Miami Heat survive a huge late rally from Philadelphia 76ers; Win 84-78 -NBA Recap
On Friday LeBron James tallied a game high 29 points to help Miami Heat halt a 2 game losing streak after beating Philadelphia 76ers, 84-78.
Miami however did not make it easy on themselves and after leading by as many as 29 points at one point, they allowed the Sixers within 4, before clutch shooting from James saved their blushes. Dwyane Wade, who had a double-double
scoring 12 points to go with 11 boards, was all praise for James;
"That's the luxury of having two guys can do that," Wade said after the game. "He had it going, obviously, and I'm there if he needs me."
Chris Bosh, Mario Chalmers and reserve Udonis Haslem also recorded 10 points each as Miami banked their 32nd victory of the season.
Evan Turner netted 13 points and 8 rebounds for Sixers while Louis Williams collected 12 coming off the bench. Andre Iguodala had a double-double scoring 11 points with 10 rebounds.
Heat entered the game aggressively and paced by James 14 points; they claimed an early 23-8 lead and widened the gap to 31-18 by the end of 1st quarter. They went on dominating the hosts in the 2nd quarter
as well and early into the frame, they had augmented their lead to 40-28.
What followed was a 12-nothing Miami run which ballooned their advantage to 52-28. As the teams headed towards their respective locker rooms Miami had taken a mammoth 57-30 lead.
Sixers came back strongly in the 3rd frame. They netted 26 and retained the visibly complacent Heat to just 12.
The hosts blasted their way with a 10-4 run and trimmed the deficit down to 40-61. Late in the period, Philadelphia had toned down the lead to 65-44 and further slashed the margin with a conclusive 12-4 spurt, making it 69-56.
Udonis Haslem opened the 4th frame with a tip in but Sixers reeled off a 12-2 run in reply and reduced the double digit deficit to 73-68 nearly midway. Going into the last 1:30 of the game, Lou Williams drilled a deuce
and reduced the margin to 80-76, but James answered that with a pull-up jumper and created a breathing space for Heat at 82-76.
With only 28.8 clicks in hand, Williams sent the crowd into frenzy with another running jumper and again reduced the gap to 4 points 82-78, but King James sealed the matter after chipping in a pair from charity stripe, final score
84-78.
Sixers forward Elton Brand was disappointed after losing what was ultimately a hard fought game.
"It's very frustrating to have two different halves in the first half and the second half. It's disappointing that we can't play like that the whole game."
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