Heat put away 76ers, advance to East finals
Jimmy Butler knocked Joel Embiid out of the playoffs, then walked over to his former 76ers teammate and hugged him, told him he loved him and was proud of him.
Butler then headed out of a familiar court a winner — and straight into another conference finals with Miami.
“Now I’m where I belong,” Butler said. “Guess where I should have been a long time ago.”
Butler scored 32 points and waved “bye bye” to the Philly crowd as he sent Miami into the Eastern Conference finals with a 99-90 victory over Philadelphia on Thursday night in Game 6.
The Heat will play the winner of the Milwaukee-Boston series. The defending champion Bucks lead that series 3-2, with Game 6 on tonight.
The Heat reached the conference finals for the second time in three seasons, again with Butler leading the charge. Philly fans — and many inside the 76ers organization — still can’t believe the franchise let Butler get away after the 2019 season. He did not mess around and scored 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the third quarter when the Heat used a 16-2 run to take control. Butler scored 33 points in Game 3 and 40 in Game 4 and took 29 shots in Game 6.
“I think he’s one of the ultimate competitors in this profession,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He was brilliant all series long. The challenges only get tougher here. He saw there was an opportunity to end this tonight and he wasn’t going to let this get to seven.”
Embiid, the NBA scoring champion, had no significant help and scored 20 points with 12 rebounds on 7-of-24 shooting.
“I know I tried. I think for the most part, we tried,” Embiid said. “It just wasn’t good enough.”
Embiid remained to this day befuddled and hurt that the Sixers passed on Butler after forming a trio with Simmons that — egos aside — could have contended for championships for years.
“I still don’t know how we let him go,” Embiid said. “I wish I could have gone to battle with him still.” MAVERICKS 113, SUNS 86 » Luka Doncic scored 33 points and Dallas beat visiting Phoenix to force a Game 7 in the Western Conference semifinals.
The home team has won all six games, none with a final margin closer than seven points. The deciding game is Sunday in Phoenix.
The Mavericks won when facing elimination for the first time in three tries with Doncic.
The two losses came against the Clippers the past two seasons, including Game 7 in Los Angeles last year after the visitors won the first six games, a first in the playoffs. Dallas is playing beyond the first round for the first time since winning the title 11 years ago.
The Suns, seeking a second consecutive trip to the West finals, are going the distance in a series for the first time in two postseasons with Chris Paul and Devin Booker. The previous three went six, including Phoenix’s loss to Milwaukee last year in the NBA Finals.