3 observations after Harden misses potential game-winner, Sixers fall to Heat originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Sixers fell to a second straight painfully close loss Monday night at Wells Fargo Center.
Down two points on the game’s last possession, Joel Embiid (27 points, 12 rebounds) kicked the ball out to James Harden (20 points, 12 assists). Harden’s open game-winning attempt was just long and the Heat escaped with a 101-99 victory.
Jimmy Butler led Miami with 23 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and four steals.
Dewayne Dedmon was out with left hip soreness against his former team. Miami’s Kyle Lowry sat a ninth straight game because of a left knee injury.
The 39-21 record Sixers will play the Heat again on Wednesday night in the first game of a five-game road trip. Here are observations on another very tight loss:
Déjà vu early on the boards
The Sixers’ chances of a fourth-quarter comeback in Game 6 of their second-round playoff series last year were slim. Still, the team getting badly beaten to several offensive boards is a lasting memory from the Sixers’ final game of 2021-22.
The stakes were much lower Monday, but the Sixers’ first-quarter rebounding performance was similarly poor. Miami grabbed the game’s first nine offensive rebounds, including three by Butler. After a Butler put-back layup and a Herro dunk set up by a vintage, long-range Kevin Love outlet pass, Miami held a 17-13 lead.
Perhaps the Heat got a fortunate bounce or two, but the Sixers lacked urgency and physicality against an opponent that’s not an offensive rebounding juggernaut. Though the Heat came into the game 19th in the NBA in offensive rebounding rate, per Cleaning the Glass, they were regularly quicker than the Sixers to react to misses. It’s generally fine for the Sixers not to do anything risky in terms of crashing the offensive glass so they don’t compromise their transition defense. However, there’s no good reason any team should pick up eight offensive rebounds against them in 12 minutes like Miami did Monday.
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In addition to all those extra possessions, the Heat benefited from a…
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