Feast or famine trend continues for Heat. Takeaways from Miami’s loss in Houston
Without Jimmy Butler, the Miami Heat faced an uphill climb against the Houston Rockets.
An uphill climb the Heat (12-5) couldn’t overcome, with the Rockets (12-6) earning a 117-108 win on Wednesday at Toyota Center. Butler missed the game with an illness.
Down by as many as 25 points, the Heat cut the deficit all the way down to nine with less than a minute to play. But it was too late.
The Heat, which is a perfect 7-0 at AmericanAirlines Arena, fell to 5-5 on the road.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Rockets ...
1. This Heat-Rockets game looked different than the teams’ first matchup of the season.
On Nov. 3 at AmericanAirlines Arena, the Heat crushed the Rockets for a 129-100 blowout win. Miami outscored Houston 46-14 in the opening quarter of that victory, which went down as the largest margin the Heat has ever won a quarter by in franchise history.
The Rockets never led in that game and the Heat led by as many as 41 points.
On Wednesday, the Rockets won the first quarter 27-23 on their way to a nine-point win over the Heat.
The Heat took a 25-point lead into halftime of that Nov. 3 win. On Wednesday in Houston, the Heat took a 24-point deficit into halftime.
Miami shot 38.5 percent over the first two quarters.
“We were pretty inefficient offensively in the first half even when we did get open looks,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We had a lot of open looks in that first quarter. Second quarter, we just didn’t execute with efficiency and they took it from there.”
But the Heat battled back, outscoring the Rockets 66-51 in the second half. There was a point that it even seemed like a legitimate game, when the Heat pulled within 12 with 5:18 to play and the Rockets called timeout.
“We have to develop a competitive spirit when the shots aren’t going in,” Spoelstra said. “That’s what the second half was, really an exploration of competition for our guys to really understand how hard you have to compete, and to do it consistently and develop a mental grit and toughness. To do it together, particularly when things aren’t really going your way like we had in the first half.
The Heat eventually got the deficit all the way down to nine with less than a minute to play, but it was too late.
“The game is 48 minutes, not only 24,” Heat guard Goran Dragic said. “... We feel like the second half was way better. We picked up our intensity on defense, and on offense we played better. We kind of came close, but it was just not enough.”
All-Star guard James Harden led the Rockets with 34 points, six rebounds and five assists. He was 9 of 22 from the field and 7 of 17 on threes.
2. With Butler unavailable for Wednesday’s game, Dragic made his first start of the season.
Spoelstra inserted Dragic into the starting lineup in Butler’s place. The Heat started Dragic alongside Kendrick Nunn, Duncan Robinson, Meyers Leonard and Bam Adebayo for the fourth different starting lineup it has used this season.
The move was somewhat surprising, considering Dragic was used as the Heat’s sixth man in each of his first 15 games of the season (he missed one game because of an illness). But Miami needed a playmaker like Dragic in the starting group to make up for the void left by Butler, who is averaging a team-high 6.7 assists.
The 33-year-old Dragic finished with 13 points and one assist in 34 minutes.
Wednesday marked the fourth game Butler has missed this season, with the Heat posting a 2-2 record without Butler. He missed the first three games of the season while on paternity leave following the birth of his daughter.
Spoelstra said Wednesday of Butler: “He is wiped out. He’s totally out of it this morning. Very similar to what Goran had.” Dragic missed the Heat’s win over the Pelicans on Nov. 16 with a sinus infection.
Along with Butler, the Heat was without Derrick Jones Jr. (strained left hip), KZ Okpala (strained left Achilles) and Dion Waiters (team suspension) against the Rockets.
The Heat’s next game is Friday against the Warriors at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Rockets were also shorthanded, with Clint Capela (illness) and Eric Gordon (right knee) among those unavailable Wednesday.
3. After missing the previous nine games because of a concussion, forward Justise Winslow made his return Wednesday.
Winslow played off the bench in his first game back. He just recently resumed basketball work after spending time in the NBA’s concussion protocol program.
The 23-year-old Winslow finished with 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting, seven rebounds and three assists in 34 minutes in his hometown of Houston. That’s more minutes than Spoelstra was planning to play Winslow on Wednesday, but Robinson’s foul trouble and Nunn’s bruised sternum led to Winslow playing the entire fourth quarter.
“That’s just ridiculous,” Spoelstra said when asked about Winslow’s 30-plus minute night. “I had no intention of playing him that much. K-Nunn got hit in the chest. He couldn’t play. Duncan got five fouls. So thank goodness we had Justise for those minutes.”
It will be interesting to see where Winslow ends up in the Heat’s rotation. Winslow started in each of the first five games he played in this season before the concussion, but came off the bench for the first time this season Wednesday.
Will Winslow return to the starting lineup? That’s a question that still needs to be answered.
4. The Heat defended Rockets All-Star guard Russell Westbrook with ... Adebayo.
The 6-9 Adebayo began the night defending the 6-3 Westbrook, and it worked to start the game. Westbrook committed two turnovers in the first two minutes of the game.
But Westbrook managed to finish with 27 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. He also committed nine turnovers.
“Bam brought a great competitive spirit tonight. He’s our Swiss Army knife,” Spoelstra said. “I’ll put him on whoever we feel like we need him to be on. He guarded literally one through five today. Westbrook hit some contested pull-ups. When he hits those, it’s going to be really tough to contain him. But look, I have no complaints with the competitive spirit that Bam brought to the game tonight.”
For the Heat to have enough confidence to put Adebayo on Westbrook is telling. Adebayo’s ability to defend virtually every position on the court is well-documented, but to match him up against one of the league’s most athletic guards shows just how valuable and versatile Adebayo is on defense.
“I handled it pretty well,” Adebayo said of guarding Westbrook. “I forced him into tough shots, but he was making shots. He’s an All-Star. That’s my challenge. I did what I could.”
The Heat also threw some zone defense at the Rockets. Spoelstra used different looks to defend Houston’s potent offense, which entered with the league’s third-best offensive rating.
5. The turnover issue continues to follow the Heat.
Limiting turnovers has been an ongoing topic of discussion for Heat players and coaches, but putting those words into action has proven to be difficult. Miami entered Wednesday averaging a league-high 19.1 turnovers and committed 19 turnovers against Houston.
The Rockets scored 22 points off the Heat’s turnovers.
It continues to be feast or famine for the Heat, which has outscored opponents by an average margin of 14.8 points in its 12 wins and has been outscored by an average margin of 15.6 points in its five losses this season.
The Heat has played in an NBA-low two “clutch” games this season, which is defined as a game that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. That puts the Heat on pace to play 10 “clutch” games this season.
Over the previous two seasons, Miami played 98 “clutch” games.
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 10:31 PM.
