Takeaways and notes from shorthanded Heat’s loss to Kings. Miami now 0-2 to start trip
Just two nights after allowing the most made threes it has allowed in a game in franchise history, the Miami Heat was hurt by the three ball again Friday.
The Sacramento Kings (20-31) shot 19 of 44 from three-point range on their way to a 105-97 win over the shorthanded Heat (34-17) at Golden 1 Center. Miami has begun its five-game West Coast trip with a 0-2 record and dropped to 12-14 overall on the road this season.
“I think overall we just didn’t play a smart game,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We had a lot of mental errors, mental breakdowns. The majority of them in the first half, we were just slow with our next play speed and missing coverages, basic coverages. It doesn’t guarantee anything, whether we were in the zone or the man, it doesn’t matter.”
With the Los Angeles Clippers making a franchise record 24 threes on Wednesday, the Heat has allowed 43 made threes over the past two games.
Miami is allowing 37.8 three-point attempts per game, which is the third-highest in the league, but it’s also holding opponents to a league-low 33.4 percent on threes this season. The threes have been going in over the past two games, though.
“When you play zone, it’s hard. But no excuses,” guard Goran Dragic said. “You need to cover more ground and you can see that teams are preparing now for this. Especially the Clippers and Sacramento. They attacked the zone differently. They have a lot of shooters and sometimes we were just too slow to challenge those shots.”
Next up for the Heat is a Sunday matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Kings ...
1. With the Heat’s three newly-acquired players not yet ready to play and the team’s long injury list, Miami had just 10 available players against the Kings.
The three players the Heat got back in this week’s trade — Andre Iguodala, Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill — were with the team in Sacramento. But with physicals still being completed and the trio having just joined the team, they were held out Friday. The hope is Crowder and Hill will make their Heat debut on Sunday against the Trail Blazers, with the timetable for Iguodala’s debut more uncertain since he has not played in an NBA game in eight months.
“Quite a bit,” Spoelstra said of the lift he expects the team to receive with the three new players possibly making their Heat debuts Sunday. “Even in shootaround today, there was a different energy to it. Guys are excited. Our energy even out here tonight was good. So we’re just looking forward to getting to Portland and getting our guys. Hopefully, everybody will be able to do something tomorrow and we’ll go from there.”
As for the Heat’s injuries, Jimmy Butler (strained right shoulder), Tyler Herro (right ankle soreness), Meyers Leonard (sprained left ankle) and Kyle Alexander (hyper-extended right knee and PCL sprain) were not available to play against the Kings. Butler, Herro and Alexander are with the Heat on the trip, but Leonard remained in Miami and is expected to miss the entire trip.
Because of all of this, the Heat had just 10 available players against the Kings. Miami went with a starting lineup of Kendrick Nunn, Duncan Robinson, Derrick Jones Jr., Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo.
That left a bench of Dragic, Udonis Haslem, KZ Okpala, Chris Silva and Gabe Vincent. Take away Dragic, and the Heat’s other four reserves who were available Friday had combined to play in just 42 games this season entering the night.
2. With so many key players out, Adebayo took a more aggressive offensive approach Friday.
Adebayo finished with 26 points on 12-of-16 shooting, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks. He entered averaging 15.9 points on 10.6 shot attempts this season.
The shorthanded roster seemed to push Adebayo to take a more assertive approach than usual. He even had a few highlight dunks, including one over two Kings players in the fourth quarter while being fouled.
Along with Adebayo, Nunn took on an even bigger offensive role than usual with the Heat’s shorthanded roster. Nunn finished with 16 points on 6-of-19 shooting.
3. The thin roster also led to playing time for Okpala, one of the Heat’s rookies.
Okpala, who was acquired by the Heat this past summer in a draft-night trade with the second pick in the second round (No. 32 overall), had logged just five minutes of playing time over four NBA games entering Friday. Most of Okpala’s work has come in the G League this season, as he has played in 17 games with the Sioux Falls Skyforce and has turned in quality performances recently.
