Takeaways from another Heat loss without Butler. And Adebayo assesses his own performance
Life without star Jimmy Butler has been hard for the Miami Heat this season.
Playing without Butler for the second straight game because of right knee inflammation, the Heat’s six-game winning streak was snapped in a 94-80 loss to the Hawks (15-20) on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Heat defeated the Hawks on Sunday without Butler, but Tuesday’s loss dropped Miami to 4-10 in games that he has missed this season. The Heat (17-18) is 13-8 in games that Butler has played in.
The Heat actually led by three entering the fourth quarter and the score was tied at 73 with 7:28 to play.
But the Hawks blew it open with a 21-7 run to close the game on their way to the win. Atlanta star guard Trae Young scored 13 of his team-high 18 points in the fourth quarter.
Heat star center Bam Adebayo turned in a quiet performance on Tuesday with just 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting, two rebounds and three assists in 33 minutes.
After completing a 3-1 homestand on Tuesday, the Heat closes the first half of the regular season with a road game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday before heading into the All-Star break.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Hawks:
The Heat’s offense really missed Butler, and Adebayo admitted he needs to be more aggressive in those situations.
Miami scored a season-low 80 points while shooting 37.3 percent from the field and 9 of 33 from three-point range in the loss.
“You have to credit them,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They played with a good passion defensively, but we didn’t help ourselves either. We missed some open shots and then the ball got a little sticky in the second half. We weren’t necessarily moving it or getting off it early. But we’ve been much better than that. We’ve been trending much better offensively. It just was a flat offensive game.”
Miami, which has averaged 25.8 assists per game this season, finished with 15 assists on 28 made baskets.
“We were trying to go at certain players on their team,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “I think we just got a little bit too stagnant offensively, and that’s how the ball got to sticking to our hands and we really couldn’t get a real rhythm in the flow of the game where it was just popping and moving around.”
The first 18 minutes of the game were especially rough for the Butler-less Heat. Miami had only 22 points on 7-of-26 shooting from the field and 1-of-12 shooting on threes before two-way contract wing Max Strus hit a three with 5:37 remaining in the second quarter.
The Heat finished the first half with 37 points on 13-of-36 shooting (36.1 percent) from the field and 2-of-15 shooting (13.3 percent) on threes.
The Heat’s best quarter of the game came in the third, when it scored 29 points in the period. But then it totaled just 14 points on 5-of-18 shooting in the fourth quarter.
Adebayo admitted after the loss that “I have to be more aggressive.”
“We started off slow, so I was trying to get my teammates the ball and get us going,” Adebayo added. “Sometimes you have to put your head down and make plays. ... I gotta to do more. It’s plain and simple, man. I have to be better for my teammates.”
Heat guards Kendrick Nunn and Herro also struggled to make their usual impacts on Tuesday. Nunn finished with six points on 3-of-12 shooting and Herro recorded nine points on 3-of-12 shooting.
Herro spent time immediately after Tuesday’s loss getting shots up on the AmericanAirlines Arena court.
“Just to stay ready,” Herro said of his postgame shooting session. “Obviously, catch a little bit of a rhythm and just stay on it.”
Atlanta also outrebounded Miami 47-26, with Hawks center Clint Capela grabbing a game-high 17 rebounds.
Goran Dragic and Duncan Robinson each scored a team-high 14 points for the Heat.
Tuesday’s underwhelming offensive performance is the continuation of a season-long trend for Miami without Butler.
The Heat has scored 85 points or fewer in five games this season, and four have come with Butler unavailable.
Without Butler on the court, the Heat entered Tuesday scoring 104.7 points per 100 possessions this season. For perspective, that would be tied for the worst offensive rating in the NBA this season.
When Butler is on the court, the Heat’s offensive rating jumps to 110.8 points scored per 100 possessions.
“The obvious one is that it’s just our attacking,” Robinson said of what changes offensively when Butler is not playing. “The pressure he puts on the rim and his ability to get to the free-throw line. A lot of times, if you’re getting to the free-throw line, you can control the pace of the game. I think that’s obviously something that really sticks out. He’s a really unselfish player. He’s dynamic. He does a lot of things offensively and defensively.”
Throw in defensive ratings, and the difference without Butler is even more drastic.
The Heat entered Tuesday outscoring opponents by five points per 100 possessions with Butler on the court and has been outscored by 6.5 points per 100 possessions when Butler has not been on the court this season.
Regarding Butler, he remains day to day because of his knee issue.
“He’s making improvement,” Spoelstra said Tuesday of Butler, who missed his second straight game because of right knee inflammation. “But we think it’s best that we not play him tonight. We’ll just continue to evaluate him day to day.”
Tuesday marked the 14th game Butler has missed this season — two because of a sprained right ankle, 10 because of the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols and two because of knee inflammation.
Spoelstra said it’s too early to predict whether Butler will be available for Thursday’s matchup against the Pelicans, the Heat’s final game before the All-Star break.
“Right now, he’s just day to day, and we’re just monitoring his progress,” Spoelstra said. “He’s getting in some good work with [trainer] Armando [Rivas] and we’ll just continue to evaluate.”
The Heat again found a way to slow down Young on Tuesday, but only for the first three quarters.
Miami toggled between man and zone, and trapped Young whenever it could to limit him to 15 points on 3-of-14 shooting on Sunday.
And it seemed like that same scheme would work again Tuesday, with Young scoring just five points 2-of-7 shooting in the first three quarters.
But then Young exploded for 13 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Hawks to the win. He finished with 18 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 shooting on threes and 10 assists.
Young entered averaging 26.5 points on 42.8 percent shooting this season.
The Heat received positive news on Tuesday regarding its two-way contract players.
The NBA’s Board of Governors is expected to approve a rule change that would allow two-way contract players to be active for more than 50 games and also allow them to be eligible for the playoffs, ESPN reported.
This is important for the Heat because it uses its two two-way contract players, guard Gabe Vincent and Strus, often.
Tuesday marked the 29th game that Vincent has been active for this season, and Strus was active for the 28th game. There are 37 regular-season games remaining on the schedule.
“We are getting those days stacked up for our two ways and our two ways are playing for us,” Spoelstra said. “There are a few other teams that are in that circumstance. It’s just an uneven and unpredictable year for so many teams. ... It just makes all the sense in the world to not have to even think about that or concern yourself with days.”
Adebayo was invited to participate in the Skills Challenge as the event’s defending champion, but he declined. So the Heat will not have a player participating in an All-Star event this year for just the second time since 2000.
The only other time during this span that Miami was completely shut out of All-Star festivities was in 2017.
“I won it last year. So yeah, they offered it, but no,” Adebayo said following Tuesday’s loss when asked if he was invited to the take part in the Skills Challenge.
But Robinson said he did not receive an invite for the Three-Point Contest after participating in the event last year. Robinson recently noted that he likely would accept an invite to take part in the competition if it was extended to him.
“I didn’t get an invite,” Robinson said. “It’s not like I’m shooting the ball out of this world quite frankly. Hopefully I can make some more shots in the second half of the season.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 9:55 PM.
