PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia 76ers are all about Joel Embiid, and even if their star player is not fully fit, he was still crucial in helping the team clinch victory.
On April 17, fuelled by 23 points from the National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player, the Sixers beat the Miami Heat 105-104 at home to book an Eastern Conference first-round play-off clash with the New York Knicks.
The centre, still struggling for peak form after missing two months following knee surgery, stepped it up in the second half for the seventh-seeded Philadelphia, who trailed by as many as 13 points in the third quarter of the play-in clash.
“We stuck together. It just shows you that I don’t play my best, I don’t get to my spots the whole game until the fourth quarter, but we still find a way to win,” Embiid said on ESPN.
Eighth seeds Miami, who emerged from the play-in to reach the NBA Finals last season, can still make the play-offs.
On April 19 they play a must-win game against the ninth-seeded Chicago Bulls, who stampeded the 10th-placed Atlanta Hawks 131-116 to stay alive.
In Philadelphia, Embiid scored 13 points in the second half, drilling a go-ahead three-pointer with 2min 33sec left.
The lead would change hands twice before the 30-year-old found Kelly Oubre Jr in the lane for a basket and a free throw that put Philadelphia ahead for good with 36 seconds remaining.
Sixers reserve Nicolas Batum scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half and came up with a big block on Tyler Herro with 26.2 seconds left, the Sixers draining a series of free throws to seal the win.
Batum made six of the team’s 12 three-pointers, and Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse credited his long-range shooting with helping them break through against the Miami zone defence that frustrated them in the first half.
“He knew we needed some offence, needed to crack that zone with some perimeter shooting,” Nurse said. “He found some areas to get to and he just kept pulling the trigger.”
Teammate Tyrese Maxey called Batum “the star of the night”, but Embiid will be key to the Sixers’ fortunes against the second-seeded Knicks.
Their series starts on April 20 at Madison Square Garden.
“I thought he competed,” Nurse added of Embiid. “He competed late especially.
“I think it’s a good one to get under his belt... with a lot of intensity and a lot of minutes.”
The Heat will be keeping an eye on star Jimmy Butler, who was rocked by a collision under the basket with Oubre, who fell on his right leg late in the first quarter.
Butler stayed in the game and finished with 19 points and five steals, but was limping noticeably by the end.
Herro led the Heat’s scoring with 25 points – 16 in the fourth quarter to help Miami keep the pressure on until the waning seconds.
The Heat will face a Bulls team energised by an emphatic victory over the Hawks.
Coby White scored a career-high 42 points, adding nine rebounds and six assists without a turnover.
Nikola Vucevic added 24 points and 12 rebounds and DeMar DeRozan scored 22 for Chicago, who netted 40 points in the first quarter and never trailed after that.
Dejounte Murray led the Hawks with 30 points in the defeat that ended their play-off hopes.
White, a candidate for Most Improved Player honours after earning a full-time starting spot for the Bulls this season, connected on 15 of 21 shots from the field.
“I’m just so grateful about the progress, that work’s finally showing (and) the opportunity I was given by this organisation,” he said.
“We’ve got another one on Friday, we’ve got to push this play-off run.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra vowed his team would be ready for the Bulls, with a first-round meeting with the top-seeded Boston Celtics on the line.
“We will do this the hard way,” he said. “That has to be the path right now.” AFP