But with all of the Heat’s injuries and the team in a transition phase after Thursday’s trade, Okpala played a season-high 21 minutes Friday. He scored his first NBA points during the outing, finishing with seven points, four rebounds, two steals and a block.
“I liked what he brought,” Spoelstra said of Okpala. “I thought he was pretty dynamic, particularly at the top of the zone. He’s so long. It seems like he can go from one sideline to the other with his wingspan and lateral quickness. He has gotten a lot better since he left us and went to Sioux Falls. He’s getting great coaching, he’s getting a lot of minutes, he’s earning everything he’s getting there, he’s taking in all the practices and extra sessions. I’m encouraged by that because what it shows me is the last month over there has been very productive.”
The Heat’s plan for the 20-year-old Okpala was for him to continue to get game experience in the G League this season, even as he counts toward the team’s 15-man roster while on a standard contract. But Miami’s injury issues changed things.
“It was fun to be out there,” Okpala said.
Okpala, who played two college seasons at Stanford, has said the biggest adjustment for him has been the way the Heat has used him to start his NBA career. Okpala (6-8, 215 pounds) played with the ball in his hands in college, but the Heat has asked him to play as more of a power forward who sets screens and runs most of his offensive actions off the ball.
4. The Heat’s turnover problem made an appearance in Sacramento, and that didn’t help matters.
After committing a total of 12 turnovers in its previous two games, the Heat committed 11 turnovers in the first half alone Friday. Miami finished with 20 turnovers, with Sacramento scoring 31 points off those mistakes.
“We were just not careful with the ball,” Dragic said. “Of course, too many turnovers. But yeah, it’s everything. Spacing, triggers, especially they were switching a lot so it’s tough to get a trigger. From there on, maybe we forced it a little bit too much.”
The Heat’s duo of Adebayo and Dragic combined to commit 12 of the Heat’s turnovers Friday.
“Our mainstays had probably 15 of the turnovers,” Spoelstra said. “Guys that are fully in the rotation. It had nothing to do with the guys that we’re plugging in. We just didn’t take care of the basketball. Those were the guys that have been playing the majority of the minutes.”
Miami struggled with high-turnover games earlier this season, but seemed to solve that issue recently. The Heat entered Friday averaging an acceptable 11.3 turnovers per game over its previous 15 games.
“I hope it’s an aberration,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve been taking care of the ball a lot better. I think our team enjoys scoring 115, 120, 125 points. We probably would have had close to that tonight if we just had our regular number of turnovers.”
The Heat’s inefficient 17-of-25 night from the free-throw line didn’t help either.
“Our guys competed. It wasn’t a matter of that,” Spoelstra said. “That’s why I think everybody just needs to take a step back. I’m sure everybody is thinking we didn’t do this, we didn’t do that. The mental game is where we fell short. Guys laid it out there, guys earned their ice physically. But mentally, we weren’t sharp and a lot of mistakes, mental mistakes and you have too many of those and you turn the ball over like we did, you’re not really giving yourself a real chance to win on the road like we have been.”
5. The Heat looks comfortable in that No. 4 spot in the Eastern Conference.
With Miami dropping its second consecutive game, the Heat fell two games behind the third-place Boston Celtics and 3.5 games behind the second-place Toronto Raptors.
And Miami is now three games ahead of the fifth-place Philadelphia 76ers and 3.5 games ahead of the sixth-place Indiana Pacers.
For as jumbled as spots two through six in the East have been throughout the season, the Heat seems to have a strong grip on fourth place ... for now. There’s still a long way to go.
“It’s frustrating,” Adebayo said of the Heat’s loss Friday. “I feel like we take two steps forward sometimes and we fall three steps back. But it’s a learning process. You got to learn to adapt and figure things out. The biggest thing we got to figure out is our road game and defense and limit the turnovers.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2020 at 12:28 AM.
