Takeaways, details from Heat’s painful overtime loss. Adebayo: ‘We’ve got to guard our yard’
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 129-121 overtime loss to the Charlotte Hornets (10-11) on Monday at AmericanAirlines Arena:
The Heat (7-13) had nearly its full roster available for the first time in about a month, but the night still ended with a disappointing loss.
Monday marked the first game that Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic and Tyler Herro have all been available for since Jan. 9. In fact, the four had logged just 20 minutes together this season before Monday because of a combination of COVID-19 protocol issues and injuries that have kept them out.
The Heat had 14 available players against the Hornets.
Moe Harkless (left thigh contusion), Meyers Leonard (left shoulder strain) and Chris Silva (left hip flexor strain) were the only three out. Leonard, who has missed 12 straight games, is away from the team to receive consultation from a doctor on his injured shoulder.
Herro, who was questionable and missed Sunday’s practice because of the NBA’s health and safety protocols, was available Monday after he said Saturday that a person he lives with recently tested positive for COVID-19. The fact that Herro was cleared to play against Charlotte indicates that either the housemate’s test result turned out to be a false-positive or Herro was not deemed a close contact in the case that his housemate’s positive test was confirmed.
Dragic made his return Monday after missing the previous three games because of a left groin strain. And Heat guard Avery Bradley also returned after missing the previous two games with a right knee contusion.
But Bradley, Dragic and Herro all had their struggled against the Hornets.
Bradley finished scoreless and missed all four of his shots in 20 minutes.
Dragic’s return included a stat line of three points on 1-of-9 shooting, seven rebounds and eight assists in 25 minutes.
Herro finished with 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting, three rebounds and eight assists.
With more players available, the Heat’s rotation looked a little different on Monday.
Coach Erik Spoelstra turned to the starting lineup of Herro, Duncan Robinson, Butler, Kelly Olynyk and Adebayo for the fourth time this season.
The Heat’s bench rotation included Max Strus, Precious Achiuwa, Goran Dragic, Avery Bradley and Andre Iguodala.
Strus was one of the bright spot for Miami, finishing with 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting on threes and two rebounds in 20 minutes. He was especially impressive in the first half with 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting on threes.
Kendrick Nunn, KZ Okpala, Gabe Vincent and Udonis Haslem were the four available Heat players who did not get in against the Hornets.
The Heat went ahead by 10 points with 3:11 left in regulation, and the Hornets took over from there. Guard Malik Monk led the way for Charlotte.
Charlotte outscored Miami 12-2 in the final 2:47 of regulation to force overtime. Monk hit a three-pointer over Adebayo in front of the Heat’s bench with 16.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie the score, and Butler came down and missed what would have been a game-winning three at the buzzer.
The Hornets then outscored the Heat 16-8 in overtime to run away with the win. Charlotte shot 5 of 6 from the field in the extra period, targeting Herro and Robinson’s defense on switches late in the game.
“We’ve got to contain our matchup,” Adebayo said. “We’ve got to guard our yard. That’s really what it was.
“We’ve just got to guard, man. Like I said earlier, we’ve just got to guard our matchups, stay in front of them. We can shrink as much as we want. At the end of the day, we’ve got to guard our yard.”
Miami missed five of its final six shots in regulation and shot 2 of 9 in overtime.
“We just were not able to get any kind of stops down the stretch,” Spoelstra said. “They had a three-point play, then another drive and then just lining us up and they were basically scoring going down the stretch. ... At the end of the day, if you get a double-digit lead, you got to find a way to get stops to finish it off and we weren’t able to do it.”
The collapse came after Butler scored eight straight points for the Heat in the fourth quarter to help build Miami’s 10-point advantage that eventually slipped away. Butler ended the night with a team-high 25 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field and 7-of-10 shooting from the foul line to go with nine rebounds, five assists and four steals in 37 minutes.
Butler declined to speak to the media following Monday’s loss.
Monk was the star of the night, finishing with a career-high 36 points on 9-of-13 shooting on threes.
The Heat’s three-point defense is an area to watch.
Miami’s defensive system is one that works to limit shots at the rim, but also gives up a lot of three-point attempts.
The shot profile of Heat opponents indicates that defensive strategy is in place. Miami is limiting opponents to the second-fewest shot attempts from inside the restricted area (21.7) per game and is allowing the second-most three-point attempts (41.3) per game in the NBA this season.
The problem is opponents are also making a lot of threes against the Heat this season. Teams are averaging 15.8 made threes on 38.3 percent shooting from deep against Miami’s defense.
The Hornets won behind efficient 21-of-41 (51.2 percent) shooting on threes.
Last season? Heat opponents averaged 13.1 made threes on 34.7 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
The slippage in this area is hurting the Heat, especially in close games like Monday’s loss.
The Heat’s defensive rating (allowing 111.5 points per 100 possessions) ranks 22nd in the NBA. Miami’s offensive rating (scoring 105.9 points per 100 possessions) ranks 26th.
“The NBA is just getting more and more difficult to figure out schemes,” Adebayo said of opponents’ three-point shooting success this season. “We’ve got to guard our yard. It’s just boiling down to defense at this point. Our defense has to be so good that we can have a bad shooting night and still win.”
The Hornets also turned 17 Heat turnovers into 24 points.
The Heat has used a league-leading 14 different starting lineups this season, but the one it used Monday could be the group that sticks for a while if the roster can remain healthy.
Not only has the combination of Herro, Robinson, Butler, Olynyk and Adebayo been used to start more games this season than any other lineup, but it has also been productive.
The Herro-Robinson-Butler-Olynyk-Adebayo lineup entered Monday with plus/minus of plus-14 in 57 minutes together this season.
That positive trend continued even in Monday’s loss, with the Heat outscoring the Hornets by four points in the nine minutes this five-man group was on the court. But this lineup was not used in the fourth quarter or overtime.
The last time the Heat and Hornets faced off at AmericanAirlines Arena? March 11, 2020 — a night both teams will likely never forget.
The Hornets won that game 109-98 behind 30 points from guard Devonte’ Graham. The Heat won the first quarter 40-22, but Charlotte outscored Miami by a combined score of 87-58 during the final three quarters.
The result was relatively meaningless, though, with the NBA suspending the 2019-20 season on that night because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That’s just something that’s going to be etched in every single one of our memories the rest of our career,” Spoelstra said before Monday’s game. “We jumped out to a 20-point lead, and then they came storming back to take the lead and take control of the game in the third quarter. By the final six minutes or so of the fourth quarter, we had already started to hear some things that were happening and people were starting to notify us on the bench. It was just one of the oddest experiences I’ve had as a head coach.”
The season was suspended for a little more than four months, and play resumed in a Walt Disney World quarantine bubble on July 30.
“In some ways, it feels like forever ago,” Hornets coach James Borrego said Monday. “Then I walked into this building and it feels like yesterday. ... Things have never been the same since. Hopefully we’re back there soon. But I think this arena, I’ll always have that memory here in this building every time I walk in here.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 12:24 AM.
