Despite roster changes amid NBA trade deadline, the Sixers still have an important area to address
The Miami Heat revealed Wednesday night that they have the culture to tune out distractions and win games. The Sixers will need to do the same, no matter what the roster looks like.
No matter what the Sixers’ roster looks like following Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, Wednesday night’s 108-101 loss to the Miami Heat — a team embroiled in a weeks-long standoff with its now-former star — may have revealed an important area the Sixers need to improve upon after the forthcoming NBA All-Star break: A culture of resilience.
In his 17th season at the helm, Miami coach Erik Spoelstra’s much ballyhooed “Heat culture” was on full display at the Wells Fargo Center.
Near halftime, news leaked that Miami was finalizing a trade involving Jimmy Butler, whom the Heat had suspended three times in the last six weeks for “a continued pattern of disregard of team rules, engaging in conduct detrimental to the team and intentionally withholding services.”
The potential multi-team deal, according to ESPN, would move Butler, a former Sixer, to the Golden State Warriors with Andrew Wiggins, P.J. Tucker (from the Jazz), Kyle Anderson and a protected first-round pick heading to Miami.
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On the court, though, the Heat appeared unfazed, extending a 5-point edge at intermission to 12 in the third quarter.
“The way I look at it is that every team is going to be dealing with something during the course of a long, 82-game season,” Spoelstra said postgame. “You can make excuses, you can get distracted, you can do a lot of different things to take your mind off the task at hand. I really commend our group for staying the course and coming in every day trying to get better. We’re trying to figure things out and I think we’re getting a little bit more role clarity. … I enjoy the spirit of this group. And you develop some grit when you go through all this kind of stuff.”
Both teams looked weary and wasteful during stretches of putrid shooting and even worse shot selection. Both also were playing the second of back-to-back games.
Miami had lost in Chicago Tuesday, while the Sixers beat the short-staffed, visiting Dallas Mavericks following the trade of Luka Dončić.
Wednesday night, though, the Heat seemed the more resilient bunch, overcoming 22 turnovers and a stretch of cold shooting in the fourth quarter. The victory kept Miami above .500 and No. 6 in the Eastern Conference.
Heat guard Tyler Herro scored a team-high 30 points and added 7 rebounds and 7 assists. He also sealed the deal with a critical, 17-foot jumper that netted a 102-96 edge with 1:44 left when Miami had hit just 2 of its 11 previous shots.
“Just trying to keep the main thing, the main thing,” Herro said in the locker room postgame. “We had a task at hand tonight and that was to get the W.”
Meanwhile, the Sixers seemingly succumbed to fatigue, offensively and defensively.
Tyrese Maxey scored a game-high 31 points, his seventh 30-plus point performance in a row. The Sixers star, though, shot just 11 for 28 from the field. That inefficiency may have been a consequence of how hard and how often Maxey had to work to get shots, not simply an indication of a poor shooting night.
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“We missed some good looks,” Maxey said. “I think for me, honestly, I was a little tired. I’m not going to lie. But that’s how it goes. We still got looks to win the game. You know what I mean? We were still in the game. And that’s all you can ask for.”
As a team, the Sixers, once again without Joel Embiid, shot just 37 of 96 overall with 12 of 40 coming from the three-point line.
Embiid’s triple-double Tuesday night helped secure the win against the Mavericks. Nick Nurse said he expects the former MVP to be ready at Detroit on Friday.
Wednesday’s loss amid such poor shooting numbers could easily be chalked up to a cold February night without your star center during the second of a back-to-back stretch of games.
As has often been the case this season, though, the Sixers effort defensively seemed to wax and wane with offensive output, a problem Nurse has acknowledged previously.
Nurse was, however, pleased with his defense’s ability to force turnovers.
“Listen, it’s pretty disappointing when the defense is that good, right, to not have it translate into something,” he said.
Still, the Sixers, whose roster is rumored to be coveted by teams perhaps in better position to contend for a title, too often were unable to complete a defensive possession with a rebound.
Miami finished with 13 offensive boards, including eight by Bam Adebayo, whose efforts created several second-chance opportunities in the fourth quarter.
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Adebayo also underscored Miami’s poise when things didn’t go as planned. The Heat center hit a 16-foot dagger after the ball was knocked from his hands in the final minute when the Sixers had gotten within four points.
“For us, it’s just getting guys to understand that, you know, this is an everyday grind,” Adebayo said. “It’s not, you take the game off [or] you’re there by body but not [mentally]. So for us, it’s just honing in and just really getting guys to understand that every time you step in our court, we got to be mentally and physically ready.”