Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro help Heat rout 76ers 129-101

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jimmy Butler and TylerHerro each scored 24 points and the Miami Heat kept alive theirhopes of avoiding the NBA’s play-in tournament with a 129-99victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night.

Max Strus and Bam Adebayo both added 14 points. Miami startedfast, leading 41-31 after a quarter.

The Heat (43-37) would have to win both of their remaining games(at Washington and home against Orlando) and have Brooklyn loseboth home games this weekend (to Orlando and Philadelphia) to moveinto the No. 6 spot and avoid the play-in round. Miami took theSoutheast Division title with the win.

Butler had five assists and four rebounds.

Philadelphia (52-27) has already secured the third spot in theEastern Conference playoffs. A win Thursday night would have sealeda first-round matchup against Brooklyn. Joel Embiid scored 21points despite not playing in the fourth quarter. James Hardenchipped in 14 in limited minutes.

SCORING RACE WATCH

With Embiid’s 21 points Thursday, his 33.1 point per gameaverage is still ahead of Denver’s Nikola Jokic, who sits second at32.7 points a game. Jokic was listed as out on Denver’s injuryreport Thursday night at Phoenix.

Embiid was the 2021-22 scoring champion, beating out Jokic forthe honor of being the first foreign-born player to win the scoringtitle.

TIP-INS

Heat: Kyle Lowry was in the lineup despite being listed asquestionable with left knee soreness, scoring 11 points in 22minutes. Lowry has not played more than 30 minutes in a game sincerecording 36 in an overtime game against Orlando on March 11.

76ers: Tyrese Maxey was held out with neck stiffness. ...De’Anthony Melton suffered a right calf strain in the third quarterand did not return. ...Prior to the game, Rivers said that theSixers have a plan on how to manage the workload of their starterheading into the final weekend and a pair of road games, but wantedto balance it with not having too much rust caused by the weekbetween the end of the regular season and the start of the firstround April 15.

UP NEXT

Heat: At Washington on Friday night.

76ers: At Atlanta on Friday night.