Sixers-Heat Reaches New Level of Physicality as Stakes Heighten

BOX SCORE 

MIAMI - Just when it seemed like the Sixers-Heat first-round series couldn't get any more physical, guess what? It did. 

Whichever teams win this series isn't going to do so without a fight, and now the Sixers are one victory away from advancing to the second round. 

"I love the physicality," Joel Embiid said following the Sixers' 106-102 Game 4 win

The Sixers and Heat have had no choice but to embrace it. Each squad has come out swinging (not literally, though at times it has felt close to that) in a fervent battle for postseason survival.

The tone of the series was encapsulated in a sequence that began with a turnover and subsequent fight for a loose ball and ended with players being separated on the other end of the court. 

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With under five minutes to play in the second quarter, Goran Dragic stole the ball from Dario Saric. Sixers and Heat players hit the floor grappling for possession, during which Josh Richardson suffered a shoulder injury and Justise Winslow suffered a cut to his face. 

Dragic ran the fast break across half court, where he was fouled by Ben Simmons. As he continued to go up toward the basket, Covington pushed off on him. 

"He just kept playing," Covington said. "In order to not allow him to run into me or run me over, I braced myself. That's just how that play happened. His momentum took him to where I braced myself and he just bounced off of me."

James Johnson then pushed Covington into the stanchion. Simmons interjected to get Johnson away from Covington. Embiid ran down from the other end of the floor, too, as whistles sounded and players were tangled up. Double technical fouls were called on Covington and Johnson.

"He was protecting his guy," Covington said of Johnson. "Ben did the same exact thing. I was protecting myself in the first place. If he's going to keep playing and keep playing on, there's consequences. Overall, it wasn't a means to try to hurt him or anything, but I was bracing myself." 

The first-round matchup has been a crash course in the importance of chemistry. Players hurried over to their teammates during the tie up and on other plays throughout the afternoon. 

"If someone is going to push my teammate, I'll be there for them," Simmons said. "Everyone's got my back on my team. I think vice versa, it's the same with everybody on the Heat. They have each other's back and that's the way we want to play. We play as a team." 

There have been 10 technical fouls called on the Sixers and Heat in Games 3 and 4 combined. Will that number increase by the end of the series? The Heat are on the brink of elimination and plan to bring an unrelenting attitude to the Wells Fargo Center Tuesday. 

"We still have a chance," Dragic said. "So we're not going to go home and feel sorry about it and just come to Philly with the white flag. That's not us."

That wouldn't be characteristic of the series, either. 

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