The 76ers, who have speed to burn, raced to a double-digit lead in the first quarter. The Heat charged back for a 97-89 victory, its recovery seemingly fueled as much by the three officials as by the Heat’s three superstars: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
James, Wade and Bosh were a combined 18 of 44 from the floor and had 63 points among them. Doug Collins, Philadelphia’s coach, said that he thought if his team held those three players to fewer than 75 points, the 76ers would be in a position to win. What Collins had not counted on was the disparity in fouls: the Heat shot 39 free throws to the 76ers’ 15.
The Heat attempted 15 free throws in the second quarter, the frequent stoppages in play slowing Philadelphia’s rhythm more than the zone that Miami, in desperation, resorted to after the 76ers opened up a 33-19 lead with 11 minutes 46 seconds left in the first half.
“The game grinded to a halt,” said Collins, who sidestepped any criticism of the officiating for fear of being fined by the league.
“My grandkids will lose their college fund,” he added, “so I have to dance around it.”
Elton Brand, who finished with 17 points for Philadelphia — and made the only free throw he tried — expressed surprise at not getting to the line more. “It’s kind of discouraging,” he said. “At the same time, we know we have to keep going.”
James, Wade and Bosh gained a degree of notoriety last July for their preening debut after the decisions by James and Bosh to join Wade on the Heat. They exuded confidence then, and after 58 regular-season victories earned the Heat the second seed in the Eastern Conference, they had every reason to go into the series against the 76ers, who finished 41-41, with a certain amount of swagger.
The postseason debuts of James and Bosh for the Heat attracted an AmericanAirlines Arena sellout crowd of 19,600. And just in case anybody in the Miami locker room needed reassuring, blue paper strips the length of a child’s ruler were placed on each player’s cushioned cubicle before the game. On each was the saying “With confidence you have won before you have started.”
In the other locker room, the underdogs from Philadelphia could point to their 30-19 record since the start of 2011 to bolster their belief in themselves. The 76ers played the first quarter as if they expected every shot to fall, and nearly all of them did. They converted 11 of their first 14 field-goal attempts to race to a 25-11 lead after 8:02.
“They were playing at a different speed than us,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said, adding, “They’re relentless with that athleticism, that quickness and the way they play.”
Collins says that confidence is leaked, not lost. “I don’t think anybody ever takes your confidence,” he has said. “I think you give it away.”
As the second quarter wore on and the 76ers’ shots stopped falling and the fouls started piling up, they sputtered, as if they were running low on nerve. Behind James’s 12 points in the quarter, the Heat took a 54-49 lead into halftime. Miami extended its advantage to 78-62 near the end of the third quarter.
Bosh, appearing in his first playoff game in three years, scored 15 of his game-high 25 points in the second half. He was 8 of 17 from the field, and after the game he lamented those nine missed shots.
“The plus is that after the first quarter, we settled down and did a good job on the defensive side,” he said.
A free throw by Bosh in the third minute of the fourth quarter gave the Heat an 11-point lead. Could the 76ers patch the leak in their confidence?
“How would we respond when they punched us in the mouth?” Collins said. “I thought we did very well.”
Led by Thaddeus Young (20 points), Philadelphia’s sixth man in title only, the 76ers whittled the Heat’s advantage to 88-87 with 2:03 left. Wade, who had picked up his fifth foul with 7:20 left, returned with 3:58 left and carried the Heat. He had 6 of his 17 points in the final two minutes and 2 of his 7 rebounds in the final 20 seconds to hold off the 76ers.
“He has the intelligence and he is savvy enough to play with five fouls,” Spoelstra said.
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