For three games, Miami toyed with the Sixers in the same way a bully amuses himself by picking on the weak. In Game 4, the weak fought back. Rocky finally won a round.
The Heat lost its first game of the postseason Sunday at Wells Fargo Center, falling 86-82 to the overmatched yet underappreciated Sixers. Miami was hoping for a sweep. Now it must try and knock out a scrappy opponent who is gaining confidence.
Up 3-1 on the Sixers in this first-round, best-of-7 series, the Heat now returns to Miami for Game 5 on Wednesday. It brings home a few of problems that need fixing before a serious playoff run can be realized.
“It’s disappointing,” LeBron James said, “but we’re not going to hang our heads all the way to the ground about it. We were up six with a minute and a half to go and they made some plays down the stretch.”
The Heat trailed 84-82 with 8.1 seconds on the clock when James Jones inbounded to James, who drove to his right against Andre Iguodala. James got his shot off on Iguodala but Brand shifted over from his weak-side position and got just enough of his hand on James’ attempt to redirect it with 3.8 seconds remaining.
“I anticipated him being there,” James said, “and I thought I put enough loft on the ball that I could get over his outstretched hand, but he made a great play.”
Seconds earlier, Sixers reserve Lou Williams swished a three-pointer from the top of the key to give Philadelphia the lead. The noise that followed was deafening, and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called timeout to set up a play to tie or take the lead. Spoelstra went for the tie and drew up a play for James, who has often been used as a decoy at end of games.
James finished the game with 31 points on 11-of-20 shooting. He led the Heat with six assists and added seven rebounds, a block and a steal. Afterwards, James emphasized that his last-second miss “didn’t decide the game.” He pointed to mistakes in the first and third quarters that he thought had more impact.
Dwyane Wade tipped in James’ miss with 1:35 to play to give the Heat an 82-76 lead. The six-point lead seemed to be enough against a Sixers team not known for its outside shooting. A first-round sweep was in sight but Sixers rookie Evan Turner answered with a runner in the lane, and guard Jrue Holiday caught Wade out of possession for a three-pointer.
“The one with Jrue Holiday, he froze me, got off a good shot,” said Wade, who finished with 22 points on 9-of-21 shooting. “Probably not many people in the arena expected him to shoot.”
Holiday’s three-pointer dropped with 46.9 seconds to play, cutting the Heat’s lead to 82-81. Wade missed a 13-footer on the next possession, which set up Williams’ go-ahead three.
“We’ve always been a team that fought all the way to the end,” Williams said. “Leading up into the shot I made, Jrue made a big shot and Evan played a great game. So, I just wanted to give us http://www.buywholesalerus.com/ an opportunity to win the basketball game."
