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Iguodala leads Sixers over struggling Heat

Dec 27, 2007 - 3:21 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- The Philadelphia 76ers continued to keep the Miami Heat struggling on Wednesday.

Andre Iguodala scored a season-high 28 points and Andre Miller added 12 and 12 assists as the Philadelphia 76ers posted a 96-85 victory over the Heat.

Iguodala connected on 10-of-17 shots from the floor as Philadelphia shot 50 percent (36-of-72) for the game, winning for the seventh time in 10 games. It also was the last home game before a season-long six-game road trip that begins Friday in Sacramento.

"The guys are stepping up and that's the bottom line," Iguodala said. "The last two games, I've played good basketball and I want to keep it going. It's good to get these wins. We're trying to finish it out before we go out on the road."

Unlike the Sixers, the Heat continue to go in the opposite direction, losing for the sixth time in their last eight games. Miami(8-21) is at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and is also off to its worst start since the 2001-02 season when they began 6-23.

"It's tough to lose period," Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. "But, it's tough to be the worst team in the Eastern Conference. You don't know from one night to the next what you are going to see."

The Heat were down by 21 points midway through the second quarter and still trailed by 16 early in the fourth before Ricky Davis and Wade combined for 15 points on a 17-4 run that cut the Sixers' lead to 84-81 with 5:08 to play.

However, Philadelphia answered with a 9-0 spurt that featured consecutive dunks from Samuel Dalembert and Iguodala to give the Sixers a 93-81 advantage with under two minutes remaining.

"We had the play contained and it ended up in a Dalembert dunk," Heat coach Pat Riley said. "We just overextended our defense and he slipped under. We had the sniff of winning, but those plays took the wind out of our sails." "They made a big run against us and were able to counter," Iguodala said. "When it got down to three, we were able to make a big push to get it back up to 11."

Louis Williams and Kyle Korver each added 13 points off the bench for the Sixers, who held Miami to just 41 percent shooting (34-of-84), including 1-of-13 from the arc.

Trailing, 9-5, early in the game, Miller scored all 12 of his points in the opening quarter during an 18-4 run that gave Philadelphia a 23-13 lead with 1:19 left in the first.

"I'm just trying to get the ball up the court and beat the defense," Miller said. "Sometimes you want to get yourself going early and sometimes you want to get going late. I wanted to open up the game for everybody else."

Philadelphia went on an 18-6 run - keyed by seven from Williams - midway through the second quarter, taking a 47-26 lead with just under four minutes remaining in the first half. Korver's baseline jumper as time expired gave the Sixers a 55-37 lead at the break.

"He (Miller) got us going early and I came in I wanted to make sure that I kept the momentum up," Williams said. "I was able to get to the bucket and get some early free throws and just got myself in the basketball game."

Miami outscored Philadelphia, 14-7, over the final seven minutes of the third quarter, cutting the deficit to 74-64 entering the fourth. After making just 2-of-9 shots in the first half, Wade scored 12 points in the third to help bring the Heat back.

Philadelphia opened the fourth with 3-pointers by Iguodala and Korver to push the Sixers lead to 80-64 with 11:19 to go, but the Heat answered with a 17-4 run to cut the deficit to three points - capped by Wade's jumper - with just over five minutes to play.

"It's very tough to come back from 20 down," Wade said. "You hope that you can keep making the plays that you made to get back into the game."

Wade finished with 27 points and nine assists and Davis scored 21. Shaquille O'Neal had just five points and 10 rebounds in 29 minutes for the Heat, who have lost three straight games and 13 of their last 15 at Philadelphia.

"We just didn't have it," Riley said. "We weren't playing hard and we were out of sync."