games of a back-to-back set this season and admitted shortly after his trade to the Heat that he was still working to strengthen his right leg more than a year after the surgery.
According to a source, the tendon was not ruptured this time, raising hope that his absence won’t be as long as the previous time he had a surgery on the same quad tendon.
Oladipo, who is earning $21 million this season on an expiring contract, will be an unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason. The Heat acquired his Bird Rights in the trade, allowing Miami to surpass the salary cap if it wants to re-sign him this offseason and operate as an over-the-cap team, instead of using what could be $22 million to $28 million in cap space.
But there are now plenty of questions surrounding Oladipo entering free agency: Will he be able to play next season? What kind of player will he be after his latest surgery? And more.
Oladipo, who was acquired in a trade with the Houston Rockets at the NBA trade deadline on March 25, played in just four games with the Heat before the injury. He averaged 12 points while shooting 37.2 percent from the field and 23.5 percent on threes, 3.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.8 steals in his limited time with the Heat this season.
