If you missed Saturday’s battle between the Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat, it’s hard to know where to start to explain what transpired. There was Miami taking an eight-point lead early, only for the Sixers to answer with a 17-4 run to close the first quarter to take a five-point lead. There was another poor third quarter in which the Sixers were outscored by 11, giving Miami a six-point lead heading to the fourth. And eventually, there was overtime.
But we have to start with the end of the fourth quarter, which produced one of the most bizarre minutes of basketball you’ll ever see. Let’s break it down.
Joel Embiid drained a step-back 3 with 1:14 remaining to put the Sixers up five, and things were looking pretty good. From there, however, it was chaos.
Bam Adebayo got a dunk with just under a minute left to cut the lead to three. The Heat got a stop, and Jimmy Butler was fouled with 25.1 seconds remaining. He hit 1-of-2 from the line, trimming the Sixers lead to two.
On the ensuing possession, Tobias Harris missed a dunk. The Sixers got the rebound, but Joel Embiid turned the ball over with 10.1 seconds left when all the Sixers had to do was hold the ball and force the Heat to foul. Off the turnover, Tyler Herro drained a 3 with 6.9 to go, and suddenly the Sixers were trailing by a point. Following a Sixers timeout, Embiid again turned the ball over and Butler was fouled with 3.3 seconds left. Things looked bleak for the Sixers, but there was still plenty of crazy yet to unfold.
Once again, Butler went 1-of-2 to put the Heat up two. Josh Richardson took the inbounds pass, failed to get a shot off, but was fouled on the floor with one second left. He proceeded to miss the first free throw. Forced to miss the second on purpose, Ben Simmons grabbed the rebound and laid it in to tie the game, except the officials had blown the whistle thinking that Richardson’s miss hadn’t hit the rim. A replay review indicated that it did, Simmons’ bucket was good, and we headed to overtime.
The teams traded blows in overtime before another 1-of-2 from the charity stripe for Butler put the Heat up one with 2.3 seconds left. Tobias Harris got an excellent look out of the ensuing timeout but failed to connect, and the Sixers suffered a frustrating, heartbreaking defeat.
There were a lot of mentions of Embiid turnovers in that recap, and they surely played a huge part in the outcome of the game, but the big man was fantastic for much of the night. He finished with 35 points and 11 rebounds. He only had three turnovers, but two of them came at absolutely crushing moments. He was 11-of-16 from the field, 11-of-12 from the foul line, and was one of only two Sixers starters who finished with a positive plus/minus.
The other was Josh Richardson, who scored 17 points. Ben Simmons had 15 points, 11 assists, and seven rebounds. Tobias Harris had 12 points and eight rebounds, and Al Horford had seven points and four rebounds.
The bench was better, contributing 30 points, with three of the four bench players having a positive plus/minus. Trey Burke, in particular, gave the Sixers a nice spark off the bench, and he was on the floor late in the fourth and in overtime.
At the end of the day, it’s another frustrating loss for the Sixers, who have now lost two straight after the big win over the Bucks.
The team is back in action on Tuesday against the Pacers.