Sixers star Joel Embiid evaluates his performance in road loss to Heat

MIAMI -- The Philadelphia 76ers came up short to the Miami Heat in a critical loss in terms of the playoff standings. The Heat now own the all-important tiebreaker should they find a way to catch the Sixers in the standings. Philadelphia is currently 1.

5 games ahead of Miami with seven games to go. Joel Embiid scored 26 points on the night, but he shot only 10-for-25 and he seemed a step slow on the defensive end, especially when the Heat made the game-changing run to seal it. He got off to solid start as he had nine points in the opening quarter and had 14 by halftime, but he shot only 1-for-5 in the third and was a minus-15 in the quarter as Miami went on a surge after halftime.

After a rest, Embiid returned to score 10 points in the fourth, but missed some critical ones late. "Keep getting better," Embiid said after the loss. "I thought tonight we had stretches where we were pretty good, but then some were not.

I was a big part of that. I gotta be better. So, yeah, I was terrible tonight.