Johnson, 30, also dished out five assists, grabbed a steal and blocked one shot in 36 minutes as a starter at American Airlines Arena.
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Philadelphia: It shot 7-of-31 on 3-pointers and had 26 turnovers (the Heat had 19).
The Sixers, who have not won a playoff series since 2012, will attempt to parlay a rambunctious home crowd into an early lead, increasing Miami’s already hard burden of climbing out of that muddy 1-3 hole. I don’t want to lay this much chalk and probably wouldn’t bet it, but the 76ers should cruise in this game come second half.
Rajon Rondo added 16 assists, and Davis also had 11 rebounds and three blocks for New Orleans, which is moving on to the second round of the playoffs for only the second time since the National Basketball Association returned to the city 16 seasons ago.
Certainly, the Heat will try to corral Embiid, but Miami gave its own star center, Hassan Whiteside, just 13 minutes on Thursday, in part because of foul trouble. And with Embiid showing range out to the 3-point line to drag out both Embiid and Kelly Olynyk from the paint, weak-side rebounding will continue to be a problem on the defensive end. The Sixers scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to tie the game at 83, which forced Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra to call a timeout. In what should be a raucous atmosphere in Philadelphia, the Heat have to make sure they aren’t run off the floor before Wade even gets off the bench. “I think we have more room for growth”.
On the season, the 76ers are averaging 109.8 points, 47.4 rebounds and 27.1 assists per game. The Miami Heat have lost 13 of their last 16 road games.
In 2012, he watched LeBron James score 45 points and pick up 15 rebounds in a Game 6 win at Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Ben Simmons, the 76ers’ star point guard, almost had a triple-double with 19 points, a game-high 12 rebounds and seven assists.
But just because Embiid and Simmons have made a semi-habit of being at their best when the Sixers have needed them the most doesn’t mean their efforts should be taken for granted.
Joel Embiid has only played in two games, but his presence has changed the series already. “We just have to go out there and play our best game and bring the series back home”.
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“This is a very good team”, he said. They scored 19 points in Game 4 and 14 points in Game 3. Johnson took offense to the foul and shoved Covington near the basket in the second quarter of Philadelphia’s 106-102 win over Miami. Then late with the game on the line Miami had a couple of bad defensive breakdowns, one allowing Simmons a clear path to the basket without help rotations that led to a dunk, and the other was Hassan Whiteside not going out to challenge J.J.
