At the Buzzer | Big Second Half Vaults Sixers into Second Round

“It’s a hard-fought 10-72, by the way”, he said Tuesday night.

The game-changing center who spent one shortened season at Kansas returned to the Sixers’ lineup against Miami with their first-round series tied at 1-1. With the potentially decisive game being played at home-and with newly freed rapper Meek Mill in attendance – the timing couldn’t have been better.

The Spurs seemed to come out with more drive and actual resilience in the wake of the death of Greg Popvitch’s wife in Game 4.

The Sixers weren’t shy about attacking the rim and being aggressive early, but a very early 8-3 advangtage evaporated as Miami took a 15-13 lead midway through the first (with Philly shooting an ugly 4-for-their-first-15). From that 10-72 team, Covington and McConnell are the only players now in the Sixers’ rotation.

“I don’t even want to go there”. The Heat failed to win a game with Embiid on the floor, and a franchise that was the butt of copious jokes as recently as a year ago eliminated one of the league’s most respected organizations, Thursday night.

Kelly Olynyk had 18 points off the bench to lead Miami. But entering the fourth, they led by 14 points, 80-66.

The current question is whether the Philadelphia 76ers are strong enough to go all the way and make it to the NBA Finals, and although the Cleveland Cavaliers are a bit weaker than they were past year, I still believe LeBron James and co. are the frontrunners for the Eastern Conference title. J.J. Redick closed out the scoring with a pair of free throws with 25.8 seconds remaining to make the final score, 104-91.

According to oddsmakers at YouWager, the 76ers are a 10-point favorite on the spread line.

Ben Simmons, with 14 points and 10 boards, manufactured a double-double as well.

“You’re going to make me emotional if we start to think about that or talk about that right now”, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. He had consecutive 20-point games in the postseason for the first time in his career. “We feel like we’re unstoppable”. I think it’s really up to us. “Whether it was getting offensive rebounds, whether it was a miscommunication half-court wise where they were able to get Simmons for the dunk or JJ [Redick] for the shot, we’ve gotta do a better job, and we didn’t”. He is averaging 19.3 points, 10.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists through four games this series.

Philadelphia has won two of its three victories in blowout fashion this series, while the Heat have played competitive basketball in the other two games and even notched a double-digit win on the road. In his playoff debut, the 7-foot-2 all pro was forced to wear a protective mask after breaking a bone in his face during a March 28 game.