The Sixers started off fast, keeping up with the Heat, but then faltered late as the fatigue from the back-to-back games caught up. Philadelphia fell at the Southwest Airlines Arenas to Miami, 119-108 on Monday night.
Both teams were scoring early and often, jumping off to a high-scoring affair. The teams were playing very loose defensively, and gave jump shooters plenty of space, and the result was a barrage of first-half threes, including eight from the Sixers.
For the game, the team finished over 40% for only the tenth time all season. It was the second straight game their shooting has picked up, coinciding with the arrival of Isaiah Canaan. Playing his second game with his new squad, Canaan shot 3 for 7 from three. Though it ended up only counting as a two, he drilled this amazing circus-type shot:
Another positive of a Canaan-run point position was the Sixers’ ball distribution. Having more viable shooters certainly helps, as the Sixers dished out 27 assists to only 12 turnovers, a big step up from their season average of 1.1 ratio.
The story from this game though was the Sixers on the defensive end. They failed to keep up with the Heat’s open shooters, namely Luol Deng. The veteran torched them for 29 points on 11-14 shooting. Also shining for the Heat was their newly acquired point guard, Goran Dragic, who contributed 23 points.
Hollis Thompson led the Sixers with 22 points off the bench. Nerlens Noel turned in another solid game, posting 18 points, his most in over two months. He came very close to a few and-1 opportunities, but the ball would rim out. Instead, he did a lot of his damage at the free throw line, hitting 8 of 10.
The Sixers will get a day off before traveling to Milwaukee for a Wednesday night tilt. New Buck Michael Carter-Williams announced he will make his team debut in that game and face a group of players he called teammates just a week ago.
