The Miami Heat's dream of ending the regular season outside of a play-in spot isn't necessarily dead after a massively disappointing loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Still, it does hurt more than any loss the Heat have suffered recently.
Had the Heat beat the 76ers, future tiebreakers and seeding could have shifted in Miami's favor. Unfortunately, a blown tire in the second quarter all but doomed the Heat's second-half clawback, falling short 124-117 in the end and increasing the distance between them and the Sixers by 2.5 games.
The Heat could have won this game, but not only did they lose an important game, but they also lost an important player, Norman Powell, to a groin injury, and when he plays again is uncertain. Right now, the Heat have to be feeling all sorts of gut punches, and one in particular gut punch from Bam Adebayo, who had some harsh words for his team afterward.
Bam Adebayo calls out the Heat for not playing hard enough despite winning the last two quarters in a failed comeback
Looking just at the box score, a 34-26 third quarter and a 26-25 fourth quarter would indicate that the Heat had complete control of the game in the second half. Well, look again...behind the numbers, because Miami led for only 38 seconds in the entire game.
The 76ers routed the Heat in the second quarter, 37-22. Had Miami remained in contention to finish the first half, combined with their second half, it may very well have been 124-117 for the Heat instead. This was not the case, of course, which would lead Adebayo to call out his team afterward, according to The Miami Herald's Anthony Chiang.
"We didn't play hard enough, bro. I mean, I don't know how to explain effort," said Adebayo.
Clearly, he was more at a loss for words about how the Heat played for much of the game, and the words are scathing, too, because "effort" is normally not a word associated with the Miami Heat in a negative regard. It's not part of their culture.
Still, effort was missing for much of the game, despite Adebayo's 29 points and 14 rebounds, Tyler Herro's 25 points, Andrew Wiggins' 18, and Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s own 19 points off the bench. The Heat didn't have problems scoring, all things considered, shooting 46% from the floor, including 42% from three-point range.
In the end, a combined 54 points from Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey were too much, with a little help from Kelly Oubre Jr. (21 points) and sensational rookie, V.J. Edgecombe (19 points). The Heat didn't help themselves at the end of the game either, though, missing their final four field-goal attempts of the game.
A tough loss, but again, not a playoff spot killer, as Miami can still pull themselves out of the play-in dungeon with 22 games left to go. That said, they can help themselves by being locked in for all four quarters and not having to rely on a second-half comeback to win a game.