The short, two-game road trip concluded fruitlessly for the Heat in Philadelphia. They got torn up in the open court and refused to guard the arc.

 

Coach Erik Spoelstra estimated that his team hit the deck six or seven times in the second half in the pursuit of loose balls after hardly any of that before intermission. “They ran us out of the gym in the first half… we got back into it, took a lead, and then it became [a] possession game from there. They made some plays down the stretch where we couldn’t.”

 

The first quarter was the Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey show as the former swarmed the lane and the latter drained five 3-pointers, taking the lead from Allen Iverson for most in franchise history. Yet the Heat were somehow down one by nearly matching them in baskets. 

 

The Heat subsequently couldn’t keep up with Philadelphia’s speed, force, deep shooting plus rebounding while they raised their turnover count to 10. Bam Adebayo did everything he could with a double-double (16 points & 10 rebounds) to carry them, but they went to halftime down 16 points with only an edge in bench scoring.  

 

Then a 3-point eruption from Adebayo and Tyler Herro dragged them back, and they briefly took the lead. Yet the 76ers countered with a late run that included two treys against the Heat’s weak coverage. 

 

The Heat’s deep shooting stayed hot in the fourth quarter, and the pendulum momentarily swung back to their side as Herro curled behind a flare screen to get inside for a floater, and then hit a step-back triple at the top of the key. But the 76ers responded with eight-straight points in crunch time, which included two corner 3-pointers.

 

The Heat lost 124-117, and conceded 17 3-pointers. 

 

“The beat is at our game,” Spoelstra said. “That speed game, 27 in transition. That’s what we do.”

 

 

Takeaways:

 

• It will always sting the latter extra whenever Maxey, who they passed on for Precious Achiuwa at 20th, abuses them and makes it look easy like a pro fighter on the speed bag. He had a season high in first-quarter scoring (20) and finished with 28. On top of that, it was a back breaker that Cam Payne had two second-half 3-pointers, and V.J. Edgecombe nailed multiple pull-up jumpers in the fourth.

 

• The Heat flashed a zone late in the third and in the fourth. It wasn’t perfect, but it got some key stops. They let go of the rope when they unnecessarily helped off the left corner, giving up two huge late baskets.

 

• Aside from getting burned on the break, the Heat also suffered 20 second-chance points and 21 points off turnovers. The second quarter was their sloppiest spurt, getting outscored by 15 and being unable to defend without fouling as Philly took 10 freebies, making nine.

 

• Even 70% of Embiid is dangerous. He has a rare combination of size, power, and agility that the Heat has few answers for. It’s a surprise when his jumper doesn’t fall at mid-range. He even briefly went to the locker room to get checked out after inadvertently catching a knee midway through the second quarter, and slowed down in the second half. 

 

• Nights like this highlight how much of a guppy Kasparas Jakičionis is because it looked like he was in the right spot, but Maxey didn’t see him.

 

• Norman Powell didn’t return because of a right growing strain in the second quarter. Spoelstra said he would be reevaluated when they get back to Miami.

 

• The 76ers came into the game as the sixth seed. The Heat’s loss dropped them to 2.5 games out of that position, which is the last spot that bypasses the Play-In Tournament. Additionally, the Heat and 76ers are 1-1 in the season series, and the final matchup between them is on March 30 in Miami.

Both of the Magic City’s women’s college basketball teams notched impressive wins at home this past weekend, putting them in a better position with their respective conference tournaments on the horizon.

The Miami Hurricanes defeated the California Golden Bears 69-60 on Sunday behind Ra Shaya Kyle’s 16 points and 14 rebounds. Gal Raviv scored 13 points, Vittoria Blasigh added 12 points, and Ahmad Adams chipped in 10 points.

The Hurricanes were efficient from the three-point line (7-of-10) while defending the Bears to an 8-of-33 clip from behind the arc.

Much like Jai Lucas in his first year, Tricia Cullop shuffled the roster through the transfer portal entering her second season.

Kyle, a graduate student who transferred to Miami after three seasons in Florida and two in Purdue, is enjoying a career year with the Canes, averaging 16 points and 10.1 rebounds per game entering Sunday.

Raviv transferred to Miami after averaging 17.9 points per game at Quinnipiac. In a tougher conference, she is still contributing with 13.5 points and 4 assists per game. Amarachi Kimpson was coming off a 14.5 PPG season at UNLV before coming to Miami, where she is averaging 12 PPG.

Blasigh was a starter for two years at South Florida before becoming a key role player off the bench in Miami. Her 12 points off the bench were her highest since Feb. 5 against Virginia. She also averaged 12.3 points per game during an eight-game stretch from Dec. 3 to Jan. 15.

