Waiters makes season debut and Butler sprains ankle. Takeaways from Heat’s second home loss
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 122-117 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers (32-14) on Friday at AmericanAirlines Arena ...
1. With the Heat (31-14) missing two of its top four scorers, guard Dion Waiters finally made his season debut after a turbulent start to the season.
After serving three team-issued suspensions over the first two months of the season, Waiters played for the first time this season in the Heat’s 45th game. With guards Goran Dragic (left calf soreness) and Kendrick Nunn (left Achilles soreness) unavailable, coach Erik Spoelstra turned to Waiters to fill the void.
Waiters, 28, entered the game with 1:38 remaining in the first quarter to a loud standing ovation from the home crowd. His first stint of the season lasted six minutes, as he recorded six points and one rebound during that stretch.
Waiters’ best minutes of the night came in the fourth quarter, when he scored 11 on 4-of-7 shooting while playing the entire period. He was the driving force behind the Heat’s late 14-5 run that cut the Clippers’ lead to three with 13.5 seconds to play.
Waiters ended the night with 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 shooting on threes, four rebounds and one assist in 18 minutes off the bench.
Waiters exited the locker room without speaking to the media following Friday’s loss. He is expected to speak to reporters after Sunday’s practice.
“He has been putting in time. It’s similar to what [James Johnson] did, similar to [Kelly Olynyk],” Spoelstra said of Waiters. “We need everybody. Inevitably during a long NBA season, you need everybody to contribute. It’s not always necessarily going to be on your terms. But the last two or three weeks, he has just been a lot more consistent. When I called him [to let him know he would play], in his typical Dion fashion, he said: ‘I’m ready.’ It was good to have him back out there.”
How did Waiters get here?
Waiters’ first suspension of the season was for one game for the Oct. 23 season opener against the Grizzlies, for what the team called unprofessional conduct.
The second suspension was for 10 games for conduct detrimental to the team related to a series of events involving Waiters that began with complaining about playing time in the preseason and an alarming medical situation on the Heat’s flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles on the night of Nov. 7. The medical situation was reportedly due to Waiters ingesting a THC-infused gummy.
The third suspension lasted six games and was issued for various reasons. But it was partly due to Waiters posting video on Instagram of himself on a boat when he told the team he was unable to practice or play because of an illness, according to a source.
Between the three separate punishments, Waiters has been suspended for a total of 17 games and has lost about $1.4 million of his $12.1 million salary for this season. He also will miss out on the $1.2 million bonus in his contract for appearing in at least 70 of Miami’s 82 games.
The question is: What happens with Waiters when Dragic and Nunn return? It will probably be hard for him to find a consistent spot in the Heat’s already crowded rotation.
2. The first seven minutes of the game belonged to the Heat, but the third quarter belonged to the Clippers. And that was enough for the Clippers to win.
With a fast start, the Heat opened up an impressive 24-9 lead over the Clippers in the first 6:57 of the game. Miami shot 60 percent from the field and 4 of 7 on threes during this stretch, while Los Angeles missed 12 of its first 16 shots of the night.
But after the Heat ended the first quarter with a 30-22 lead, the Clippers outscored the Heat 100-87 the rest of the way to overcome their early struggles.
Los Angeles won the game behind a dominant third quarter. The Clippers won the period 38-20 behind 56.5 percent shooting from the field and an incredible 8-of-12 shooting on threes to enter the fourth quarter with a 16-point lead.
“Our guys did a lot of good things,” Spoelstra said. “That stretch, if we could have gotten our hands around that and controlled the game at the end of the third quarter. Once it started rolling down hill, we just couldn’t stop the momentum.”
All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers’ third-quarter charge with 17 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field and 3-of-3 shooting on threes, three rebounds and four assists in the period. Leonard finished with 33 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the first triple-double of his NBA career.
From there, the Clippers led by as many as 18 points before the Heat cut the deficit to three with less than a minute to play. That was the closest Miami got.
