A slump or time to worry? A closer look at Heat’s recent struggles after another bad loss
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 129-126 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves (17-40) on Wednesday at AmericanAirlines Arena.
1. The Heat’s week just keeps getting worse.
After Monday’s painful loss to the rebuilding Cleveland Cavaliers, the Heat (36-22) fell to the struggling Timberwolves in another painful defeat Wednesday. Minnesota entered with a 1-18 record over its past 19 games.
“This league is not easy, that’s why we play an 82-game season,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We go through the ups and downs and this is where we find out where we are as a basketball team.”
Even though the Timberwolves kept it close for most of the night, it looked like the Heat had taken control with an 11-point lead with 3:35 to play. But Minnesota responded with an 11-0 run to tie the score at 123 with 45.7 seconds to play.
From there, the teams traded points and two Jimmy Butler free throws put the Heat ahead 126-125 with 13.8 seconds to play. But Minnesota would not go away, as Jordan McLaughlin drove for a layup to give the Timberwolves a one-point lead with 8.5 seconds remaining.
With no timeouts left for the Heat, Butler then took the ball the length of the court and missed potentially a game-winning layup with 3.2 seconds to play.
Bam Adebayo was then forced to take an intentional foul with 1.2 seconds remaining and Jake Layman made both free throws to extend Minnesota’s lead to three.
Since the Heat had no timeouts left, the Heat needed to go the length of the court with just a second left to tie the game. But Jae Crowder’s inbound pass was stolen and the game ended.
This recent stretch has been alarming for the Heat. Miami is 2-7 in its past nine games, with five losses to sub-.500 teams (to the Sacramento Kings, Portland Trail Blazers, Atlanta Hawks, Cavaliers and Timberwolves) included in there.
Zoom out even further, and the Heat is 12-14 since starting the season with a 24-8 record.
“This is the time we need to win,” guard Goran Dragic said. “The playoffs are around the corner and it’s just frustrating because it feels like we’re not the same as we were the first half of the season and something needs to happen. We need to fix this ship quickly and try to figure out. Because with this kind of game, we don’t have a chance in the playoffs.”
Is this just a slump? Or is this something bigger the Heat really needs to worry about?
“This is ultimately how we will get better with it,” Spoelstra said. “For whatever reason, this team, we will have to go through a little bit of pain together to be able to correct some things and improve.”
2. One of the concerning aspects regarding the Heat’s recent struggles is its defense.
Miami allowed Minnesota’s sub-par offense to score 129 points on 51.6 percent shooting from the field and 17-of-46 shooting on threes. Timberwolves guard D’Angelo Russell scored 27 with the help of 7-of-14 shooting on three-pointers.
Minnesota owns the league’s 22nd-best offensive rating.
“We need to put together a game where you play solid defense,” Dragic said. “... We feel like we have gaps where it’s eight minutes of just bad basketball defensively.”
Wednesday’s defensive performance came just two nights after the Cavaliers scored 125 points on 43.9 percent shooting against the Heat on Monday. Cleveland was able to find efficient offense when it mattered most, scoring 45 points on 17-of-30 shooting during the fourth quarter and overtime to upset Miami.
The Heat has been working to improve its defense, which has been statistically mediocre, for most of the season. Miami holds the NBA’s 14th-best defensive rating and eighth-best offensive rating.
This is an unusual spot for the Heat to be in, as it has finished with a top-10 defense in four consecutive seasons. The last time Miami finished a season with a top-10 offense was in the final year of the Big 3 era in 2013-14.
And the Heat’s defense has been especially bad during this current 2-7 stretch. Miami’s defensive rating is ranked No. 22 in the league (allowing 114.1 points per 100 possessions) over the past nine games.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the issue is with the Heat’s defense. But rim protection is certainly one of the problems, with Miami allowing opponents to shoot the NBA’s third-highest percentage on shots from inside the restricted area this season at 66.1 percent.
Also, teams have just started to make threes against the Heat.
For the season, Miami is holding opponents to the second-lowest three-point shooting percentage in the NBA at 34.1 percent. But over this current 2-7 stretch, Heat opponents have averaged 16.3 made threes per game on 40.4 percent shooting from deep.
3. The Heat’s play in “clutch” time is also concerning. Miami has given up late leads in each of its last three losses.
The Heat led by five points with 1:51 to play against the Hawks on Feb. 20, and lost.
The Heat led by 22 points with 1:28 remaining in the third quarter against the Cavaliers on Monday, and lost.
The Heat led by 12 with 3:59 to play against the Timberwolves on Wednesday, and lost.
A “clutch” game is defined as a game that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. In those three losses, the Heat was outscored by a combined score of 50-27 in “clutch” time.
“It’s good that the thing we need to work on is when we get double-digit leads,” Spoelstra said. “It shows that we are able to get to that point. We just need to close out and finish these games and go through the pain. We can’t deflect it, make excuses or point blame about it.”
Miami is shooting 9 of 32 from the field, 1 of 11 on threes and 8 of 12 on free throws during this three-game span of “clutch” games. Meanwhile, the Hawks, Cavaliers and Timberwolves have combined to shoot 15 of 34 from the field, 4 of 11 on threes and 16 of 19 on free throws in the “clutch” during this stretch
Aside from Adebayo, who has scored 10 of Miami’s 27 “clutch” points on 4-of-7 shooting during this span of games, the rest of the Heat’s roster has combined to score 17 points on 5-of-25 shooting in the “clutch.” Dragic has five “clutch” points on 1-of-5 shooting, Butler has four “clutch” points on 1-of-6 shooting and Crowder has three “clutch” points on 1-of-5 shooting during this stretch.
“I feel like we’re just stagnant and the way we played today,” Adebayo said of the Heat’s recent late-game struggles, “I feel like we weren’t having fun like we usually have and I feel like we’ve got to get back to really enjoying the game.”
The Heat seems to really be missing Tyler Herro, who sat out his ninth consecutive Wednesday due to a sore right ankle. Herro, a rookie, has 34 points on an efficient 12-of-23 shooting from the field and 8-of-15 shooting on threes in the “clutch” this season.
Along with Herro, Heat center Meyers Leonard also missed his ninth consecutive game Wednesday because of a sprained left ankle.
4. But the Heat’s All-Star duo of Adebayo and Butler was available against the Timberwolves. Not even that was enough.
Adebayo was listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game because of a sprained right ankle, but he played through the pain to finish with 22 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in 33 minutes.
Adebayo has now played in 144 consecutive regular-season games, which is the fourth-longest streak in franchise history behind only Norris Cole (160 games), Grant Long (161 games) and Glen Rice (174 games). The last game Adebayo missed came in a home win over the Hawks on April 3, 2018.
As for Butler, he returned to the court after missing the previous two games because of personal reasons. Butler finished Wednesday’s loss with 18 points on 4-of-10 shooting, four rebounds and nine assists in 35 minutes.
5. The Heat suffered a rare home loss and couldn’t take advantage of a Philadelphia 76ers loss.
With Wednesday’s defeat, Miami fell to 23-4 at AmericanAirlines Arena this season. But this was the Heat’s first bad home loss of the season, as the first three came against quality opponents — the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Boston Celtics.
The fourth-place Heat also had a chance to extend its lead over the fifth-place 76ers in the Eastern Conference standings. The 76ers fell to the Cavaliers on Wednesday, but Miami’s lead over Philadelphia in the East standings remained at one-half game.
The Heat is two games ahead of the No. 6 Indiana Pacers.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 11:53 PM.
