Attempting to avoid elimination, the Sixers came out today and gave the Heat all they had.The Sixers jumped out to another early lead and got strong contributions from Jrue Holiday and Elton Brand in the first quarter. Brand had his mid range jumper working, and Holiday was extremely aggressive shooting the 3 and driving to the basket. Andre Iguodala also got in on the action and did a good job of cutting through the Heat defense and getting to the hoop. The Sixers led 28-16 after the first quarter.
But late in the second quarter the Heat defense suffocated the Sixers with traps and double teams. The Sixers had 8 turn overs in the second quarter that led to quick easy buckets for the Heat on the other end. The Sixers failed to come to the ball when they were being trapped and instead tried to force bad passes. Dwayne Wade also came alive with 14 second quarter points. To counter the Heat run, rookie Evan Turner had 9 first half points but the Sixers went into halftime trailing 47-46.
The third quarter was extremely boring. Both teams looked disinterested and after the third the Heat held on to a 66-64 lead. Although it was not the most exciting quarter, the Sixers did a good job of locking down on defense and not letting the Heat build a big lead.
After an early Heat run to begin the 4th, the Sixers battled back behind Lou Williams who had 10 points in the 4th. Lou got points in transition and did a great job of being a solid scoring option for the Sixers. The Sixers outlasted the performance of LeBron and got a big 3 point shot from Lou Williams with 8 seconds left to give the Sixers an 84-82 lead. Guarded by Dwayne Wade, Lou launched a high arching shot that splashed down to the delight of a sell out crowd at the Wells Fargo Center. With 8 seconds left the Heat in bounded to Lebron who forced up a bad shot that missed and was rebounded by the Sixers. Evan Turner was then fouled and knocked down 2 big free throws to seal the victory.
The win was big for the Sixers who avoided elimination and forced a Game 5 in Miami on Wednesday. Evan Turner and Lou Williams both came up big in the 4th and both finished with 17 points to lead the Sixers in scoring. Even if the Sixers end up losing this series at least they were able to win a game in front of their home crowd.
Stay updated to the blog in the upcoming days for more Sixers coverage.
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