MIAMI — Hell Week turned into a helluva week for the Miami Heat, with victories over three leading Eastern Conference contenders.
The week was capped by Saturday night’s 99-82 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at FTX Arena.
Granted the 76ers lacked James Harden, who was given the second night of Philadelphia’s back-to-back set off, but the Heat also continued in the absence of Kyle Lowry, who remained away for family reasons.
So even with the botched fourth-quarter lead in Wednesday's road loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, there still was Monday’s home victory over the Chicago Bulls, Thursday’s road victory over the Brooklyn Nets and Saturday’s showing.
“If we could have won that Milwaukee game, I would have given us a better grade,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “But these last four were good for us.”
So three wins and a one-point loss in a week against DeMar DeRozan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid.
Not that any of it was easy, including this one, with Embiid going for 22 points and 15 rebounds.
But the Heat again showed multiple answers.
This time there were 21 points apiece from Jimmy Butler and Herro, 16 from Gabe Vincent, 14 from Caleb Martin, as well as enough timely 3-pointers to compensate for the 76ers’ edge on the offensive glass.
Five Degrees of Heat from Saturday’s game:
— 1. Closing time: The Heat went up 20 in the first half and led 54-40 at halftime.
The 76ers then got in the bonus early in the third quarter and moved within 73-68 going into the fourth.
From there, a 5-0 Herro run helped push the Heat to an 82-74 lead. Later, a pair of Martin steals and as Max Strus 3-pointer with 3:06 left extended the Heat advantage to 92-80.
Behind an emerging zone defense and energy of Martin, the Heat put it away from there.
— 2. Butler back: After shooting 2 of 14 in Wednesday night’s road loss to the Milwaukee Bucks and then being held out of Thursday’s road win over the Brooklyn Nets with what was listed as a sore toe, Butler returned refreshed.
He opened by converting a 3-pointer on his first shot attempt and went on to score 10 in the first period, four more than he scored in Milwaukee.
Butler opened 4 of 5 from the field and 5 of 6 from the line, with 14 points at the intermission.
— 3. Still going: Herro continued his solid play since the All-Star break, this time up to 13 points by halftime, all in the second quarter, when he was 5 of 6 from the field, again playing as Heat sixth man.
Herro became the first Heat player to score at least 20 points off the bench in six consecutive games.
— 4. Doubling up: With Harden out, the Heat were not shy early about bringing double-teams against Embiid.
At one point in the first quarter, in fact, the Heat brought a triple-team. That sequence resulted in a Furkan Korkmaz air-balled 3-point attempt.
Embiid was 2 of 10 from the field in the first half, including a jumper blocked back into his hands by Heat backup center Dewayne Dedmon.
But what the Heat weren’t able to stop was Embiid’s parade to the foul line, hardly helping themselves when they got into the penalty with 9:28 left in the third period. He closed 14 of 14 from the line.
— 5. Home run: The game opened a seven-game homestand and a stretch of 11 of 12 at home, the most home games the Heat have had over such a span in the franchise’s 34 seasons.
The lone road game over that span is March 21 in Philadelphia, which could present the lone regular-season opportunity to face the Harden-Embiid tandem.
“I think that’s too much to look that far ahead,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the 12-game run. “We know where our schedule has been like to get to this point. So we’ve earned this opportunity to have home games and be here for a little bit of time. But we have to continue to stay on edge.”
