Philadelphia ? Did you really think games like this would just disappear?

That games with point guard failures and questionable execution and late-game malfunctions would just stop happening because the playoffs were here, or because the Sixers were the opponent, or because they weren’t issues in the first three games of the postseason?

The odds were too good that it would happen again. That Chris Bosh would be relegated to distant jumpers for a game and relatively inactive on the glass. That a brain freeze defensively would bite the Heat in a critical possession. That LeBron James would have the ball in his hands with a chance to save the game and not finish the deal.

And it did. Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center, the Heat looked more like the team that played here Oct. 27 and less like the one that put on a clinic here just a few days earlier.

Here’s the difference, though, when it happens during a playoff series in which the Heat leads: there are options on how to perceive the Game 4 loss.

It could be viewed as a sign of things to come as the playoffs progress and teams get tougher and moments bigger. Or it could be looked at as an obstacle the size of a speed bump, because the playoffs allow for brief lapses as long as the overall numbers are in your favor. And as far as the Heat’s concerned, the team is still succeeding at a 75 percent clip, which would be more than good enough if it lasts for an entire postseason.

But this is the Heat. Nothing is understated with this group. Nothing can be brushed aside or dismissed as an anomaly. Especially not when we have seen all of these elements several times in the regular season.

Start at the end. With eight seconds left and the Heat trailing by two, there was LeBron with the ball in his hands in the clutch. It was the first time he really had that chance since early March, when he apologized for failing his team in those situations multiple times.

But this result was the same. He drove past Andre Iguodala but couldn’t score. Elton Brand blocked his shot just like Amare Stoudemire did on a similar play Feb. 27.

The questions there range from why can’t LeBron finally hit one of those shots to why isn’t Dwyane Wade taking it to begin with.

And the truth is nobody has a really good answer for any of them. The preferred response Sunday was that it shouldn’t have come down to that play. That the failure in the final play was just a continuation of failures throughout the game that were the real reason the loss.

Fine then. Change the question.

Why did the Heat revert to poor execution now, when for three games it looked like the ball movement and floor balance had become second nature to this bunch?

The best answer came from Bosh. And frankly, it wasn’t a comforting one for Heat fans to hear.

“Sometimes you get a little tight,” Bosh said. “It is tougher to execute down the stretch. When the attention is focused on the last minute of the game, it’s tough to execute your offense. It’s easy to trust when you’re up 2-0, 3-0.

“We’re gonna have to trust each other.”

So in a game where the only pressure was to sweep, the team got tight and failed to execute? That can’t be an encouraging thought.

If the Heat recovers in Game 5 and closes out the series Wednesday, this Game 4 failure won’t have a lingering effect. There won’t be persistent questions about whether Spoelstra trusts Mike Bibby and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (a combined one point in 24 minutes), or whether the Heat’s shortened rotation will mean trouble later.

That’s the way the playoffs work. The Heat wasn’t going to rid itself of games like this just because the calendar says late April.

How many more of these clunkers are left is the bigger question. For the time being, it’s safe to call it a minor inconvenience.