Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 124-117 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers:<\/p>\n
\u2013 This was the lesson the Heat will not heed.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Dealing with injuries, the 76ers took a gap year last season.<\/p>\n
\u2013 After winning at least 47 games the previous four seasons, they stepped back to 24-58.<\/p>\n
\u2013 As in 13th in the East.<\/p>\n
\u2013 As in positioned well enough to land the No. 3 pick in the lottery.<\/p>\n
\u2013 As in able to land VJ Edgecombe.<\/p>\n
\u2013 As in the No. 3 rookie scorer.<\/p>\n
\u2013 As in the NBA rookie leader in steals.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Yes, Tyrese Maxey is the engine and Joel Embiid is the size.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But Edgecombe has shown, including Thursday night, how much that elite talent can make a difference.<\/p>\n
\u2013 As in lottery talent.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Going in, even before Edgecombe sparked the 76ers in the second quarter to a 16-point halftime lead, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra had ample praise.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThe athleticism jumps off the screen for sure, and he has potential to be a very good two-way basketball player,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cI think the fans and everybody knows the highlight plays that he makes offensively, but he has very good feet and quickness defensively, and quick hands and ability to get in passing lanes.\u00a0 The style defensively that they play with Nick Nurse, it just fits what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Or you could push for the play-in every year.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Refuse to step back to step ahead.<\/p>\n
\u2013 VJ Edgecombe was the reminder Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra was asked before the game about the play-in\/playoff race.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s the best time of year right now, when you start to see the playoff seeding,\u201d he said. \u201cI want our guys shooting for a better spot than where we are right now. We don\u2019t have to overwhelm ourselves with it, but it gives us something to wrap our minds around and compete for every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Norman Powell (groin) and Davion Mitchell (illness) cleared an hour before tip off, the Heat again went with a starting lineup of Powell, Mitchell, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins and Pelle Larsson. That lineup entered 5-3.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The game was the 350th regular-season appearance of Mitchell\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Powell then was lost for the night with that groin issue in the second period.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The 76ers opened with a lineup of Embiid, Maxey, Edgecombe, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Dominick Barlow.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jaime Jaquez Jr. was first off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kel\u2019el Ware and Tyler Herro then entered together.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Kasparas Jakucionis making it nine deep.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Simone Fontecchio then returned to the rotation, briefly, entering midway through the second period.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra laughed pregame when asked about the difference when Embiid plays for the 76ers, as he did Thursday night.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cReally? I mean, it\u2019s pretty obvious,\u201d he said. \u201cLike they jump up to first in the league in free-throw attempts. They have a very good balance of controlling pace, and he\u2019s one of the best in the game that can control the pace, get it on their terms, But then they also have all their speed perimeter players. Maxey is second in the league in fast break points, so you have to deal with both those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 As far as not finding out formally until the game that Embiid was in, Spoelstra said of the ever-changing lineups in the NBA, \u201cThat\u2019s every night. That\u2019s the way the league is now. I think everybody\u2019s gotten a lot more accustomed to that. You have a couple of different, probably two or three, you know, different lineups and rotations and matchups.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Heat entered well aware of the upgraded challenge of the 76ers when Embiid is in the lineup.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cYou got to make that adjustment, because sometimes it\u2019s a Maxey possession and sometimes an Embiid possession and then Edgecombe, too, that can attack off a close out,\u201d Larsson said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cYou\u2019re fairly different with what Maxey and Edgecombe can do, so they bounce between the two styles,\u201d Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Going in, Spoelstra addressed recent Heat defensive lapses.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s disappointing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a higher level that we can get to, that\u2019s as high as anybody in this league, really on both sides of the floor.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of doing it consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 He added, \u201cOur defense is built and versatile enough to make it disruptive against anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 With his second rebound, Jaquez reached a career best season total.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 124-117 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers: \u2013 This was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,144,165,295,189,3880,3881,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-628411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-heat","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-heat","13":"tag-miami-heat-blog","14":"tag-miamiheat","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116143203506549946","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}