What went wrong for Heat in 27-point home loss to Pacers? Takeaways, reaction and answers
So much has gone right for the Miami Heat in the past six weeks. But so much went wrong for the Heat on Friday.
The Heat (22-20) turned in one of its worst performances of the season in a 137-110 loss to the Indiana Pacers (18-22) at AmericanAirlines Arena. It marked Miami’s second straight loss, but just its sixth loss in the past 21 games after a 7-14 start to the season.
Meanwhile, the Pacers are now 7-15 in their past 22 games.
“We were at the bottom of the East and we went to the four seed. We just lost two games. So we’re OK,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said, dismissing any notion that the Heat is trending in the wrong direction again. “We’re going to figure it out.”
The Pacers controlled play pretty much from start to finish, as the Heat struggled on both ends of the court. Miami’s biggest lead was five and it’s final lead of the game came in the first quarter.
The Pacers led by 22 points early in the fourth quarter, and the Heat cut the deficit to 12 a few minutes later. But that’s the closest Miami got, as Indiana expanded its lead to 32 late in the game.
The Pacers outscored the Heat 60-27 from three-point range. Indiana tied a single-game franchise record with 20 made threes on Friday.
Malcolm Brogdon led the Pacers with 27 points on 7-of-9 shooting from deep. Seven Pacers players finished with double-digit points, and guard T.J. McConnell contributed 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting, 15 assists and three steals off the bench.
“T.J. McConnell was the player of the game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I didn’t see his stat line. But if you counted loose balls and deflections, that was definitely a triple-double.”
The Heat’s leading duo of Adebayo (20 points, eight rebounds and five assists) and Jimmy Butler (17 points, eight rebounds and four assists) combined for 37 points on 66.7 percent shooting. But the rest of Miami’s roster combined to shoot just 38 percent.
The Heat and Pacers will face off again Sunday afternoon at AmericanAirlines Arena on the back end of their back-to-back two-game “series” in Miami. Friday was the start of a four-game homestand for the Heat.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Pacers:
The Heat’s three-point shooting struggles continue to be concerning.
Miami entered with the NBA’s fifth-worst team three-point shooting percentage at 34.7. That’s not good, considering a large chunk — 43.9 percent, to be exact — of the Heat’s shot attempts come from three-point range.
Even during Miami’s current 15-6 stretch that began in early February, the outside shooting has been underwhelming. The Heat has shot just 34 percent on threes during that span.
Miami totaled 110 points on 44.6 percent shooting from the field and 9-of-34 (26.5 percent) shooting on threes Friday. The Heat has shot 25 percent from beyond the arc over the past two games, both losses.
Three of the Heat’s best shooters Duncan Robinson (2 of 8 on threes), Kelly Olynyk (1 of 7) and Tyler Herro (1 of 5) combined to shoot 4 of 20 (20 percent) from three-point range in Friday’s loss.
“As long as you’re generating open looks. We did have some good ones,” Spoelstra said when asked about the Heat’s inefficient shooting performance from deep on Friday. “Particularly in the second half, I thought we had some open ones. I think in the first half, we weren’t moving the ball and finding the open guy as much. ... Then if you’re getting open ones and the ball is moving, then it’s just a matter of time. Shooters will be shooters, and you’re not always going to shoot great. Our offense has been trending in the right direction. We just have to stay with it.”
The Heat, which featured a top-10 offense last season (scoring 111.9 points per 100 possessions), owns the league’s sixth-worst offensive rating (scoring 107.6 points per 100 possessions) this season.
The Heat, which entered shooting an NBA-best 70.2 percent at the rim this season, wasn’t even efficient from that area of the court on Friday. Miami shot just 21 of 37 (56.8 percent) at the rim, with the presence of Indiana center Myles Turner making things tough around the basket.
The Heat’s best offense came from the foul line, as it outscored the Pacers 19-13 on free throws.
The Heat’s three-point shooting regression has been hard to explain. Miami returned most of last season’s roster, which finished last regular season with the NBA’s second-best three-point percentage at 37.9.
Miami is 1-7 this season when finishing a game with fewer than 10 made threes.
Not even the Heat’s statistically elite defense was good against the Pacers.
Miami entered with the NBA’s third-best defensive rating this season, and the top defensive rating since the start of February.
But the Heat turned in one of its worst defensive performances of the season. The Pacers scored 137 points on 58.4 percent shooting from the field and 20-of-36 shooting on threes.
It marked just the ninth time in franchise history, the fourth time this season, that the Heat has allowed a team to make 20 or more threes in a game. Miami is 3-6 in those games.
Indiana also finished with 60 paint points on Friday. The Heat entered allowing a league-low 39.9 paint points per game, and the Pacers scored 40 paint points in the first half alone.
“We weren’t as active or disruptive as we normally are,” Spoelstra said. “But they were running it down our throats in the first half, so we weren’t even able to get our defense set. They got into a great offensive rhythm, really attacking us and getting into the paint. They did a great job of that. We weren’t able to adjust accordingly and they made us pay.”
The result: Miami posted its second-worst single-game defensive rating of the season, allowing Indiana to score at a pace of 137 points per 100 possessions.
“Probably just our disposition,” Robinson said of the Heat’s defensive issues Friday. “It certainly wasn’t one thing. But just being intentional about really protecting the paint, making multiple efforts — stuff we’ve been doing pretty well. But definitely took a step backwards.”
Trevor Ariza made his Heat debut and played in his first NBA game on Friday since March 10, 2020, but the minutes were limited.
Spoelstra’s vision for Ariza was clear from his first minutes with the Heat. Ariza entered with 1:50 left in the first quarter for Olynyk to play as a small-ball power forward next to Adebayo.
Most of Ariza’s minutes are expected to come at this spot, as the Heat hopes it now has two reliable small-ball four options it can turn to in Andre Iguodala and Ariza. Those small and versatile lineups were a big part of the Heat’s playoff run last season, when it started Jae Crowder — now with the Phoenix Suns — at power forward and then played Iguodala off the bench.
Ariza, 35, was limited to just one six-minute stint in his Heat debut. He finished with zero points on 0-of-2 shooting and two assists.
Miami acquired Ariza via trade Wednesday with the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Meyers Leonard and a 2027 second-round pick.
With the Heat searching for answers on both ends of the court, Spoelstra went deep into his bench.
The first four players used off of Miami’s bench against the Pacers were KZ Okpala, Goran Dragic, Herro, and Ariza.
But with Miami struggling to make outside shots and slow down Indiana’s offense, Spoelstra then called on two-way contract guard Gabe Vincent and center Chris Silva as the 10th and 11th Heat players who entered the game in the first half.
Rookie center Precious Achiuwa did not enter the contest until the Heat emptied its bench with a lopsided score and 4:22 remaining in the game.
Achiuwa logged double-digit minutes in each of the Heat’s first 22 games, but he has only played double-digit minutes in nine of the 20 games since then.
The Heat had 14 of its 17 players available on Friday, but it was without three veterans.
Guard Avery Bradley, and forwards Udonis Haslem and Iguodala missed the contest.
Bradley missed his 21st consecutive game because of a strained right calf and Iguodala missed his second straight game because of left hip soreness.
Haslem was unavailable because of the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols. He did not test positive for the virus, but he’s in protocols because of contact tracing.
Players who are determined to be close contacts to a positive COVID-19 case are expected to usually be sidelined for seven days.
Haslem, 40, is the only player on the Heat’s roster who has yet to play this season.
This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 10:28 PM.
