The Miami Heat are coming off one of their more wacky losses of the season. They would lose to a Philadelphia 76ers team on Monday that, quite frankly, was a shell of themselves.
Coming into the contest without Joel Embiid and James Harden going for them, the Philadelphia 76ers would have to rely on a different approach to get it done.
That’s exactly what they did.
The Miami Heat could have been better at a lot of the little things in Monday’s contest, such as hitting the boards and not allowing so many Philadelphia second chance opportunities, but that wasn’t the real thing that doomed them.
They could have overcome those things, as they have many times this season. What they couldn’t overcome though was being bludgeoned in the middle of the paint and at the rim.
On the way to allowing 50 points in the painted area, almost half of Philadelphia’s points, the Miami Heat’s defense would be tested over and over again on their ability to keep the opposition out of the paint.