The Miami Heat played host to the Philadelphia 76ers. It was just a regular game on paper.
When Jimmy Butler, who is on the roster of the Miami Heat is playing against his former team, put the paper in the shredder.
Butler scored a season-high 38 points before sitting out the fourth quarter, and the Miami Heat scored a franchise-record 81 points in the second half to beat the Philadelphia 76ers convincingly 137-106 on Monday night.
Miami also won the season series, 3-1.
Entering the game, road wins have been the issue when it comes down to both of the teams.
The 76ers are winning home games by an average of 10 points. But on the road, they’ve been beaten nine times by double-digits already this season — and this 31-point defeat came only two days after what had been a season-worst 21-point loss at Brooklyn on Saturday.
The Sixers have fallen into a two-game slump after dropping consecutive losses to the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks.
Meanwhile, the Heat bounced back from a loss to the Celtics with a dominant win on the road over the Orlando Magic. They have only lost three games at home this season.
Goran Dragic scored 24 points for Miami, Duncan Robinson scored 19, and All-Star Bam Adebayo finished with 18 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds for the Heat. Derrick Jones Jr. added 15 points for Miami, which set season-highs for points and victory margin.
“We were just building on the last two wins we had against them and keeping our scheme the same,” Adebayo said. “Guys were making shots, and Jimmy had a big game.”
Entering the game, opposing teams are only averaging 43.6 percent shooting against the Heat this season. The case remained the same on Monday; the Sixers were in trouble.
76ers with an NBA-best 22-2 home record lost for the 10th time in its last 12 road games. Joel Embiid led the 76ers with 29 points and 12 rebounds, and Mike Scott scored 17 points — most of it off 5-of-7 shooting from 3-point range — in 18 minutes.
Ben Simmons had 16 points for Philadelphia. He tried his first 3-pointer since Dec. 10, a beat-the-clock 26-footer at the end of the first quarter that missed. He’s now 2 for 23 in his career from beyond the arc.
