Having back-to-back games against the unmotivated Toronto Raptors to close out the season did the Miami Heat good. They won both games convincingly without their starters exerting themselves too much. Tonight they have the tough task of taking on Joel Embiid and the surging Philadelphia 76ers, with the winner getting the 7th seed in the East. Facing the New York Knicks in the first sounds a lot more appealing than facing the Celtics who flat out dominated the regular season. Miami heads into this game with a lot of question marks, Terry Rozier has been ruled out with an injury, while Duncan Robinson and Kevin Love are both questionable. They did beat Philadelphia in the first two meetings of the regular season, but then the Sixers won the next two, setting up an intriguing encounter.
Philadelphia is on a 8-game win streak, mainly due to Joel Embiid returning to the line-up which has lifted the team both talent wise but also psychologically. Without Embiid it looked like a lost season for the Sixers, but with him in the line-up they are more than capable of making noise as a lower seed in the postseason. That is, if they can avoid facing the Boston Celtics. Philadelphia is a 4.5 point favorite here, they’ve covered the spread in 7 straight home games and in 5 games in a row vs Eastern Conference opponents. Similarly to Miami, they also have a couple of question marks here with De’Anthony Melton and KJ Martin Jr. being questionable. Embiid is also on the injury report, but only as a precautionary measure. In his last 5 games he’s averaging 30.4 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, looking like he hasn’t missed a beat while being out.
