Sixers hang on to defeat Miami Heat, gain some ground in playoff race

MIAMI — The 76ers are in a race for the Eastern Conference’s sixth playoff seed.

That was made possible with help from the Brooklyn Nets, and the Sixers later helping themselves. The Nets gave the Sixers some hope Wednesday when they defeated Indiana, knocking the Pacers out of sixth place.

The Heat briefly held the position, until the Sixers beat them, 109-105, in Thursday’s much-anticipated game at Kaseya Center.

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The Sixers took a 107-102 lead on a 13-0 run with 1 minute, 33 seconds left after Miami was held scoreless for five minutes. The Heat hit a three-pointer with 45 seconds remaining to pull within two points, but Tyrese Maxey sealed the game for the Sixers with a steal and a pair of foul shots in the closing seconds.

“It was a super competitive game, always is,” coach Nick Nurse said of facing the Heat. “I think it always is an intense physical, lots of energy expended by everyone that’s out there. It was a big run by us, a big run by them, really back and forth.”

With the win, the eighth-place Sixers (42-35) pulled within a game of the once-again sixth-place Pacers (43-34) with five games remaining.

The Sixers have the NBA’s easiest remaining schedule, while the Pacers have the 10th-toughest. So it’s not out of the question that the Sixers, once destined for the Play-In Tournament, will secure a first-round playoff berth.

“Listen, the only comments I ever made was we were coming to play them and see what happens,” Nurse said of the remaining games. “But I also was at the point where I think it’s important for us to get better and get healthy towards the end of this last five games, right? ... So it was like whatever happens, happens. We are just going to focus on our games.

“But yeah, if we can pick off one more and win Saturday night [at the Memphis Grizzlies], we will come closer to getting in the playoffs.”

The Sixers finished their season series with the seventh-place Heat (42-34) tied at two games apiece. That denies Miami from the head-to-head tiebreaker, should the squads finish the regular season with identical records.

Maxey and Joel Embiid played big roles in the victory.

Maxey had game highs of 37 points and 11 assists to go with nine rebounds after missing the past two games with left hip tightness. Embiid finished with 29 points, four rebounds, three assists, and one block in his second game back after left knee surgery. As expected, the reigning MVP was fatigued in the second half, missing his final seven shots. But his perfomance was something the Sixers can built on.

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Kelly Oubre Jr. added 18 points and eight rebounds.

Tobias Harris missed the game with a bone bruise. Harris had an MRI Thursday afternoon in South Florida. A source said Harris could be sidelined for just a game or two.

Heat star Jimmy Butler finished with 20 points and five assists. Terry Rozier paced Miami with 22 points.

However, the Heat only made 6 of 22 shots in the fourth -including going 2 of 13 on three-pointers. They only made one field goal in the final eight minutes.

“KJ Martin, Paul Reed. They were huge,” Maxey said of the defense. “I mean what they did on defense and when we went zone and we went man, they got to be rebounding as well. I told them. So I told P Reed, you got to go get them and went to go get them all.

“So that was huge. That was big time and Joel came and finished it out.”

Reed finished with five points on 2-for-2 shooting along with four rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 15 minutes, 20 seconds off the bench. Martin had four points, four rebounds and a block in 21:19 in a reserve role. The power forward closed out the game.

This marked Sixers guard Kyle Lowry’s first game in Miami since the Heat traded him to the Charlotte Hornets on Jan. 23. The Hornets bought him out of his contract on Feb. 11, leading to the Sixers signing the North Philly native for the remainder of the season.

Lowry averaged 8.2 points, 4.0 assists, 1.1 steals, and 28 minutes this season in Miami. He started in each of his first 35 appearances before being taken out of the Heat’s starting lineup. On Thursday, the 38-year-old had eight points, five assists, and six rebounds against his former team.

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Lowry was acquired by the Heat via trade from the Toronto Raptors on Aug. 6, 2021.

“We had a lot of playoff success,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s why Kyle is a throwback. You can’t just look at his numbers or his points per game or his whatever. It’s the impact that he has on winning. I mean the first year was a great year, you know, in the regular season. It was great, one game from getting the Finals. Last year, he had a massive impact on us in a different role coming off the bench, and very few players can do that, you know two different kinds of roles.

“But you know the relationships that we created, they’ll transcend those times.”