Wade gets 27, Heat beat 76ers 102-101

MIAMI — This was vintage Dwyane Wade, and he knew exactly what he was doing.

He intentionally fouled Ben Simmons in the final seconds of a tie game, usually an absolute no-no. He didn’t give the ball up on the ensuing possession with his team down by one, choosing instead to decide the outcome himself. The foul? Brilliant. The shot? Even better.

Wade scored 15 of Miami’s final 17 points, finished with a season-high 27 and his jumper with 5.9 seconds remaining lifted the Heat to a 102-101 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night. And yes, he punctuated the game winner with the “this is my house” signal and yell to the crowd, as if there was any doubt that he somehow lost the deed to the building during his stints in Chicago and Cleveland.

Joel Embiid scored 23 points for Philadelphia, which got 21 from Dario Saric. The 76ers led by as many as 10 in the fourth and had a chance to win at the buzzer, but JJ Redick’s wide-open 3-point try bounced off the rim.

He needed to be, since Philadelphia led for 96 percent of the second half — and lost, because Wade wouldn’t allow any other outcome.

Wade got fouled on a 3-point try with 29 seconds left and the Heat down by three. The plan that Spoelstra laid out was for the Heat to foul Simmons — a 57 percent foul shooter — if Wade missed one of the three foul shots. Wade made all three, but fouled Simmons anyway.

Spoelstra picked up the idea from watching Dragic play in Slovenia over the last two summers; fouling to get the ball back, even late in tie games, is more prevalent in European games.

In the end, it worked out anyway.

Wade didn’t seem aware of the plan to foul only if he missed one of the three.

Simmons missed the first, made the second. Wade brought the ball downcourt, dribbled left, went behind his back, then to the right, then eventually found his spot to fire over Simmons for what became the gamewinner.

Philadelphia used a 16-3 run to open a 33-20 lead in the first half, and Miami answered with an 18-2 run to go up 38-35. From there, a 12minute stretch of backand-forth commenced with neither team ever leading by more than three.

And in the end, Wade came through in the biggest way. In his house, the Heat got a needed win.

“It was good tonight to be back in that position,” Wade said. AP