Sixers push home winning streak to four
PHILADELPHIA -- Joel Embiid scored 22 points and slumping Robert Covington added a critical 3-pointer late in the game as the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Miami Heat 101-94 on Monday night.
Gerald Henderson added 19 points for Philadelphia, which used a late 10-0 run to win its fourth straight home game. Jahlil Okafor scored 15 points, and Ersan Ilyasova had 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Hassan Whiteside scored a career-high 32 points for Miami, which lost for the seventh time in nine games. Whiteside, the NBA's leading rebounder, also contributed 13 boards, his 12th double-double in 13 games this season.
The score was tied four times in the fourth quarter, the last at 91 on two free throws by Heat guard Goran Dragic with 3:38 left.
Embiid put Philadelphia ahead by making two foul shots with 3:24 remaining, and after a Miami turnover Covington took a pass from Henderson on the right wing and nailed his only triple of the night in five attempts.
Covington was 4 of 13 from the floor in all, and this season is shooting just 26.2 percent from the floor. He was booed after every miss Monday.
Embiid made three free throws and Henderson two in the final 2:27 to put the Sixers in front 101-91. The Heat’s Josh Richardson sank a 3-pointer in the closing seconds, Miami's only field goal in the final 4:44.
The Heat, who offset 35.6 percent first-half shooting with 14 second-chance points, moved to a 32-24 lead early in the second quarter behind Whiteside's 12 points. The Sixers, however, scored seven of the half's last eight points, the last of those on Covington's layup with 5.2 seconds left. That enabled Philadelphia to carry a 46-45 edge into the break.
Whiteside had 16 points and seven rebounds in the half to lead Miami, while Embiid paced the Sixers with 10 points.
Whiteside tacked on 12 points in the third quarter, including three-point plays on consecutive possessions late in the quarter to knot the score at 68. Philadelphia owned a 78-76 advantage by the end of the quarter, however.
NOTES: Philadelphia G Jerryd Bayless, who missed the first 13 games with a wrist injury, made his season debut. ... Earlier in the day, the Sixers sent G-F Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot to the Delaware 87ers, the team's NBA D-League affiliate. ... Philadelphia C Jahlil Okafor, who underwent offseason knee surgery, had his minutes restriction, previously 24, lifted. ... Heat F Justise Winslow missed his fourth straight game with a sore left wrist, and C Willie Reed sat out after hyperextending his right knee in Saturday's victory over Washington. ... Sixers coach Brett Brown said before the game that C-F Nerlens Noel, who has yet to play this season after undergoing minor knee surgery on Oct. 24, is still a few weeks away from returning.