Takeaways from the Heat’s fifth straight loss and why there were encouraging signs
The Miami Heat has not won many games without Jimmy Butler this season.
Despite keeping it competitive throughout, that trend continued Thursday night as the Butler-less Heat fell 125-122 to the Portland Trail Blazers (26-18) on Thursday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Miami (22-23) has now lost five straight games, including a winless four-game homestand.
The Heat dropped to 4-11 in games that Butler has missed this season. Butler was unavailable Thursday because of a stomach illness.
“We did some things well,” Heat forward Duncan Robinson said after the loss. “We’re not here for moral victories, obviously. We got to win games. But we’ve played in a bunch of close games. So I think we’re slowly learning how to win them. We didn’t tonight, but there were definitely some encouraging things.”
The game was tied 91-91 entering the fourth quarter, and then both teams used big runs to take leads in the final period.
The Heat used a 17-3 run to take a 10-point lead with 6:19 to play and the Trail Blazers responded with 11 unanswered points to take a one-point lead with 3:48 left.
Then the two teams traded blows in the final minutes, but the Trail Blazers scored the game-winning points at the foul line.
With the game tied at 122, Heat forward Trevor Ariza fouled Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard on a three-point shot attempt with one second to play. Lillard made all three free throws to lift Portland to the win.
The Heat is right back at it on Friday night against the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center, which marks the start of a three-game trip for Miami.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Trail Blazers:
Because of Thursday’s trades and other issues, the Heat played with just nine available players.
The Heat made two moves on trade deadline day: First, the Heat added guard Victor Oladipo, a two-time All-Star, in a trade that sent center Kelly Olynyk and guard Avery Bradley and the right to a 2022 first-round pick swap to the Houston Rockets. And the Heat also acquired forward Nemanja Bjelica from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for forward Moe Harkless and center Chris Silva. Obviously, those two players Miami acquired Thursday afternoon were not available to make their Heat debuts on Thursday night.
Those deals plus the fact the Heat was without Butler (stomach illness), Goran Dragic (lower back spasms), Udonis Haslem (health and safety protocols) and KZ Okpala (health and safety protocols) left Miami with just nine available players against Portland.
The Heat’s nine available players: Precious Achiuwa, Bam Adebayo, Ariza, Tyler Herro, Andre Iguodala, Kendrick Nunn, Robinson, Max Strus and Gabe Vincent. All nine saw action by the end of the first quarter on Thursday.
With only those players to choose from, Miami started Nunn, Vincent, Robinson, Ariza and Adebayo against Portland. It marked the Heat’s 19th different starting lineup this season.
It remains unclear when Bjelica and Oladipo will play their first games in a Heat uniform, but there’s a possibility their debuts could come Monday against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden with two days off between Friday’s game in Charlotte and Monday’s game in New York.
Butler traveled with the Heat to Charlotte for Friday’s contest. Dragic did not travel, but there remains a chance that he could join the team at some point during its three-game trip.
The Butler-less Heat still found a way to take advantage of the Blazers’ struggling defense to break out of its offensive slump.
Miami shot 56 percent from the field and 16 of 34 on threes against Portland, which entered with the NBA’s second-worst defensive rating. The Heat scored at a pace of 125.8 points per 100 possessions on Thursday, which is Miami’s best single-game offensive rating of the season.
It marked the Heat’s first efficient offensive performance in a week, as it shot just 40.7 percent from the field and 27.7 percent on threes in the previous four games. Miami posted an underwhelming offensive rating of 102.6 points scored per 100 possessions during that stretch.
“It’s just about taking good shots,” Robinson said. “I think we’ve been doing that. They haven’t been going in in recent games. Tonight they went in at a higher clip, which is encouraging. We gotta take it for what it is and just continue to build on it.”
Adebayo led the way with 29 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and five blocks. And Nunn contributed 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting, five rebounds and five assists.
“He did it within the context of everything we do,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Adebayo. “He just found open spots. He did it from every region. Pick-and-roll, high post play, in the post. He was effective in all those areas. Then he was tremendous defensively, too. He was all over the place tonight.”
But it was the performances from Robinson and Herro that were most encouraging. Both had been part of trade discussions around the deadline and both had struggled to make shots recently.
Robinson finished Thursday’s loss with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting on threes. He entered on a 10-of-35 (28.6 percent) three-point shooting slump over his previous four games.
Herro recorded 29 points on 9-of-19 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 shooting on threes Thursday. He entered shooting just 28.8 percent from the field and 12.5 percent on threes in his previous five games.
“It did feel really good to be able to see the ball go through, especially from three,” Herro said. “I’ve been struggling for sure. Obviously, I feel like I haven’t hit a shot in I don’t know how long. But it has been too long for me.”
The Heat was not pleased with the late-game call that ultimately helped decide the outcome.
A game that included 24 lead changes and eight ties and a fourth quarter that included 12 lead changes and two ties ended on a foul call.
With the game tied at 122 and the Trail Blazers running down the clock to take the final shot, Ariza was called for a foul on a three-point attempt by Lillard with one second to play. On the replay, it looked like Ariza’s hand hit Lillard’s elbow on the shot but it wasn’t heavy contact.
Lillard ended up making all three free throws to lift Portland to the win.
“That’s one of those plays that we’re going to disagree no matter how many times we talk about it,” Spoelstra said of the foul call. “It is what it is. [Official Brian Forte] saw it one way, we see it another way. I think it was a great game. It’s kind of a buzzkill way to end it. I think everybody wanted to see overtime.”
While Lillard hit the game-winning foul shots, it was an inefficient night for him. He finished with 22 points on 6-of-19 shooting from the field and 2-of-8 shooting on threes.
Lillard’s backcourt mate CJ McCollum scored 35 points on 14-of-25 shooting, but he recorded just six points on 3-of-12 shooting in the second half. McCollum totaled 29 points on 11-of-13 shooting in the first half.
Thursday marked the return of former Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr.
Jones, who spent the previous two-plus seasons with the Heat, signed with the Trail Blazers in free agency this past offseason on a two-year deal worth $19 million that includes a player option in the second year.
The Heat had expressed interest in re-signing Jones and Jones was interested in remaining with the organization. But with Miami not offering more than one season of guaranteed money to protect future cap space, Jones took an offer that includes multi-year money.
In Jones’ first game against the Heat since leaving in free agency, he finished with six points on 2-of-8 shooting, three rebounds and two blocks on Thursday. He entered averaging eight points on 49.4 percent shooting from the field and 32.4 percent shooting on threes, and 4.4 rebounds in a starting role with Portland this season.
The Heat may make another move in the coming days to fill one of the two open spots on its roster via the buyout market.
Veteran big man LaMarcus Aldridge reached a buyout agreement with the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday, and the Heat is a front-runner to sign him to a minimum contract in the coming days.
Aldridge, 35, last played in a game on March 1. He and the Spurs mutually agreed that the veteran big man would not return to the team.
Aldridge (6-11, 250) is a big who Spoelstra would likely feel comfortable playing alongside Adebayo because of Aldridge’s three-point shooting ability.
The Heat is about $747,000 below the luxury-tax line. That gives Miami just enough room to sign Aldridge to a minimum contract, as a prorated veteran minimum contract as of Saturday is about $566,000, according to ESPN analyst and former NBA executive Bobby Marks.
This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 10:14 PM.
