76ers Beat Heat: Philadelphia Saves Season With NBA Play-In Tournament Win

Well, that certainly wasn't easy.

The Philadelphia 76ers are officially in the playoff bracket, but not without a heart-attack-inducing night of sheer misery against the Miami Heat.

The Sixers won the game 105-104 and will be the No. 7 seed, opening the playoff proper Saturday evening in New York against the Knicks.

Officially, a 76ers loss would not have ended their season. Philadelphia would've gotten another home game Friday night against the sub-.500 Hawks or Bulls and likely snuck in the back door.

Unofficially, a loss tonight was probably the end of Philadelphia's season. Joel Embiid looked incredibly labored, clearly winded and asking out of the game repeatedly. He's not all the way back from that knee injury or anywhere close, and an extra elimination game Friday night was the last thing this team needed — especially since even winning there would've sent the Sixers to Boston for Game 1 about 39 hours later.

The way Philadelphia played Wednesday, Game 1 in Boston would have been dead on arrival with Embiid on short rest, and it's pretty clear this team would not have been ready for that Celtics challenge, not yet. Embiid will have to play his way back into shape, and the team will hope to find some chemistry along the way.

Instead, the Sixers get two days off before a Game 1 against the Knicks, and they'll get two days off between Games 2 and 3, then two more before Game 4. It's a schedule tailor-made for Embiid, and the 76ers open as favorites (-115), even as the lower seed.

It won't be easy against a nasty Knicks defense that will push Philadelphia physically just like Miami did, but it's unquestionably a better matchup than Boston and thus the far better half of the bracket.

Philadelphia's season was on life support if it lost Wednesday night. Now it has a pulse.

So how did we get here?

The Sixers looked in control early, up 9-2 midway through the first quarter, but the team settled into cruise control and got sloppy from there.

Philadelphia turned it over 16 times, many of them live-ball turnovers that acted as pick-6s going the other way for easy Heat buckets. Time and again, the Sixers simply threw the ball away, giving up possession and digging a bigger and bigger hole.

The Heat fought back to lead by the end of the quarter, but then the Sixers got another lifeline.

Jimmy Butler fell to the ground writhing in pain with a second to go in the quarter, and he looked uncomfortable the rest of the game, especially after halftime. (Speaking of seasons on the brink, remember it's Miami that now has to play Friday night with an injured star and a quick turnaround to Boston.)

But Miami has proven to be a mighty cockroach in recent postseasons, and the Zombie Heat simply would not go away.

Butler couldn't get to the basket on a bum leg, so he hit two 3s instead. Kevin Love, Delon Wright and rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. each hit a pair of 3s. That trio and Haywood Highsmith tallied 40 points, 19 rebounds, seven assists and seven steals off the bench. The Heat went on multiple runs and led by 12 at the half.

Philadelphia looked wholly unprepared for a game of this magnitude.

The Heat threw a cornucopia of zone defenses at Philadelphia, and the Sixers looked baffled and confused. They struggled to get the ball to Embiid, struggled to create clean looks and struggled to get to the line. Philly had an ugly 39 points at the break, and the salty fans booed the team off the court into the locker room.

Kyle Lowry looked energetic early but tired quickly and looked his age, and it's notable that the point guard had no answers against a defense he played against in practice the first half of the season. Tobias Harris was mostly invisible, like usual. Buddy Hield looked afraid of the moment. Tyrese Maxey struggled to break the zone and turned it over.

And then there was Embiid.

Embiid finished with 23 points, 15 rebounds and five assists but did not look anything like the MVP favorite Sixers fans saw early this season. No, he looked like a guy playing through a knee injury after a couple months without cardio, hands on knees wheezing, even at the end of warmups before the game had started.

Embiid couldn't establish position, couldn't find a spot to demand the ball. He struggled putting the ball on the court and attacking the Heat defense. He didn't make much impact defensively, tired out in transition and unable to hang with Miami's bigs stretching him out to the 3-point arc.

There is no Philadelphia playoff run without something approaching MVP-ball from Embiid, but this looked too similar to another Embiid fans have gotten all too familiar with in recent years — Playoff Embiid.

For some stars like Nikola Jokić and Kawhi Leonard, the "Playoff" version is a compliment. For Embiid, it's anything but, just another reminder of how many times the big man has come up small when it matters most. That's the Embiid we saw much of the game Wednesday night, an over-emotional Embiid begging for calls, celebrating a bit too relieved after any made shot, struggling to put his imprint on the game.

And yet, in the end, it was in fact a Frenchman that saved Philly's season — just not Embiid.

Nicolas Batum was spectacular for the Sixers, scoring 20 off the bench with six 3s and adding a key block late. He saved the game again and again for Philly down the stretch, with the help of some energy plays from Kelly Oubre Jr. and just enough from Embiid.

Philadelphia fought back with a 30-23 third quarter, then took the lead midway through the fourth, but the Heat simply would not go away.

Every time Philly took a lead and the crowd exhaled, Miami came right back with another bucket. Every Sixers inbound pass was a chore. The Heat got free throws for delay of game, defensive three seconds and away-from-the-play fouls. Heck, the Sixers threw the ball away on the final play of the game up one with 0.3 seconds left before a relieved Embiid saw the clock had run out, barely, to secure victory.

If someone had dared the Sixers to win in the ugliest, most ulcer-inducing, heart-palpitating, frustrating, uninspiring, baffling way possible, this is the exact game script Philadelphia would have turned in.

Job done.

Now all the Sixers have to do is repeat the task 16 more times, against teams better than the Heat.

The question now is which sort of game this was for Philadelphia.

Even MVPs don't play well every night. Embiid is still working back from injury. Maxey is allowed an off night in his postseason debut as the lead handler. Miami makes every opponent look bad.

Championship teams win some of those nights anyway, with guys like Batum and Oubre making the winning plays, grinding out ugly one-point wins through gritted teeth.

If that's what this was, then maybe things really will be different for the Sixers this time. Maybe Batum, Oubre and Lowry are the exact intangibles this team lacked. Perhaps this is the early beginnings of some championship mettle and toughness for a team that's badly lacked it in recent years.

Or perhaps this was yet another sign that these are still the same old 76ers, led by the same old Joel Embiid.

Grit or not, the Sixers can't expect to win many more games playing this sloppy, this unfocused and unhinged. And it has to start with Philly's superstar setting the tone.

Philadelphia won the battle.

But the real war hasn't even yet begun.