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76ers-Heat Best/Worst: Ellington, Stauskas and Miami's first-quarter explosion

    by Keith Pompey
    Published 

MIAMI – Here is my look at some of the best and worst performances from the Miami Heat's 125-98 victory over the 76ers on Wednesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena:

Best performance: Wayne Ellington gets the honor on a night when his Heat teammate Tyler Johnson finished with a game-high 24 points in a reserve role. But Ellington had one of best performances of the season. The reserve guard made a season-high six three-pointers on nine attempts to finish with 18 points.

Worst performance: This goes to Nik Stauskas over his teammate, Jahlil Okafor. The Sixers reserve guard missed nine of his 12 shot attempts to finish with nine points. He provided little resistance on defense and graded out at a game-worst minus-26. That means the Sixers were outscored by 26 points while he was on the court.

Best performance by a Sixer: You have to backup center Richaun Holmes for the second consecutive game.  The second-year veteran made 7 of 10 shots to finish with 15 points. Holmes also had six rebounds, one block, a steal and two turnovers.

Best defensive performance: With four blocks, Hassan Whiteside is the logical person to win this award. The Heat center also had one steal in his 22 minutes, 7 seconds of action.  Whiteside  finished with a double-double, scoring, 15 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.

Worst defensive performance: I had to give this to Jahlil Okafor. The Sixers center looked disinterested and barely moved his feet on defense. Wednesday was arugably his worst defensive performance in his two seasons as a Sixer.   He also struggled in other areas.  Okafor scored six points on 3-for-11 shooting  and committed a game-worst five turnovers. But his team-high seven rebounds were the main reason he didn't win the worst-performance award.

Worst statistic: How can you not give this to the Heat's third-quarter three-point shooting? They missed all seven of their  attempts?

Best statistic: This award goes to Miami's first-quarter shooting. They basically put the game out of reach early on, making 61.9 percent of their shots in the quarter.

Follow and contact 76ers beat writer Keith Pompey on Twitter and on Instagram at PompeyOnSixers.