Miami Heat’s strong first half fades away in home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers
For a half, the Miami Heat looked just as impressive — and at times even better — as the Los Angeles Lakers while playing on national television.
Smart, clean basketball despite once again being without top ball handlers Justise Winslow and Goran Dragic.
Maintaining LeBron James and Anthony Davis as much as one team theoretically could maintain the duo.
And then came the third quarter, a strong push from James and Davis, and ultimately the Heat’s demise.
The Lakers went up by as many as 11 in that third period, and Miami could never recover in its 113-110 loss on Friday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Heat (18-7) cut their deficit to on a Kendrick Nunn three-pointer with 8.1 seconds left.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit one of two free throws on the other end, the Lakers rebounded, and Caldwell-Pope went 1-for-2 at the line again to give the Lakers a three-point lead with 4.2 seconds left.
Jimmy Butler’s three-point attempt at the buzzer hit off the rim.
It’s the Heat’s first loss at home this season after winning their first 11 at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Lakers, meanwhile, improve to 13-1 on the road.
Davis finished with a game-high 34 points for the Lakers (23-3), and James added 28 points of his own along with 11 assists and nine rebounds.
“Davis and LeBron are going to be who they are,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They’re Hall of Fame players. They’re going to make plays down the stretch, but I thought we did a good job on both those guys. They’re still going to be able to make plays, but those relief points really hurt us.”
Butler led Miami with 23 points, while Derrick Jones Jr tacked on 17, Nunn 16, Kelly Olynyk 15 and Bam Adebayo posted a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.
The Heat led 59-51 at the half primarily by taking advantage of a slew of Lakers miscues. Los Angeles turned the ball over 11 times in the first half — seven by James alone. The Heat turned that into 18 points.
Miami was up by as many as 14 and never trailed by more than one point in the opening 24 minutes.
The Lakers quickly changed the tune in the second half. After Kendrick Nunn took a feed from Jimmy Butler on a steal for a dunk to put the Heat up 61-51, the Lakers went on a 29-8 run over 5:41 go up 80-69. James’ 30-foot three-pointer to give Los Angeles the double-digit lead gave him 10 points in the quarter.
“We just started missing shots,” Adebayo said, “and they went on a run.”
The Heat made it close, but the Lakers never looked back.
“It’s just a learning experience,” Jones Jr. said. “We can be just as good as them any given night when we do out thing. ... You have to take away whatever you can from this loss and battle back.”
This and that
▪ The Lakers out-rebounded the Heat 50-34 on Friday, with Davis, James and Javale McGee combining for 29 of Los Angeles’ boards. Outside of Adebayo, no Heat player had more than six rebounds.
▪ After missing all six of his shots on Tuesday against the Atlanta Hawks, Tyler Herro scored 7 points on 3-for-12 shooting against the Lakers.
▪ Dragic and Winslow are not traveling with the Heat to start their upcoming three-game road trip, which begins Saturday against the Dallas Mavericks. The Heat is 0-4 in the second game of back-to-backs this season. The road trip continues Monday against the Memphis Grizzlies and Wednesday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 9:41 PM.
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