Takeaways and reaction from the Heat’s loss to the Suns, and Jimmy Butler’s injury scare
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 106-86 loss to the Phoenix Suns (39-15) on Tuesday night at Phoenix Suns Arena. The Heat (28-26) is 1-1 on its four-game trip:
The Suns, which entered with the NBA’s second-largest average point differential this season, handed the Heat its most lopsided loss in nearly a month. Miami’s offense was mostly to blame.
The 20-point defeat was the Heat’s most lopsided since a 27-point loss to the Indiana Pacers on March 19.
The Heat entered the second quarter with an eight point lead following a 34-point first quarter.
But Miami scored just 52 points on 31.7 percent shooting from the field and 4-of-33 (12.1 percent) shooting on threes over the final three periods despite a decent amount of relatively open looks.
The end result: The Heat shot 37.8 percent from the field and 9-of-44 on threes in the loss. Miami posted its fourth-worst single game offensive rating of the season, scoring just 86.9 points per 100 possessions in the defeat.
“They’re a very good defense and they did that similarly to us in Miami,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Got us out of our normal flow. Flattened us out a little bit and things started to slow down and we held the ball a little bit too much. But that’s a credit to their defense. They do that to a lot of teams and all your decisions have to happen a little bit quicker.”
Miami entered with the sixth-worst offensive rating and the Suns entered with the NBA’s fifth-best defensive rating for the season.
“I feel like we didn’t play together like we should have,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “When we’re playing together, everybody is involved, everybody is in rhythm. Today I feel like a lot of times we were playing hero ball instead of trying to move the defense because they got a great defensive team and we were taking one-pass shots. It hurt us.”
With Phoenix’s All-Star backcourt of Devin Booker and Chris Paul combining to score an inefficient 17 points on 6-of-23 shooting, its bench stepped up.
The Suns’ reserves outscored the Heat’s bench 65-24, led by 15 points from Cameron Johnson. Miami’s bench combined to shoot 0 of 17 from three-point range.
But even in the loss, the Heat’s aggressive defensive style continued to force turnovers.
After scoring 28 points off 17 turnovers in Sunday’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers, the Heat forced an efficient Suns offense into 21 turnovers. Phoenix entered averaging the fourth-fewest turnovers this season at 12.9 per game.
The Heat actually outscored the Suns 19-14 in points off turnovers.
The Heat defense’s switch-heavy and trapping style was able to speed up a quality Suns offense at times. Miami entered forcing its opponents into the second-most turnovers per 100 possessions (15.5) in the NBA this season.
But Phoenix’s offense was still much better than Miami’s. The Suns shot 46.3 percent from the field and 13 of 42 on threes with the help of 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting and 13 rebounds from center Deandre Ayton.
Adebayo finished with 11 points on just six shot attempts, 10 rebounds, five assists, one block and three steals. The six shots are the second fewest Adebayo has attempted in a game this season.
There was a scary moment for the Heat, when Jimmy Butler turned his right ankle early in the fourth quarter. But he eventually returned to the game.
With Miami trailing by double digits, Butler went up for a mid-range jump shot and turned his right ankle on the landing with 11:47 remaining in the fourth quarter. It looked like Butler landed on Suns guard Jevon Carter’s foot and Spoelstra said after the game that he felt it should have been called a flagrant foul.
No foul was called.
“It was an unfortunate play and one that should have been called a foul and very likely a flagrant, too,” Spoelstra said. “That’s a dangerous play. So we’ll have to see how he feels tomorrow.”
The Heat’s star wing immediately grabbed the injured ankle and remained down on the court until a timeout was called seven seconds later.
Butler, 31, limped to the bench after Heat trainers checked on him. He managed to return to the game with 7:52 to play.
Butler finished Tuesday’s loss with 18 points on 6-of-16 shooting, four rebounds, eight assists and two steals in 32 minutes.
With Victor Oladipo already out indefinitely because of right knee soreness, Butler’s quick return to Tuesday’s contest was positive news with another game coming up Wednesday night against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena.
“I rolled my ankle. But I’ll be OK,” Butler said. “... I’ll be ready to go [Wednesday].”
The Heat’s first injury report for its game in Denver is not expected to be issued until 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Butler has missed 15 games this season, with the Heat posting a 4-11 record without him. Miami is 24-15 when Butler has played.
Suns forward Jae Crowder did not turn in his best game against his former team.
Crowder finished Tuesday’s win with five points on 1-of-6 shooting on threes, six rebounds and two assists in 28 minutes.
Tuesday’s performance comes just one night after Crowder finished Monday’s win over the Houston Rockets with 26 points on 8-of-12 shooting on threes. He entered Tuesday shooting 39.4 percent from three-point range on 6.3 attempts per game this season.
Crowder left the Heat to sign with the Suns in free agency this past offseason. Crowder said in March that he wanted to return to the Heat last offseason but “Miami had a plan and they stuck to it.”
Crowder, 30, opted to sign a three-year contract worth $29 million with the Suns. Miami’s offer to Crowder included a salary for this season in the $14 million range, according to a league source, and the Heat was unwilling to offer more than one guaranteed season because of its desire to preserve future cap space.
Crowder excelled alongside Adebayo as the Heat’s starting small-ball four during last season’s playoff run to the NBA Finals, averaging 12 points while shooting 34.2 percent on threes, 5.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists last postseason. Crowder, who was traded to Miami in February 2020, started in each of the 21 games during Miami’s playoff run that ended just two wins away from a championship last season.
There was mutual interest between the Heat and Crowder entering free agency, but they had two different plans. Miami did not want to offer more than one season of guaranteed money and Crowder was looking for long-term security.
After missing 10 consecutive games because of the NBA’s health and safety protocols, KZ Okpala made his return Tuesday.
The second-year forward played in his first game since the Heat’s loss to the Pacers on March 19. Okpala entered with the Suns already comfortably ahead and 3:10 to play.
Okpala, 21, had found a consistent role off the bench before he went out last month. But it’s still to be determined if he’ll regain his spot in the rotation since Miami recently added forwards Trevor Ariza and Nemanja Bjelica.
“It’s just good to have him back in the mix,” Spoelstra said of Okpala. “He has really missed being around the team. He was basically, because of a lot of circumstances, in the rotation. When he went out, there have been some changes since then. But he was able to go through a couple practices, a limited workout [Monday]. So we’ll get him back in shape and around the guys and getting comfortable again.”
Oladipo was the only Heat player who was not available for Tuesday’s contest. He did not travel with the team on the trip and missed his second straight game because of right knee soreness.
With Oladipo out, guard Kendrick Nunn again started alongside Duncan Robinson, Butler, Ariza and Adebayo. Nunn finished with eight points on 3-of-8 shooting in 21 minutes, as he was limited by foul trouble in the second half after picking up his fifth foul with 7:37 left in the third quarter.
The Heat’s bench rotation on Tuesday included Goran Dragic, Tyler Herro, Precious Achiuwa, Andre Iguodala and Bjelica until Spoelstra emptied the bench late in the game.
This entire pandemic-altered schedule has included fewer off days than usual, but the Heat began one of its busiest stretches of the season in Phoenix.
Tuesday’s game marked the first of eight for the Heat in a 12-day span. Miami has three back-to-back sets during this stretch, including the one its currently in the middle of that ends Wednesday against the Nuggets.
The good news for the Heat is it will have just two remaining back-to-backs on its schedule when it completes this hectic stretch.
With Tuesday’s loss to the Suns, the Heat is 4-10 in road games against teams that currently have a record above .500.
This story was originally published April 14, 2021 at 12:23 AM.
