A battle worthy of the postseason in NBA. With an overwhelming reaction, the Philadelphia 76ers won the Miami Heat at home 105 to 104 and secured the 7th spot in the Eastern Conference in the playoffs.
With the triumph, Joel Embiid’s team faces the New York Knicks in the first round of the next phase. The rivals will still have a new chance to stay alive in the 2023-24 season.
With eight consecutive victories, the 76ers went into the duel motivated and with confidence in Embiid, who hasn’t known what it’s like to lose since his return from injury. In addition to him, Tyrese Maxey, Kyle Lowry, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Tobias Harris tried to raise the hopes of the fans who, however, almost saw an unpleasant visit to the Wells Fargo Center.
The last time the Heat beat the Sixers was on February 14th. Since then, there have been two consecutive defeats for Erik Spoelstra’s team.
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Willing to write a new script, the Florida team activated ‘playoffs mode’ and achieved an overwhelming start led by the quintet formed by Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Caleb Martin, Nikola Jovic and Tyler Herro. Calibrated, the visitors took a 51-39 advantage into the break.
If the end of the first half cooled the mood, the second half of the match brought joy back to the Sixers fans, who reacted and turned the score around. The hosts’ recovery, in fact, had an unlikely name, Nicolas Batum.
Joel Embiid and Jimmy Butler at the 76ers vs. Heat game for NBA Getty Images play-in
With the duel completely undefined in the last period, what we saw was a point-by-point dispute until the last seconds. That was when Embiid took responsibility, sealing the victory and classification of the Philadelphia franchise.
After the defeat, the Miami Heat awaits the winner of the duel between Chicago Bulls e Atlanta Hawks to decide the conference’s eighth place in the playoffs.
Statistics:
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Nicolas Batum: 20 points and 5 rebounds;
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Joel Embiid: 23 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists;
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Jimmy Butler: 19 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists;
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Tyler Herro: 21 points, 2 rebounds and 9 assists;