In what is the ultimate Christmas present for the Miami Heat, they beat the Philadelphia 76ers in the most wonderful time of the year, 119-113. It is Miami's third straight win after beating the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks last week, now they start this one with a victory.
As the Heat missed three players in Jimmy Butler, Haywood Highsmith, and Josh Richardson, players such as rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored a career-high 31 points to go with 10 rebounds. Bam Adebayo also had an exceptional night as he recorded 26 points and collected 15 rebounds. Can't forget about Tyler Herro who got 22 points, six rebounds, and five assists. Other contributors were Duncan Robinson and Kyle Lowry who had 16 and 12 points respectively.
On the Sixers side, Tobias Harris led the team with 27 points and Kelly Oubre Jr. had 25. Mo Bamba also had a fine night backing up Paul Reed as he scored 18 points. However, star Tyrese Maxey struggled all night with 12 points.
Here are three takeaways from the Heat's win on Christmas Day to the Sixers:
A solid first half
It was almost a tale of two halves in the first quarter for the Heat as they started sloppy committing three early turnovers and unable to find good looks at the basket. Sixers would build a 10-point lead, but Miami came roaring back towards the end of the period led by rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. who was efficient with eight points as he made four of his five attempts.
The Sixers became ice cold from the field and especially from the three as when the first quarter ended, they shot 29.6 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from the three-point line. Miami carried a huge 16-0 run from the end of the opening period to the second quarter where Philadelphia was stuck at 22 for around five minutes of game-time.
Heat sustained their lead in the second quarter as they entered halftime with a 14-point lead off of big performances from Herro with 16 points (11 in the second quarter), and Jaquez and Adebayo (seven rebounds) both had 14 points. A surprising statistic was that the Sixers young star in Tyrese Maxey laid a goose egg while missing all of his nine attempts. Instead, Tobias Harris and Mo Bamba led the team in scoring with 14 each.
A tale of two…quarters?
The Heat started the third quarter well as they built up a 21-point lead against the Sixers, but it quickly fell apart. Philadelphia would have a 37-point quarter which propelled them to tying the game up, even having a two-point advantage towards the end of the period.
In total, it was a 33-12 run from the Sixers that made the game tied at 82 with a little over a minute left in the period. The opposing team shot 54.5 percent from deep and 59.1 percent from the field as a whole. Compared to Miami, they shot 25 percent from the three-point line and 40.9 percent from the field. Kelly Oubre Jr., Tobias Harris, and De'Anthony Melton had nine, eight, and seven points respectively.
Going into the fourth quarter, the game was tied at 86 a piece. Once again, the Heat are heading into the final period with another clutch-game situation. Historically, it hasn't been pretty, but against the Atlanta Hawks last Friday, they had arguably their best performance at the end of the game.
The fourth quarter was an absolute dogfight as each team was throwing haymakers and connecting on every single one of them. However, the Sixers couldn't outmatch the Heat physically down the stretch until the game ended which led to Miami dictating their own pace and finding the shots they are most successful at.
How did specific Heat and Sixers players fill in for their stop stars?
The game against the Sixers marks the third straight game that the Heat are without Jimmy Butler due to a left calf strain that was setback from an illness. However, ClutchPoints was told that the Butler's injury is getting better and he could be back for the five-game road trip in the West Coast.
Filling in for Butler in the starting lineup has been Jaquez who was outstanding with 31 points, which is a career-high for the rookie. Funny enough, the comparisons are very much so present between Butler and Jaquez, but it's hard to deny how polished he looks for a first-year player.
You would expect the featured players to be Herro or Adebayo late in a clutch game, but Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra leaned on Jaquez to make plays to give the team an extra boost. There's no doubt he was a key difference maker, especially with how efficient he was making 11 of his 15 attempts. Jaquez joined legendary company, becoming only the fifth rookie to put up at least 30 points and 10 rebounds on Christmas Day per StatMuse.
For the Sixers, it was supposed to be the Tyrese Maxey show without superstar Joel Embiid and it was anything but that. He started the game 0-9 as he could not get anything going from deep or from mid-range in the first half. He would score his first bucket in the second half and finish with 12 points.
With the win, the Heat have won three straight games as they have two more contests before the year of 2023 ends. The win also marks the last home game of 2023 as Miami goes to the West Coast as they take on the Golden State Warriors and Utah Jazz to finish off the year.
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