Miami has won all three of its meetings against Philly this year, but that does not mean this will be an easy series for Miami. The Heat have held the Sixers under 100 points in all three of Miami's win over then this year.
Dwyane Wade led the charge in the first game. He has 30 of Miami's 97 points as the Heat beat Philadelphia by ten points and gave the Big Three their first win as teammates.
The Heat were struggling coming into their second meeting against the Sixers, but managed a win. The Heat won the second game of the series 99-90 and wade once again led the Heat's scoring with 23 points.
The last regular season match up once again had D. Wade lead the Heat in scoring. He had 39 points, but Lebron James also topped the 30 point mark as well. He had 32 for Miami. The Heat won this game by the score of 111-99. Wade led the Heat in points, assists, blocks, steals, and rebounds.
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Now lets go position by position and see how each team matches up.
Point Guard
Miami - Mario Chalmers, Mike Bibby, Eddie House
Philly - Jrue Holliday, Lou Williams,
Consider House to be on the bench unless one of the other Pgs gets hurt. With that said, Lou Williams was having a good season up to this point, but he caught the injury bug as of late. Williams and Holliday have a slight advantage over Miami's PGs.
Advantage - 76ers
Shooting Guard
Miami - Dwyane Wade, Mike Miller,
Philly - Andre Iguodala, Evan Turner, Jodie Meeks
Regardless of how much of a disappointing season this has been for Mike Miller, D. Wade more then makes up for his problems on both ends of the court. Philly sports a decent trio of SGs led by Iguodala, but Andre might have to defend Lebron James for much of the series.
Advantage - Heat
Small Forward
Miami - Lebron James, James Jones
Philly - Thaddeus Young, Jason Kapono,
With Lebron James continuing his great season it is hard for any team contain him. Sometimes Jones will give James a breather, other times both are on the court together where Lebron can penetrate and find Jones open behind the arc for his money shot.
Advantage - Heat
Power Forward
Miami - Chris Bosh, Juwan Howard,
Philly - Elton Brand, Andres Nocioni,
The Bosh vs Brand battle will be the tipping point of the series. Both have stepped up their games since the All -Star break and bot are still trying to find a rhythm in their respected offenses. If Haslem can recover and come back for the playoffs it will be a huge boost for the Heat.
Advantage - Heat
Center
Miami - Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Joel Anthony, Eric Dampier, Jamaal Magloire, Dexter Pittman
Philly - Spencer Hawes, Tony Battie, Mareese Speights
Philadelphia is the one team in the east who can't really take advantage of Miami's lack of depth in the five spot. Still Miami has yet to find its true starting center all season long. It looks like big Z will go into the playoffs as the man, but it has been refreshing to see Joel Anthony start to step up as a decent bench performer.
Advantage - Tie
Yes, the heat seem to have the advantage in every category that counts. The Heat rank in the top ten in scoring, rebounds, and points allowed this season. They rank higher then Philly in each of those categories as well. Philly does hold the edge in the assist category however.
In the end this all should amount to a series sweep for Miami. (Hopefully)
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