MIAMI, (Reuters) – The Miami Heat came back from a 14 point deficit and survived a late rally to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 97-89 in their opening Eastern Conference playoff game yesterday.
Chris Bosh scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and LeBron James scored 21 as the Heat recovered from a slow start to record a victory in the first of the best of seven series – but they were made to fight for it at the end.
Thaddeus Young made 20 points and 11 rebounds for the 76ers, who caused the Heat enough problems to suggest this series could be more of a contest than some may have imagined.
Philadelphia began with energy, pace and purpose and stunned the entirely white-clad home crowd as they led 31-19 at the end of the first quarter with Elton Brand and Jrue Holliday scoring 18 points between them and the Heat’s James managing just three points.
“They changed their scheme from the regular season and they made a good job of really blitzing us,” said the Heat’s Dwyane Wade.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra had warned that the match-up would be a “speed series” and it was the sharpness of the 76ers, particularly Young, that caused Miami the early problems.
But it was a totally different story in the second as the Heat switched to a more zonal defense and found both their rhythm and their shooting touch and they grabbed the lead with a three pointer from Mario Chalmers to make it 39-38.
Miami led 54-49 at the half, with James scoring 12 in the second period and from then on the conference’s number two seed was in charge.The 76ers, scoring 12 points without reply, fought back to within one point with 2.30 minutes left in the fourth quarter but the Heat brought back Wade, who despite being on five fouls, guided them through to victory with five crucial points.“They are a team we know who are going to fight back and fight back no matter what the stage of the game,” said Wade.Of Miami’s ‘Big Three’, it was Bosh, aggressive throughout, who was the key man.
“CB’s the most important player on our team,” said James, “When he shoots the ball well and he rebounds, we’re a very, very good team and we give ourselves a great chance of winning.” The Heat had 39 free throws to 15 for Philly but visiting head coach Doug Collins could offer only a wry comment to that statistic.“My grandkids would lose their college fund, so I’ll have to dance around that one. I can’t respond to that,” he said.
The last time the Heat came back from 14 points down to win in a post-season game was in the sixth and final game of the 2006 NBA finals which Miami won over Dallas 4-2.
Game Two is in Miami tomorrow.
