The Miami Heat obliterate the 76ers behind a massive third quarter
The Miami Heat obviously came into Monday’s game on a mission to exert their will. Behind the return of Jimmy Butler’s jumper, they embarrassed the 76ers.
After watching the Miami Heat open their season the way that they did across their first hand full of games, you knew that they would be a pretty decent team with Jimmy Butler in tow. Knowing what we know about the 76ers over the past few years with Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and not to mention what they kept and added over the offseason, they looked to be a pretty good team as well entering this season.
With them both being pretty competitive teams at the very least, with the familiarity that has been bred via the movement of mutual players, and with the budding rivalry that has been evolving over the past few years, the matchups between the two were sure to be barnburners as well.
The first matchup would have led you to believe that the Miami Heat weren’t on the 76ers’ level, save for the fact that the Heat took the next two matchups in the series between the team. Their matchup on Monday was sure to be highly contested by Philly based on the results of the second and third matchup of the season series, well, at least it was in the first half.
A pretty even game throughout the first half, the second half really saw the Miami Heat come alive. The Miami Heat came out and just blew the doors off the joint in the third, outscoring Philadelphia 41-25 in that third quarter.
The Philadelphia 76ers were never able to fully recover from that third-quarter onslaught either. The Miami Heat wound up winning the game 137-106, a defeat that would be worst than the only loss handed to Miami by Philadelphia in the series this season, the blowout game in Philadelphia during their first matchup this year.
Something else of note from Monday’s game was the return of Jimmy Butler’s outside jump shot. While he did miss a few short bunny shots, he sank a few shots from the outside which contributed to one of his best shooting performances this year according to what you see with your eyes when you watch the games. It was also his best night in a Heat uniform from a scoring perspective, where he finished with 38 points on 14-20 shooting and 2-2 from three.
Meyers Leonard may just be the key to unlocking full potential. dark. Next
The Miami Heat will get a day off, traveling to the far West coast by Wednesday. They will face the Clippers on Wednesday in L.A.