76ers' dramatic win vs. Heat gives them chance to avoid play-in - ESPN

MIAMI — The Philadelphia 76ers began this week firmly entrenched in eighth place in the East and unsure when Joel Embiid would return.

Now, after pulling off a dramatic comeback, thanks to a 15-3 run to close the game to beat the Miami Heat 109-105 Thursday night at Kaseya Center, with the league's reigning MVP back in the lineup, an escape from the play-in is suddenly possible.

«It was a tough environment and it was a team that's super athletic and physical that had [us] up against the ropes and kept on swinging, and we somehow got out of there,» 76ers coach Nick Nurse said afterward. «That thing looked at times like it could have gotten away from us at times.

»But I thought that we stood in there and we did it through a lot of intensity and pressure."

It was a level of intensity and pressure on both sides reflective of a playoff game. Had Philadelphia lost, it would have been three losses back of the Heat and two losses back of the Indiana Pacers — the teams that entered Thursday's action in sixth and seventh place in the East standings, respectively. With five games to go, Philadelphia would have lost tiebreakers with both of them.

The 76ers would have had the final 10 days of the regular season to prepare for the 7-8 play-in game, one they would have been playing either back here on the shores of Biscayne Bay or in Indianapolis against Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers.

But in a game that featured several wild swings, including multiple double-digit runs in both directions and Miami outscoring Philadelphia by a combined 21-4 over the final minute of the first three quarters, it was the 76ers — led by Tyrese Maxey's 37 points, 9 rebounds and 11 assists, plus 29 from Embiid and 18 from Kelly Oubre Jr. — who found a way