Embiid, 76ers top Heat

MIAMI — A masked Joel Embiid scored 23 points in his postseason debut, Marco Belinelli and Dario Saric each added 21 and the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Miami Heat 128-108 on Thursday night to take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

Ben Simmons finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists for the 76ers, who won for the 18th time in their last 19 games and reclaimed home-court advantage. Embiid went on a personal 7-0 run in the fourth quarter to help Philadelphia extend its lead to 14, and send many in the crowd to the exits.

Goran Dragic scored 23 points for Miami, which got 19 from Justise Winslow and 14 from Josh Richardson.

Game 4 is Saturday. Embiid was announced as doubtful to start the day, then was upgraded to probable in the afternoon and eventually cleared to start. He wore a mask and goggles to protect the surgically repaired orbital bone around his left eye, though his new accessory didn’t exactly seem up to the rigors of playoff basketball — needing to be swapped out at least twice.

The mask needs some work.

Embiid was right back in form.

He banked in a turnaround straightaway jumper — a fortuitous bounce — to put Philadelphia up nine late, then connected on a 3-pointer and added a pair of throws to start the spurt that put the game away for Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Miami couldn’t find any sort of stride. Hassan Whiteside was mired in foul trouble and ineffective, finishing the night all of 1 for 1 from the field for five points. Dwyane Wade, who Miami needed to be superb in the win at Philadelphia in Game 2, shot 2 for 10. Wayne Ellington, Miami’s single-season leader in 3pointers after making a record 227 this season, was 1 for 5 from the floor.