Takeaways from Heat’s loss to Spurs. And why the Heat wasn’t too upset about this one
The Miami Heat is searching for consistency on the road, and the search continues.
The Heat (29-13) followed up its impressive road win in Oklahoma City with a 107-102 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday at AT&T Center. Miami dropped to 11-12 on the road, but has a league-best 18-1 record at home.
The Heat led by three with 5:18 to play, but the Spurs closed the game on a 12-4 run to rally for the win.
“Of course, we would like to win both games on the road, but we won the first one. And in both games, we showed grit,” Heat guard Goran Dragic said. “We showed we can play and we just need to keep pushing. Sooner or later, things are going to turn our way.”
Trailing by three, the Heat had a chance to tie the game twice in the final minute. But Jimmy Butler miss a three-pointer with 44 seconds to play and Duncan Robinson missed another three pointer with 10.5 seconds to play.
Spurs guard Marco Belinelli then made two free throws with 6.6 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
Following Sunday’s afternoon game in San Antonio, the Heat is right back at it with a Monday matchup against the Sacramento Kings at AmericanAirlines Arena to complete the road-and-home back-to-back set. Six of the Heat’s next seven games come at home.
Five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Spurs (18-23) ...
1. After the game, Heat coaches and players weren’t too upset about the loss.
Butler, who has vented his frustration regarding the Heat’s effort after multiple losses this season, said: “I actually like the way we competed.”
This was one that came down to a couple of shots, and the Spurs just made more down the stretch. After taking a three-point lead with 5:18 to play, the Heat missed seven of its final eight shots — Dragic missed a layup, Butler missed two layups, Meyers Leonard missed a three-point shot, Butler missed a pull-up three, Robinson missed a three, and Bam Adebayo missed a three in the final seconds.
The Spurs weren’t much better, making only three of their final 14 shots of the game. But it was enough, with San Antonio also making nine free throws in the fourth quarter.
“It is what it is,” Butler said. “Obviously, we want to win them all. This is definitely a hard place to win. A tough team to go up against at that. But all the shots that we missed tonight, we will make next time.”
Despite all of this, the Heat still had chances in the final minute to tie the score. While the 6-7 Butler’s missed three with 44 seconds remaining was contested by the 6-5 Belinelli, the 6-7 Robinson’s missed three that would have tied the game with 10.5 seconds was in stride and in rhythm and was contested by the 6-1 Patty Mills.
“We got two looks at it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of those two missed threes. “That’s why I’m saying, these type of games can be decided by three or four plays, but they can be at any point. But you just remember those things at the end. I’ll take a Duncan Robinson in transition in the flow three and I’ll take two looks at it with Jimmy. He had good stuff going down the stretch. I’ll take all of those.”
The Heat went 0 of 7 on threes in the fourth quarter.
“This game, when it gets this competitive and it becomes a possession game down the stretch, it can be decided by a make or miss,” Spoelstra said. “It kind of was going down the stretch.”
All of this is why the Heat didn’t feel effort was the problem Sunday. It was just one of those games that came down to a few makes and misses, and a few loose balls that went the Spurs’ way.
“We got some good looks,” Adebayo said. “That’s the thing about basketball — it’s round and it doesn’t always go in. We missed a couple of shots. But other than that, throughout the game, I feel like we did a pretty good job.”
Even after Sunday’s defeat, the Heat has fared well in close games this season with a 12-6 record in “clutch” games — defined as a game that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. Miami is 5-5 in “clutch” games on the road.
2. Adebayo is becoming more of an offensive threat as each game passes.
Not only has Adebayo now scored double-digit points in 21 consecutive games, but he’s also averaging 17.8 points on 11.8 shot attempts, 10.7 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 24 games since the start of December.
Adebayo was an all-around force once again Sunday with 21 points, 16 rebounds, six assists and two steals.
Adebayo, 22, has been more decisive and aggressive on the offensive end in recent weeks. He averaged 13.8 points on 8.5 shot attempts over his first 18 games of the season.
“It’s huge because he does everything so well,” Butler said of Adebayo’s aggressive offensive approach. “So whenever he’s scoring the ball, he’s definitely going to be able to get everybody else involved. But his confidence just grows as you see that ball go in the basket. Not only see it go in the basket, but he’s really good at putting it in the basket.”
For a player who averaged 8.9 points on 5.9 shot attempts last season, Adebayo has shown tremendous growth in all areas.
3. With rookie guard Tyler Herro returning from a left knee bruise that kept him out of the previous two games, Spoelstra used a 10-man rotation in San Antonio.
Spoelstra has used a nine-man rotation for the past few weeks, with big man Kelly Olynyk recently out of the rotation when Herro was healthy. But during Herro’s two-game absence due to injury, Olynyk returned to the rotation in his place and was sharp with 12 points, seven rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes in Friday’s win over the Thunder.
With Herro available Sunday, Spoelstra played both Herro and Olynyk as part of a 10-man rotation (Kendrick Nunn, Butler, Robinson, Leonard, Adebayo, Dragic, Derrick Jones Jr., James Johnson, Herro and Olynyk) in San Antonio. The Heat went 10 deep in the first quarter, alone.
But Spoelstra tightened the rotation in the second half, playing only nine over the final two quarters. Olynyk did not play in the second half.
In Herro’s return from injury, he went scoreless on 0-of-2 shooting in nine minutes. Herro turns 20 on Monday.
“Coach put me in the rotation again right away,” Herro said of his return. “I had my opportunity, but not my usual production. Just try to get back in rhythm and get my feel back.”
Herro said he suffered the bruise on his left knee in Tuesday’s practice with a knee-to-knee collision. How did it feel after playing Sunday?
“Feels good. I got some treatment after the game,” Herro said. “I should be good, get some more treatment on the way back to Miami and be back at it tomorrow.”
In Olynyk’s third consecutive game played after four consecutive DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision), he also went scoreless on 0-of-2 shooting in seven minutes.
4. Nunn continues to prove his offensive game is sustainable over the course of an 82-game season.
The Heat’s rookie guard finished Sunday’s loss with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes while also dishing out four assists in 36 minutes.
Over the past four games, Nunn has averaged 23.3 points on 60.9 percent shooting from the field and 52.2 percent shooting on threes.
Nunn is second among NBA rookies in scoring at 16 points per game behind only Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (17.9 points). While Nunn is older than most rookies at 24 after going undrafted out of Oakland in 2018 and spending last season in the G League, this type of scoring from a first-year NBA player is still impressive.
To put it into perspective, Dwyane Wade holds the top scoring average for a Heat rookie in franchise history at 16.2 points per game in 2003-04. Nunn isn’t far off that pace.
5. The Heat hasn’t won many games in San Antonio, and it lost another one Sunday.
With Sunday’s loss, the Heat’s all-time regular-season record in San Antonio fell to 4-28. If you include the team’s Finals matchups in there, the Heat’s all-time record in San Antonio is now 6-32.
In other words, road wins over the Spurs have been rare for the Heat.
But it’s not like the Spurs have been a dominant home team this season, with a 12-10 record at AT&T Center this season. San Antonio posted a much better 32-9 home record last season.
The Heat has still won three of its last four overall games against the Spurs, sweeping the season series last season and defeating the Spurs in the teams’ first matchup of the season on Wednesday in Miami.
This story was originally published January 19, 2020 at 5:30 PM.
