Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra shouts to the team during the second half of a game against the Philadelphia 76ers on March 30, 2026, at Kaseya Center in Miami.
Alie Skowronski
askowronski@miamiherald.com
There haven’t been many victories for the Miami Heat lately, but the Heat’s winning formula was on display Monday.
After dropping seven of its previous eight games, the Heat got back to what has usually led to wins this season in a much-needed 119-109 win against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night at Kaseya Center.
The Heat got back to playing elite defense and winning in the margins on Monday.
“It was all the multiple efforts that we needed,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, with the team now turning its attention to a matchup against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun and ESPN). “And that led to the karma of the game, which we’ve been talking about. You want to feel like you’re worthy to win.”
▪ The Heat limited the 76ers to just 48 second-half points on the way to allowing just 109 points per 100 possessions in Monday’s win. After giving up 125.5 points per 100 possessions during its previous eight games, Monday’s effort improved the Heat to 27-4 this season when allowing 109 points per 100 possessions or fewer.
“You see how we guarded, and we’re capable of that,” Heat captain and center Bam Adebayo said. “We need to do that every night. It’s crazy we did that on the second night of a back-to-back [after losing to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday]. But that’s what’s required to get these Ws, so that’s what we have to do.”
The Heat did it by sitting in its zone defense for most of the night, slowing the 76ers and forcing them into 17 non-paint two-point shots.
Miami used its zone defense for 53 possessions Monday, which is the second most it has used zone in a game this season, according to Genius Sports. The 76ers scored just 0.83 points per possession against the Heat’s zone.
“When we’re flying around in that zone, it’s a really good defense,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “We were able to get them out of some of their actions that they like to get to. Obviously, they’re a handful in man with [Paul George], [Tyrese] Maxey and [Joel] Embiid and then shooting around it. So we were able to just take them out of their normal flow, their normal rhythm and get some stops.”
Despite its recent slippage on that end of the court, the Heat still enters Tuesday with the NBA’s ninth-ranked defensive rating this season.
▪ The Heat outscored the 76ers 30-11 in fast-break points Monday.
Not only did it mark just the fourth time that the Heat has scored 30 or more fast-break points in a game this season, but the Heat also improved to 11-2 this season when finishing with more than 25 fast-break points. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Heat added 5.6 points-per-100 possessions in transition on Monday.
“Just the motor and the energy,” Spoelstra said of what stood out Monday. “You felt the pace and the push. … It only works if everybody is running. And we know that they’re a good defense team. They’re a disruptive defense team. If you face their half-court defense, they can jam you up. So we knew we wanted to play at our pace and get back to getting games on our terms, defending and then doing that.”
This is nothing new for the Heat, as it entered Tuesday playing at the NBA’s fastest pace this season (averaging 104.4 possessions per 48 minutes).
“We didn’t force a lot of turnovers or create a lot of deflections, but we were able to get stops and on those stops get out and run, beat them down the floor,” Herro said. “And then even on their made baskets a couple times, we were able to beat them down the court.”
▪ The Heat outscored the 76ers 19-12 in second-chance points behind a 16-9 advantage in offensive rebounds. Miami is now 10-2 this season when grabbing more than 15 offensive rebounds.
The Heat posted an offensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available offensive rebounds a team grabs) of just 25.1% during the 1-7 stretch that preceded Monday’s win.
But in Monday’s victory, the Heat recorded an offensive rebounding percentage of 36.4%. The Heat is now 14-4 this season when posting an offensive rebounding percentage of more than 35%.
“It’s all those relief points, and it leads into that category of being worthy to win,” Spoelstra reiterated. “Making those extra efforts. It takes a lot of effort to crash three or four guys. You don’t know if you’re going to get the ball. But you have to make that effort. And then if you don’t get the ball, guess what you’ve got to do? You’ve got to sprint back. And now it’s probably instead of a 70-foot sprint, now it’s a 90-foot sprint. But our offense has been better when we’re running and we’re getting extra relief points on the second chance.”
The Heat is simply better when it’s outworking its opponent, defending at a high level and winning in the margins.
While an appearance in the NBA’s play-in tournament for the fourth straight season still seems likely, the Heat hopes to get back to that winning formula consistently in the final days of the regular season. Miami has just six regular-season games remaining.
“We’re, obviously, on a terrible stretch right now as a team,” Herro said. “I think just sticking with it and understanding that it is a long season. Last week we won seven straight, the next week we lost seven [of eight games]. So who knows what next week looks like and just continue trust in the process, believe that we have enough to achieve what we want to achieve. It takes time. We just got to keep going.”
Adebayo named a finalist
The NBA announced Tuesday that Adebayo is one of six finalists for the 2025-26 NBA Sportsmanship Award, which recognizes the player who best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court.
The finalists for the award are Adebayo, Boston’s Derrick White, Indiana’s T.J. McConnell, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Golden State’s Al Horford and San Antonio’s Harrison Barnes.
Current NBA players will select the winner of the annual honor.
Injury update
Heat guard Norman Powell was ruled out for a third consecutive game with an upper respiratory infection. Andrew Wiggins is listed as questionable with the same injured toe issue that sidelined him recently.
Celtics center Nikola Vucevic (finger) is the only Boston player on the injury report.
This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 3:58 PM.
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.