With three straight wins to rebound from a four-game skid, the Hurricanes have the opportunity to finish with a 9-9 conference record with favorable matchups against Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech. The ACC is currently projected by Bracketology to send nine teams to March Madness. It just so happens that nine teams in the ACC have 10 conference wins.

The Hurricanes missed their chance to have 10 wins when they lost to their rivals on the road. Ending the regular season on a five-game winning streak and notching a couple of wins in the conference tournament may give Miami a chance to crash the party.

Can FIU take C-USA?

Record-wise at 17-9, Florida International is the best women’s basketball team in South Florida.

The Panthers concluded the home slate of their schedule with a 66-45 win over Liberty to improve to 10-5 in conference play, which is good for second place in C-USA behind Louisiana Tech (21-5, 14-1). The friendly confines have been kind to the Panthers, who went 12-4 at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center.

The Panthers are led by Rhema Collins, who went from a bench player from Ole Miss to a full-time starter averaging 18 points and nine rebounds, and two steals per game. She turned in a 16-point-10 rebound double-double against Liberty after two straight games of 20+ points.

Parris Atkins is averaging 17 points per game in her second season at FIU. She scored 25 points with 3-of-5 clip from the three-point line against Liberty on Sunday after dropping a 17-point-10 rebound double-double against Delaware on Thursday before.

The Panthers are 5-5 on the road and will finish the regular season with three straight road games, at Missouri State, Middle Tennessee, and Western Kentucky. Louisiana Tech may be the only team in C-USA that could potentially make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid should they not win the conference tournament.

FIU will have to win the C-USA Tournament if the Panthers are going to have a shot at making their first March Madness appearance since 2002.

 

The Heat boat-raced the depleted Grizzlies in Miami on the second night of a back-to-back. They scored easily on the break, absorbed rebounds and got steady scoring from the veterans.  

 

Coach Erik Spoelstra called it one of the most mature post-up games Bam Adebayo has played, and also said that the team would have held the Grizzlies to 110 points if not for the last minute and a half. 

 

The team kept getting to the line, Andrew Wiggins was getting anything he wanted on cuts and catch-and-shoot jumpers. Additionally, Tyler Herro and Norman Powell took turns ripping up the schemes en route to a 73-point first half. Yet their defense was compromised, allowing Jaylen Wells and GG Jackson to have one of their best nights of the season, combining for 13 field goals.

 

The Heat subsequently continued to overwhelm the lane with nine baskets, while the Grizzlies’ 3-point shooting and hustle kept them briefly within striking distance. 

 

The former eventually took an 18-point edge into the fourth quarter. They went cold for a stretch, but the Grizzlies could never take the game by the throat. 

 

The Heat won 136-120, and it was their eighth-highest scoring game of the season. Wiggins said in the locker room that, “When we are [a] full squad, everyone healthy, we’re very hard to deal with.” 

 

The only absence was Davion Mitchell’s.

 

Takeaways:

• The Grizzlies put up a valiant effort, but they didn’t have enough firepower outside of GG Jackson and Ty Jerome to hang for long stretches. To boot, the third quarter was the most significant part of the game since five Heatles had multiple baskets, outscoring them by 13 points. That included nine digits from Kasparas Jakučionis, who scored on a backdoor cut, a corner trey, a fastbreak layup and freebies. 

 

• The Heat’s offense was rolling, scoring 127.1 points per 100 possessions, good enough for the 88th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. On top of that, it was their second-straight game scoring at least 70 in the paint, which has only happened once early in the year between Nov. 7 and 8. And Wiggins scored 28 points on 90% shooting. 

 

• Myron “mayhem” Gardner got into a slight dust-up at the end of the game with Scotty Pippen Jr. after the former set a hard screen. The latter didn’t like it, came all the way down court and shoved Gardner while the Heat were up 21 points with fewer than two minutes left. It spilled into the stands and both were ejected.

 

• This was the 12th time the Heat have scored at least 70 points in the first half and remain undefeated in those games.

 

 

• Herro, Powell and Wiggins scored between 14 and 19 points in the first half and neither shot below 62.5%, leaving the Grizzlies with more holes than Swiss cheese. Then Herro cooled off, but the other two carried the team in the second half, combining for 18 points on 64% shooting. 

 

 

• Wiggins’ scoring pushed him past 15,000 regular-season points (15,007). Consider how the only other players in team history who scored at least 28 points on 90% shooting are LeBron James (31), Shaquille O’Neal (31), Hassan Whiteside (31) and Alonzo Mourning twice (43 & 29). Additionally, there are 26 NBA players with more career points than Wiggins. 

 

 

Everyone in the NBA owes a debt of gratitude to the old timers who treated the All-Star Game like it mattered. It would have been harder for the NBA to sell its product to TV partners if it were a joke, so the disrespect to the game that had gone on for way too long hopefully came to an end after Kawhi Leonard’s epic performance, Victor Wembanyama breaking the ice and Anthony Edwards’ MVP showing. 

