MIAMI — The Philadelphia 76ers picked up a 109-105 win over the host Miami Heat on Thursday that brought them within a half game of Miami for seventh in the Eastern Conference standings. With five games left, the Sixers need every win if they are to move up in the East.
The box score Thursday night shows Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid were dominant. Maxey had 37 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds. Embiid had 29 points. The Heat had no answer for them.
However, other guys stepped up and gave the Sixers a boost. Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 18 points, including seven in the fourth quarter, and KJ Martin and Paul Reed turned in huge defensive efforts to slow Miami.
“We were down eight or so with five or six minutes to go and Kelly made a couple of huge plays and kind of jump-started us back in there and then I just thought we were playing good defense for a long time,” said coach Nick Nurse. “We just couldn’t grab a rebound. We were really busting our butts to play, but we just couldn’t get a rebound and then we finally started getting some. I thought Paul Reed and KJ were huge. They were just trying really hard and snatched a few of those away.”
Oubre jump-started the Sixers on the offensive end: He had a couple of tough looks fall. His offensive charge allowed Philadelphia to begin pulling away from the Heat.
“He was big time,” Tyrese Maxey said of Oubre. “He was big time. I think early in the game, Joel had it going, I had it going a little bit, and I just told him it’s gonna come a time we’re gonna need you to hoop. They’re gonna start loading up on the boat for us and it’s your time to go out there and be aggressive and do what you do, and he did that.”
Martin and Reed also led a defensive charge that held the Heat to one field goal over the final 8:19 of the game. Kevin Love knocked down a fadeaway to put Miami up 99-93, and the Heat didn’t make another field goal until a Terry Rozier triple with 45.5 seconds left.
“KJ Martin, Paul Reed, it was huge,” added Maxey. “I mean, what they did on defense and when we zone and we went man, and they got a bit rebound as well. I told P-Reed you gotta go get them and he was gonna get them all. So that was huge. That was big time and then Joel came in and finished it out.”
The Sixers gained the critical win over the Heat. Now, they gotta take care of business against two struggling teams, the Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs, to finish the trip.
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