By: Kylan Watson

The Philadelphia 76ers were looking to rebound as they faced the Miami Heat tonight. They once again had a chance to lock up the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately for them they did not have it tonight and the Heat jumped on them with an offensive explosion. Miami routed Philly 106-94.

It did not start out well for Philly. From the opening tip-off they were outhustled by Miami. Who was playing like a team that wanted to avoid facing the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. They opened the floodgates on Philly. Guard Jimmy Butler hit four three-pointers and scored 16 of his 21-points by half-time. He clearly had a little extra sauce on his offensive explosion facing his former team. Philly had no response for him. It did not matter if their was a hand in his face or the shot was uncontested he single-handedly broke the defense of the Sixers.

On the first quarter, “I just didn’t think we were ready to play the game tonight and you could see it early,” said Sixers Head Coach Doc Rivers.

The Sixers just could not get out of their own way either, they didn’t hit their first three-pointer until late in the third quarter. They shot 27.9% from three.  Additionally, they could not hit anything from the perimeter. At times the Heat were trying to punk Philly. There were four technical fouls called on the Heat and Udonis Haslem got ejected for trying to punk Dwight Howard.

Miami played like a team trying to make a statement, although in the grand scheme of things this game means nothing. Philly won the season series. Anybody who watched the game could tell the Heat were trying to remind Philly that they are a looming threat come playoff time.

On the loss, “We took an ass whooping,” said Rivers.

The Sixers will now get another chance to get this game out of their system as they face the Orlando Magic tomorrow night. They will need to come out with a better effort on both sides of the ball. If they want to secure the number one seed in this two-game season finale match-up with the Magic.