Jimmy Butler’s game not enough as teammates fail to show up in Game 3

This was one of the worst games to watch all season long. As a Heat fan or sports fan in general, you know how tough it can be to watch your team struggle to get any kind of momentum throughout an entire game, but still have multiple chances to pull it out. That’s what happened to our Miami Heat tonight as they fall to the Philadelphia 76ers 99-79 in Game 3 to make it a 2-1 series.

The Philadelphia 76ers we’re given a ray of hope in their semifinal series as their MVP, Joel Embiid, returns from a fractured orbital bone and concussion he suffered in Game 6 against the Toronto Raptors. He clearly wasn’t 100% as he was still dealing with a torn thumb ligament, but the big man was still able to give the Sixers a solid 18 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line to go with 11 rebounds. Which makes this loss even more frustrating for the Heat. So many things went wrong and you can only hope that this isn’t a trend that you see moving forward.

Jimmy Butler was the only source of consistent offense in this game and played with great effort from start to finish. He had 33 points on an efficient 12-of-22 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line to go with nine boards, two assists and two steals. Unfortunately, no one else played even remotely good in todays game and we can go down a very long list.

This was one of the worst games I’ve seen from Bam Adebayo. As we should know, this has been a terrible trend against Embiid. He is just completely passive and borderline looks scared to make anything happen for most of the game. I’ll never deny the impact he had on the defensive end, but even that looked weak from him in this game. He had just nine points on 2-of-9 shooting, three rebounds, one assist, three turnovers and five fouls. On top of that he was a team worst -22 in 33 minutes. He was completely taken out of this game by an injured Embiid and that’s just sad to watch.

Tyler Herro had his moments in this game, but just couldn’t show up when it mattered most and was extremely inconsistent throughout this entire game. He was the only other Heat player not named Jimmy Butler in double figures at 14 points, but it was on an inefficient 5-of-15 from the field. As for Kyle Lowry, it feels as though he was rushed back way too soon because his presence was not felt in this game. He had zero points and missed all four of his shots, four rebounds, three assists and a -10 in his 25 minutes. Not what any of us were hoping from our veteran point guard in his return, but hamstrings are extremely tricky, so it’s hard to know when he’ll be back to normal.

Overall, as a team, the Heat just couldn’t make any shots as they shot 35% from the field and 23% (7-of-30) from three. Max Strus couldn’t find his rhythm, Victor Oladipo didn’t have his usual impact off the bench and it feels like the roles of Gabe Vincent and Dewayne Dedmon were faded in this one. It was just a poor night from every one not named Jimmy Butler.

The fact that the 76ers didn’t get a great offensive night from Embiid, James Harden or Tobias Harris and still came out on top is the most frustrating part. Danny Green had a great game! (Pulling out my hair as you read) He had 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting from deep! How the Heat allow this man to get open and just turn back the clock on us is infuriating.

Now this becomes a series at 2-1, with all the momentum on Philadelphia’s side as they’ll be going into Game 4 with all the confidence. Embiid gets a few days to rest and he’ll be even better the next game. The Heat need to game plan for that, but just try to forget about what happened tonight and come out aggressive in Game 4 on Sunday. See you guys then!