Sixers fall to Miami Heat in final regular-season home game, playoff matchup uncertain

When asked during Thursday’s pregame media availability about facing either the Brooklyn Nets or the Miami Heat in the playoffs’ first round, 76ers coach Doc Rivers responded with, “We don’t care one way or the other.”

The Sixers, who have already clinched the Eastern Conference’s third seed, whiffed on an opportunity to lock in a matchup against the Nets with the bulk of their roster available. The Heat blasted the Sixers, 129-101, at the Wells Fargo Center in their regular-season home finale, extending their postseason uncertainty for at least one more day.

“We didn’t come to play tonight,” Rivers said after the game. “We didn’t have great energy. [It was a] very difficult game to have energy, honestly. It was an exercise tonight. ... Clearly you knew they were going to come with everything they had.

“This was a tough game. A tough game for me, even, before [tipoff]. Really struggled with playing guys at all [given the Sixers’ seed is locked in]. I really did.”

Brooklyn, to be fair, remains the Sixers’ most likely initial postseason opponent. Any Nets win or Heat loss over the next three days would cement Brooklyn into that sixth spot. The Nets (44-36) host the Orlando Magic on Friday, before taking on the (surely-ready-to-manipulate) Sixers (52-28) in Sunday afternoon’s regular-season finale. The Heat finish with a visit to Washington Friday, before hosting the Magic Sunday.

Yet a win Thursday would have finalized a Sixers-Nets showdown with two games remaining. The Heat (43-37), however, played like a team vying to stay out of the play-in tournament for the conference’s Nos. 7 through 10 seeds.

Miami built a 25-point first-half advantage, when Max Strus buried a corner three-pointer in the second quarter’s final minute and ignited some boos to circulate on a disappointing Fan Appreciation Night. The Heat shot 18-of-39 from three-point range and 55.7% overall, and converted 17 Sixers turnovers into 28 points.

The Sixers briefly threatened when a Georges Niang three-pointer cut Miami’s lead to 87-74 late in the third quarter. But Strus answered with deep shots on back-to-back possessions, and Lowry followed with his own three-pointer to push his team’s lead back to 96-78. With four starters already on the bench to begin the fourth quarter, Rivers pulled James Harden about two minutes in and let the reserves to finish out the game.

“Tonight was difficult, man,” Harden said. “We’ve still got to build good habits, work on our detail, things like that. There’s a little bit of frustration in the sense that we didn’t come out with the sense of urgency or the preparation or whatever you want to call it that we needed to come out with. But it is what it is.”

Former Sixer Jimmy Butler finished with 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting and six assists. Tyler Herro added 24 points on 5-of-8 from three-point range, four rebounds and five assists.

The Sixers play the second leg of their final back-to-back set of the regular season Friday at the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks are also fighting for positioning in the play-in tournament, entering Friday in eighth place in the East standings and one game ahead of the Toronto Raptors.

Rivers alluded that, after dynamic guard Tyrese Maxey did not play Thursday because of neck stiffness, more rotation players are likely to sit over the final two games. He referenced the G League’s Delaware Blue Coats’ lead (then victory) in Game 2 of the best-of-three Finals as “really important,” because clinching a championship without needing to go to a Game 3 meant players such as Jaden Springer, Mac McClung, and Louis King would be available to play Sunday in Brooklyn.

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Embiid followed Tuesday’s 52-point outburst in a victory over the Boston Celtics — a performance that prompted Rivers to declare the MVP race was “over” — with 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting and six rebounds in 30 minutes against the Heat.

Twelve of those points came in the first quarter, when Embiid made five of his first seven shots. He regularly hit the deck before the break including when he spun and banged into Kevin Love but still forced in the layup through contact.

Harden, meanwhile, struggled from the floor on a night the Sixers’ offense regularly went deep into the shot clock. He finished with 14 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Harden missed his first five shots, before hitting a spinning jumper midway through the second quarter. He went 3-of-10 from the floor in the first half, before hitting two three-pointers early in the third to help spark the Sixers’ brief run. Since returning from a four-game absence to nurse Achilles soreness, Harden is shooting 43.9% from the floor (29-of-66).

“I put the work in,” Harden said. “I’m going to keep shooting.”

Harden said after the game that the Achilles “feels good.” Rivers added he is not concerned about the injury, given the weeklong break between the end of the regular season and start of the playoffs on April 15 or 16.

Without Maxey, De’Anthony Melton returned to the starting lineup but left in the third quarter with the mild calf tightness that caused him to be listed as questionable entering the game. Rivers characterized the injury as “nothing serious” after the game.

Shake Milton, meanwhile, was arguably the Sixers’ most effective backcourt player, totaling 10 assists and 11 points.

Their most dangerous initial scoring threat off the bench was Jalen McDaniels, who was the first to enter the game and finished with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Rivers said he played McDaniels 25 minutes to give him more game experience, after joining the Sixers at the mid-February trade deadline and missing four games with a hip bruise.

Danuel House Jr. (four points, three rebounds), who has earned more playing time in recent weeks, also entered the game before Niang (seven points on 1-of-4 from three-point range). Furkan Korkmaz and Montrezl Harrell also got minutes in the second half, after the Sixers had pulled their starters.

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