Five takeaways from Miami Heat-Philadelphia 76ers

Five points to remember the defeat 124-114 Miami Heat against the 76ers Philadelphia (9-6) Monday at the AmericanAirlines Arena.

1. The heat (5-8) allows to lose a favorable schedule at the beginning of the season. Eight of Miami's first 13 games came home, and it was 3-5 at 8 at AmericanAirlines Arena. That includes Monday's home defeat against a team of 76 shorthanded players (without Jimmy Butler, newly acquired) to close a disappointing 1-3 win. To make matters worse, the Heat has already lost three games to losing teams this season against the Magic, Hawks and Wizards.

What's next for the heat? Ten of Miami's next 16 games will be on the road, starting with a two-game road trip that starts Wednesday in Brooklyn against the Nets.

"It's really time to start looking in the mirror," said Josh Richardson. "It should not have happened at this point, but it is certainly time to start cracking down and solving problems."

In 13 games last season, the Heat moved to 6-7 and finished with a 44-38 record to qualify for the playoffs. After 13 games in 2016-17, the Heat was at 4-9 and finished the year on a 30-11 record to finish with a 41-41 record.

So 5-8 is not the end of the world. History shows that the heat can regroup and avoid a complete collapse. But Miami must start playing faster.

"There is really a sense of urgency," said Hassan Whiteside. "Let's go and try to get two wins away and keep going from there. I think that's what it's about. "

2. Turnovers were not as important to the Heat until the second half came. Miami had the highest number of turnovers in the league with an average of 16.8 per game. And the problem has been really serious lately, with the Heat having made 43 turnovers in their last two games – both losses.

Miami was not much better Monday with 15 turnovers. The second half was particularly sloppy, with the Heat making 12 turnovers in the last two quarters after finishing the first half with just three.

What were the 12 turnarounds in the second half? Here is an overview: 1. Richardson left the field, 2. Offensive goaltender Bam Adebayo, 3. Adebayo offensive offense, 4. Kelly Olynyk offensive offense, 5. Goran Dragic's bad pass, 6. Wayne Ellington's bad pass 7. Bad Richardson passes, 8. Olynyk offensive foul, 9. Richardson, bad pass, 10. Tyler Johnson, bad pass, 11. Olynyk, bad pass, 12. Rodney McGruder lost the ball.

"There were some that were expensive, that changed the pace of a two-player match and that suddenly you could run, we're not even sure what would have happened," said L & # Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. "We have derailed a few times and we have not even been able to participate in our action. This can probably be a little deflated, when they go to the other end and mark a layup or three on that. "

These misunderstandings led to too many lost possessions, which allowed the 76ers to take nine more shots than the Heat in the second half. Thus, even though Miami shot a better percentage (48.4%) than Philadelphia (45%) in the last two quarter-finals, the 76ers finished with three more marks to win the second half 60-52 .

The Heat has a low margin of error without a long-lasting All-Star on its list, and this margin decreases with each rotation. Since the beginning of 2016-17 (first season where the core of this group was played together), Miami is 5-17 in the matches with at least 18 turnovers. As the numbers show, Miami has a much better chance of winning games with fewer mistakes.

3. Miami's center, Hassan Whiteside, had big problems that slowed him down compared to the Philadelphia center, Joel Embiid.

After struggling in Heat's first round playoffs against the 76ers last season, Whiteside had 12 points and nine rebounds in the first half of Monday's game against Philadelphia. But Whiteside scored his fourth foul with 10 minutes 48 seconds in the third quarter and followed the rest of the period. Whiteside never regained his pace once back at the start of the fourth (one point and two rebounds in the last quarter), finishing the night with 13 points and 11 rebounds in 22 minutes.

"It was hard," said Whiteside about his problem. "It's like that some nights. It's really out of my control. "

Considering that Whiteside averaged only 5.2 points and six rebounds in 15.4 minutes in Miami's five-match series against Philadelphia, Monday was a step forward for the 29-year-old. But considering that Embiid finished with 35 points and 18 rebounds and won the match, Whiteside's counterpart had the best night of the season.

"It's frustrating, especially when you're not there because everybody's going to act like it's just because I'm a better known center," Whiteside said of the statistics line. 'Embiid. "It's frustrating, but we move on to the next. It's not me against him or them. They got the better of us tonight.

4. The good news for the Heat is that Goran Dragic looked alike on Monday. After being scoreless in the Wizards defeat on Saturday, the Heat's point guard showed a performance similar to Dragic's against the 76ers with 22 points on 8 shots out of 15.

It's encouraging for Miami. Dragic was able to recover from a right knee injury that forced him to miss two games last week and a right foot injury that prevented him from escaping the Heat's defeat against the Hawks. November 3rd. and more active on Monday, even though he's playing with some pain.

The Heat needs Dragic to be good because his attack has hurt without him. By entering Monday, Miami had recorded 111.6 points of attack (best score per team) with Dragic on the field and a worst score of 100.5 when he was not playing this season.

5. This match was fraught with mistakes for both teams, but weakness seemed to benefit Philadelphia more. The Heat was called for 30 fouls and 76ers for 24. But the fact that Whiteside was eliminated from the match and Embiid ended the night with 23 free-throw attempts gave Philadelphia a clear advantage. Whiteside only played 8:29 in the second half.

At the end of the evening, Embiid recorded 36 minutes of play time against 22 minutes at Whiteside. That extra 14 minutes, including the Philadelphia center, really helped change the game.

"We had to deepen the rotation. It was unstable, "said Spoelstra of all Monday's fouls. "That's how it happens sometimes. They looked like a handful of them, they were good hard assets with a defensive technique. But that probably disrupted the pace of the game, especially when we gained some points. That brought them back into the rhythm, and we had to deepen the rotation a little bit. But we still had opportunities. "