PHILADELPHIA — The Miami Heat was without its top three scorers in Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro, but but it did have some of its best three-point shooters available.
With only 10 available players because of injury issues involving a few of its most important players, the short-handed Heat (17-12) still found a way to escape with a 101-96 win over the Philadelphia 76ers (15-14) on Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Center.
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Three-point shooting was the Heat’s main source of offense, as it finished 18 of 44 (40.9 percent) from deep.
But the most important one of the night game off the hand of guard Gabe Vincent, who broke a 96-96 tie with a three-pointer to give the Heat a 99-96 lead with 39.4 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Vincent finished with a career-high 26 points on 7-of-12 shooting from deep and Robinson scored 21 points with the help of 4-of-11 shooting on threes. The Heat is now 6-1 this season when making 16 or more threes in a game
The undermanned Heat was in control for most of the night, leading by as many as 19 points in the first half and then opening the third quarter on a 20-6 run to pull ahead by 23 points.
The 76ers did not go away quietly, though, using a big 24-6 run to cut the Heat’s lead from 23 to five early in the fourth quarter.
The Heat responded, with P.J. Tucker quieting a loud Philadelphia crowd with a corner three to put Miami ahead by eight with 8:22 to play. After a Tobias Harris layup for the 76ers, Tucker then hit another corner three to push the Heat’s lead to nine with 6:59 left in the fourth quarter.
Those two threes helped to erase some of the 76ers’ momentum, but Philadelphia didn’t stop pushing. Harris made a corner three with to tie the game 96-96 with 1:24 to play.
That’s when Vincent hit his three to swing the game in the Heat’s direction.
The 76ers had a chance to tie the game, but Joel Embiid missed a three with four seconds left. Kyle Lowry was then fouled going for the rebound and went on to make two free throws to clinch the victory for the Heat.
The Heat is now 5-3 this season in games without Adebayo and Butler.
The Heat continues its four-game trip on Friday against the Orlando Magic. Miami is 1-1 on the trip.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the 76ers:
Without Adebayo and Butler, the Heat needs to make threes to win. Miami did just that in Philadelphia.
The Heat finished 18 of 44 (40.9 percent) from three-point range, which has been a key part of its winning formula when Adebayo and Butler are out. Miami has now attempted 40 or more threes in five straight games, and Adebayo and Butler missed all of them.
In the Heat’s five wins without Adebayo and Butler this season, the Heat has shot 45 percent on threes against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 15, 47.1 percent on threes on Friday against the Indiana Pacers, 46.8 percent on threes last Wednesday against the Milwaukee Bucks, 44.2 percent on threes on Saturday against the Chicago Bulls and 40.8 percent in Wednesday’s victory.
In other words, it seems like the Heat needs to shot 40 percent or better from three-point range to win without Adebayo and Butler.
The Heat turned to its zone defense to bother the 76ers’ offense, and it worked.
Using a 2-3 zone look for most of the game, the 76ers were forced away from their usual offensive game. Not known as high volume three-point shooting team, Philadelphia finished 12 of 37 (32.7 percent) from deep.
The 76ers entered averaging the fifth-fewest three-point attempts in the NBA at 31.7 per game this season. As far as making them, Philadelphia ranks 15th out of 30 teams in team three-point percentage at 34.9 percent.
Even with so much going right, the Heat still couldn’t generate many free throws without Adebayo and Butler.
Miami finished Wednesday’s win just 13 of 17 from the foul line. Over the last four games — all played with Adebayo and Butler — the Heat has attempted a total of just 47 free throws.
That’s a very low number, considering Miami entered averaging 19.8 free throws per game this season.
The Heat is missing 14.5 free throws per game with Adebayo (6.2 free throws per game) and Butler (8.3 free throws per game) unavailable.
How short-handed was the Heat? Seven of the 10 available players on Wednesday were undrafted.
The Heat’s 10 available players were starters Kyle Lowry, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, P.J. Tucker and Dewayne Dedmon, with Max Strus, Omer Yurtseven, KZ Okpala, Marcus Garrett and Udonis Haslem coming off the bench.
The only three who were drafted are Lowry, Tucker and Okpala. Lowry is the only first-round pick in the group, as Tucker and Okpala were both selected in the second round.
This isn’t too surprising, considering that the Heat’s top thee scorers — Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo — were out and half of its normal rotation was unavailable.
Adebayo (thumb surgery), Butler (tail bone contusion), Herro (right quadriceps contusion), Caleb Martin (health and safety protocols), Markieff Morris (whiplash) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) were all out for the Heat in Philadelphia.
Herro, who took a knee to his quad during the first half of Monday’s loss in Cleveland, will remain with the Heat on the trip and is considered day-to-day.
As a result, the Heat’s bench rotation looked a lot different than it normally would.
Okpala, who was out of the rotation when the roster was healthy, entered Wednesday’s game as Miami’s sixth man. He has played in eight of the past nine games because of the Heat’s injury issues after receiving 10 DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) in the team’s first 20 games.
Then entered Strus, Yurtseven and Garrett later in the opening period. Haslem was the only available Heat player who did not get in during the first quarter.
It marked Garrett’s first first-quarter and first-half minutes of the season. The undrafted rookie guard was recalled from the G League on Friday as part of his two-way contract with the Heat.