“Obviously, Leonard in that second half was as good as it gets in this league,” Spoelstra said. “Knocking down threes, we started to crowd him. He started to put the ball on the floor, broke us down, got to the free-throw line. Pretty much all of the above. We were able to get past that and make some plays in the fourth quarter. We just weren’t able to overcome that rough stretch.”
The Clippers won without Paul George (hamstring strain) and Patrick Beverley (sore groin) Friday.
3. It was a rough night for Jimmy Butler.
Butler was poked in the eye early in the game. He then turned his right ankle after landing awkwardly on a three-point shot attempt. He rolled his right ankle again in the fourth quarter, exiting the game with 6:09 to play and never returning after heading back to the locker room.
As if that series of events wasn’t enough, Butler was already dealing with a sore right knee that had him listed as questionable for Friday’s matchup against the Clippers.
Butler finished the loss with 20 points on 6-of-15 shooting, eight rebounds and seven assists in 30 minutes before leaving the game early with a sprained right ankle.
Butler did not speak to the media following Friday’s loss, as he left the locker room before postgame interviews began.
“It’s a sprain. We’ll have to re-evaluate,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t even like commenting after sprained ankles. You have to wait until the next day to see how a guy feels. He’s getting treatment already and we’ll just go from there. The same thing with Goran and K-Nunn. At least we have a couple days before the next game and it will give them an opportunity to really get in the training room and get some treatment.”
The Heat’s next game is Monday against the Orlando Magic at AmericanAirlines Arena.
4. In guard Rodney McGruder’s first game at AmericanAirlines Arena since he was waived by the Heat with just days remaining in the 2018-19 regular season, he was welcomed by a warm ovation.
Before Friday’s game, McGruder admitted he was initially surprised by the Heat’s decision to waive him. Miami made the move to avoid paying a luxury tax, and it also opened a roster spot to sign undrafted guard Kendrick Nunn on the final day of the 2018-19 regular season.
It worked out for McGruder, too, as the Clippers ended up claiming him just days later and then signed him to a three-year, $15 million contract this past summer.
In his return to AmericanAirlines Arena, McGruder finished with one point and one rebound in 12 minutes.
“It was one of the hardest moments,” Spoelstra said when asked Friday about last season’s decision to release McGruder. “We had to do that on an airplane after a brutal loss in Toronto. He was one of the guys that we were really connected with. We’ll do anything for guys like Rodney, guys who make it when so many doors are closed.
“One of the great moments was in summer league when we were all in Las Vegas at Topgolf. Rodney had just signed his deal with the Clippers. We wanted to celebrate with him. He came by and he got a hug from everybody on the staff. He’s that kind of guy. He has had that kind of impact on this organization and this community. He’ll have a lifetime recommendation from us. He earned it.”
Undrafted out of Kansas State in 2013, McGruder helped lead the Heat’s G League affiliate to a championship in 2015-16 before earning an NBA contract with the Heat after impressing Miami during summer league play in 2016. He appeared in 162 games for the Heat over three seasons, with 112 starts, and averaged 6.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists.
5. The Heat lost at AmericanAirlines Arena for just the second time this season on Friday.
Miami, which entered with the league’s best home record, dropped to 20-2 at AmericanAirlines Arena this season.
The Heat’s kryptonite at home? Los Angeles teams, with Miami’s only two losses at home coming against the Lakers on Dec. 13 and the Clippers on Friday. The Heat’s two losses at AmericanAirlines Arena have come by a combined eight points.
“We’ve built a place where it’s hard to win here,” Heat big man Bam Adebayo said. “If you win here, you’ve got to do some extravagant things and they’ve got a player over there that actually did that tonight. I think it was like three minutes they went on an 18-0 run. We’ve got to learn how to cut that water off and it starts with me and Jimmy being out there, and just trying to control the tempo.”
Miami has a long way to go to reach its franchise record of home wins in a season — 37 home wins in the 2012-13 season. The Heat finished last season with an underwhelming 19-22 record at AmericanAirlines Arena.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 10:57 PM.