 

Sure, there were few like Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić who didn’t go as hard. They are presumably happy for their teammates, but who knows what they must’ve felt watching themselves get upstaged like that. Shame on them for the low RPMs.

 

The standard has been set for next season, yet there’s one wrinkle: many players before the game said they wanted to go back to an East v. West format, yet the current one works. The NBA should side with what the fans want.

 

The first good omen was the NBA’s signature theme song, performed by its composer, John Tesh, at midcourt. But there was abysmal transition defense early, then the intensity meter elevated and peaked in Game 3 (Stars v. World*) as Leonard dazzled with 31 digits on 84.6 percent accuracy. 

 

When they go hard like that, it’s worthy of Oscar Robertson and Julius Erving’s time. Fingers crossed the next hosting stars give it everything like Leonard did, and the younger stable treats the fans better than the last generation did.

 

The one part of the weekend the big-timers are lacking is the dunk contest for fear of their peers embarrassing them on an island. It’s reminiscent of boxing champions holding belts hostage by refusing to fight the best contenders in their division. 

 

Credit to the background players who prepare for it and use it as an opportunity to elevate their status. It was special to see the pride and joy on Keshad Johnson’s face as he walked into the press room carrying his trophy. Still, the lack of star power there is eternally disappointing.

 

Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins having memorable showdowns helped grow the game, too. There was a time when people would look forward to this, and now it’s dreaded. The last great one was Aaron Gordon against Zach LaVine in 2016. The last All-Star who competed in the dunk contest and the exhibition on the same weekend was Jaylen Brown in 2024, and before that, it was DeAndre Jordan in 2017.

 

From now on, the league should forget starting at 5PM ET, and Kevin Durant should get his eyes checked. How is it possible for Durant to be such a lethal marksman, yet not know what he’s seeing when watching All-Star games in which the men wore high shorts? Lots of people will thoughtlessly believe him after he said he didn’t see vigor. 

 

The 1992 game was a 43-point blowout, but the other ones of the decade were decided by an average of 13 points. Plenty of competitive games end in double-figure margins, and they weren’t BSing. No one’s saying it had playoff intensity, but they were real games.  Keep in mind that one 1990 had 17 blocks, in 1995 there were 21 and last year’s had one. The 1993 game was decided by three points in overtime, and both squads combined for 28 steals. 

 

Every era is special, and no one should stand for a warped re-telling of NBA history. 

 

The Heat blew it at home against the notorious tankers, who rested their two best players in the fourth quarter. They even had to go to their rookie, who was one of their top two offensive players, but he missed the go-ahead shot in the corner.

 

The Jazz refused to guard the 3-point line, probably knowing that the Heat would slow down eventually. Their massive, three-big lineup recovering 15 offensive rebounds and suppressing the inside action kept them on the Heat’s heels. 

 

The hosts went to intermission down nine points, and Bam Adebayo did most of the heavy lifting to drag them out of the hole. They also got some help because Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen started the fourth quarter on the bench and never checked in for the final stretch. Yet they failed to do the rest, and Brice Sensabaugh dropped Jaime Jaquez Jr. and hit a pull-up triple to take the lead with 47 seconds left. 

 

The Heat lost 115-111. This was their 13th loss decided by five points or fewer (7-6). 

 

Takeaways:

 

• The Utah Jazz will have to send their pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls outside of the top eight in the lottery, so they didn’t want to win this game. That same team, which has had one of the worst defenses in the league, held Miami to 93.4 points per 100 possessions in the half-court, good enough for the 38th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass.

 

• Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins carried the Heat in the fourth quarter, combining for seven baskets at short and long range. Yet, they missed five free throws in the period, and Jaquez blanked the other two. 

 

• Kasparas Jakučionis has been scoring from deep over the last couple of games, hitting 75% of attempts. 

 

• Jaren Jackson Jr. probably hasn’t unpacked all of his bags since getting traded to Utah on Feb. 3. He shot poorly, but made seven baskets in the paint and behind the arc. Coach Will Hardy was asked if he was close to winning him and Markkanen into the fourth quarter, and he said he wasn’t. 

 

• Rookie Ace Bailey lit up Miami’s interior for a dozen points, which included two lobs.  He was the best player in the fourth quarter, slashing into the lane, making four baskets.

 

• Kel’el Ware fouled out in 14 minutes in one of his worst showings of the season.

• Despite the Jazz only scoring nine second-chance points, they still did damage by taking away precious possessions from the Heat. Their most effective rebounders were Jusuf Nurkić (16) and Kyle Filipowski (11).