Miami Heat: 5 keys to series vs. 76ers

After a one-year hiatus from the postseason, here are five keys for the Miami Heat as they take on the red-hot Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs.

While no one expected the Miami Heat to repeat their second-half rampage of the 2016-17 season, a return to the playoffs after missing after last season was a more than realistic expectation.

However, the same can’t be said for the Philadelphia 76ers. After compiling a 75-243 record over the past four seasons combined, very few onlookers could have foreseen the Sixers compiling a 52-30 record to finish the 2017-18 regular season in third place in the Eastern Conference.

Furthermore, the Sixers enter the postseason on a 16-game winning streak, clearly indicating they are peaking at right time of the season. Therefore, to say the Heat have their work cut out for them would be an enormous understatement.

Over the course of the regular season, the Heat split their season series, with the Sixers taking the first two games at home and the Heat responding on their home floor. The first of their two wins will be long remembered for this clutch game-winner from Dwyane Wade:

In a positive sign for the Heat, their most recent win over the Sixers came in their last meeting on March 8. Since the start of February, the Sixers posted the second-best record in the league at 28-6. So for the Heat to have taken them down twice during this stretch certainly does no harm to their confidence entering the series.

The series appears to be a battle of contrasting franchises, with the famed “culture” of the Heat taking on “The Process” of the Sixers. Whereas the Heat have gone out of their way to avoid bottoming out in recent times, the Sixers are only just emerging from several years of pain in the hopes of fielding a contender for years to come.

With this promising to be one of the most anticipated matchups of the first round, here are five keys for the Heat as they prepare to take on the Sixers.