Without Dwyane Wade, Miami blows fourth-quarter lead in loss to 76ers

Without Dwyane Wade, Miami blows fourth-quarter lead in loss to 76ers

 

 The Philadelphia 76ers' Evan Turner, 

left, takes the rebound away from 

Miami Heat's LeBron James with 

seconds left during the fourth quarter 

at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, 

Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, 

October 30, 2013. The Sixers won, 114-110.

 
PHILADELPHIA — The Heat overcame a 22-point deficit early, but could not hold onto a nine-point lead late and suffered a surprising 114-110 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

LeBron James’ field goal with 4:54 remaining gave the Heat a seemingly secure 107-99 lead. Miami’s only points the rest of the game, however, came on a Ray Allen technical free throw and a putback by Allen with nine seconds remaining that cut Philadelphia’s lead to 112-110.

The 76ers sealed the win with two Michael Carter-Williams free throws. Williams, a rookie who played at Syracuse and is from Philadelphia, had 22 points, 12 points, nine steals and seven rebounds in his debut.

The Sixers, who many predicted to be one of the worst teams in the league, celebrated their season-opening win as if they had won a title.

James, who scored 25 points and had 13 rebounds, was stopped three times in the final minutes driving to the basket as the Sixers were cutting into the lead. A layup by Spencer Hawes with just more than two minutes remaining gave the 76ers a 109-108 lead, one they would not relinquish.

Chris Bosh scored 22 points and had 10 rebounds as the Heat played without Dwyane Wade, who took the second night of the back-to-back off as part of his maintenance program.

Ray Allen had 19 points off the bench, including four 3-pointers.

The victory had to be satisfying for first-year Sixers coach Brett Brown, who was an assistant in San Antonio last season and watched Miami’s improbable comeback in Game 6 that led to a championship-clinching win in Game 7.

The Heat went from watching their championship banner being raised to the rafters and receiving their championship rings before Tuesday’s season opener to playing about as bad as they can at the start of Wednesday’s road opener.

Philadelphia raced to a 19-0 lead before James banked in a short jumper. The Sixers weren’t through and did not miss a shot until 4:51 remained in the quarter, making their first 11 attempts and pushing the lead to 26-4 (their largest of the game) before Evan Turner misfired on a 3-point attempt. The Heat missed their first seven shots before James broke the ice.

Coach Erik Spoelstra tried stopping the run by inserting Shane Battier, Norris Cole and Allen when the score was 15-0 but the deficit grew to 22 before Miami started chipping away.

Miami slogged through the end of the quarter and trailed 33-14 as Philadelphia shot a sizzling 73.7 percent.

The crowd was spurred by the introduction of Allen Iverson, who formally announced his retirement earlier in the day and the presence of other Sixer greats Moses Malone, Julius Erving, Charles Barkley and Billy Cunningham, among others.

Miami chipped away and finally took its first lead at 60-59 on a Udonis Haslem layup with 8:33 remaining in the third quarter. The Heat got back into the game by putting together a 14-0 run to start the second quarter with a lineup of Cole, Allen, Rashard Lewis, Battier and Bosh.

Miami returned the favor in the quarter, shooting 68.2 percent (15-of-22) while Philadelphia cooled to 30.4 percent (7-of-23). It all added up to Miami getting within 51-49 at the half.

Wade watches: The Heat were without Wade, who took the game off as part of the maintenance plan on his knees after playing 36 minutes in Tuesday’s season-opening win against Chicago.

“It’s not going to be consistent necessarily all year that he won’t play back-to-backs,” Erik Spoelstra said.

“It’s been a long week in terms of our preparation. He’s a little bit sore but nothing dramatic or any major concern. We’re going to be proactive with it right now.”

The decision was made at Wednesday’s walk-through by Wade, Spoelstra and the trainers.

“(They) said it’s early in the season; they just want to be cautious about it,” Wade said.

Wade said he felt “OK, a little sore, I’d love to feel better,” after scoring 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting Tuesday.

Wade plans to play Friday at Brooklyn.