Yet Philadelphia clawed back from its early deficit to take a 72-69 lead with 5:20 left in the third, before the Heat closed the quarter on a 15-5 run, spearheaded by five points from Wade and a timely three from Josh Richardson. Fifteen of Booker’s points came in the fourth quarter.
Advertisement
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetDSI, the Heat are 9.5-point road favorites versus the Sixers for tonight’s game while the over/under is sitting at 205 points.
“It’s been impressive”, Wade said. I like to have fun with it. Those are the games I live for.
That was the final day of last season, when the only priority was protecting their draft position, a night they played Henry Walker, Michael Beasley, James Ennis and Tyler Johnson all 48 minutes and Zoran Dragic 40 and still found a way to win.
Mirza Teletovic scored 11 points while Archie Goodwin and P.J.
Booker’s continued development is one of the lone bright spots remaining in a chaotic Suns’ season that has included coach Jeff Hornacek’s midseason firing, major injuries to catalysts Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight, internal conflicts among players and 30 losses in the past 33 games.
“We all know that our main guys are out”, Phoenix interim coach Earl Watson said. “That’s not even a secret, but we make no excuses”.
So against a team with nothing to lose, the Heat made sure they took care of the only thing that mattered… not losing.
Dwyane Wade had 25 points and Goran Dragic added 22 in Thursday’s 108-92 home win over Phoenix that gave them a two-game lead on the Hawks.
“You have to credit Phoenix”, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. In recent seasons, Wade has shared his experiences with several of the league’s promising young players when they pass through Miami. “But we were able to respond there and get some stops”. Wade had a big transition dunk and three-point play during that time.
After a missed shot from the Suns, Amar’e Stoudemire pulled down a rebound and looked to hit an outlet to Luol Deng.
Philadelphia 76ers’ Jerami Grant goes up for a shot during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat, Friday, March 4, 2016, in Philadelphia.
“There was a lot of uncertainty with what our team’s dealt with this year”, Wade said. You really want all five guys on the floor to be paying attention at all times, so having two guys both completely unaware of what’s going is a really bad look.
Suns: The other 17-game road losing streak in team history came in early 1974…. Booker has scored 18 or more points 11 times.
Miami will host the 76ers on Sunday night.
This was the second game of the three-game season series and the Heat’s lone visit of the season to Philadelphia. Whiteside became the second Heat player with consecutive 200-block seasons, joining Alonzo Mourning….
Advertisement
Miami is coming off of a dominant 129-111 win over the Chicago bulls on Tuesday; the team shot 67.5%, the best mark a team has shot since 2010, which is a franchise record.
