Takeaways and reaction from Heat’s dramatic win over Nets, and Bam Adebayo’s game-winner
The Miami Heat’s nationally televised matchup against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday was missing a few of its biggest stars.
The Heat was without two starters in Jimmy Butler because of a sprained right ankle and Victor Oladipo because of right knee soreness. And a right hamstring strain kept Nets guard and MVP candidate James Harden out.
Then Brooklyn superstar forward Kevin Durant exited Sunday’s contest with 7:57 left in the first quarter with a left thigh contusion and did not return.
But the short-handed Heat (29-28) had star center Bam Adebayo available, and that proved to be the difference. Adebayo hit a game-winning jumper at the final buzzer to lift Miami to a 109-107 win over Brooklyn (38-19) on Sunday afternoon at AmericanAirlines Arena to snap a three-game losing skid.
Adebayo’s 13-foot midrange jumper over Nets forward Jeff Green is his first game-winning buzzer beater in the NBA. Following Kyrie Irving’s missed three-pointer with 24.3 seconds to play, the Heat opted not to call a timeout after Goran Dragic grabbed the rebound with the score tied at 107.
The ball then eventually found Adebayo on the wing iso’ed against Green behind the three-point line, and Adebayo dribbled left to the baseline and took the stepback jumper with one second left in regulation. The ball rolled around the rim before going through the net to clinch the win for the Heat, as teammates rushed to Adebayo to celebrate.
“When I caught it, I looked at the time and it said 11 seconds and I looked at [coach Erik Spoelstra],” Adebayo said of the final possession. “It was one of those looks like, ‘Don’t call timeout.’ This is the one moment I haven’t been doubled in the game. Don’t call timeout and I made the shot. Just seeing the reaction like that, it kind of felt like when [Dwyane Wade] was here.”
Adebayo finished with 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting, 15 rebounds and five assists in 33 minutes. Sunday’s game-winning buzzer beater was the first for the Heat since Wade’s against the Golden State Warriors at AmericanAirlines Arena on Feb. 27, 2019.
“Once it went to Bam, he handled it the right way,” Spoelstra said when asked about the final possession. “He looked over to the bench. At that point, we just made eye contact, my hands were up and it was like, ‘OK, it just better be the last shot,’ which is something that we worked on a long time ago. ... That was good recognition and great poise on his part. Basically the only thing and the understanding is it better be the last shot, whatever it was.”
It was a close game throughout that included 20 lead changes and 11 ties.
The Nets held a six-point lead with 3:31 to play, but the Heat closed the game on an 8-0 run to rally for the win. Brooklyn’s final made field goal came with 4:04 left in the fourth quarter, as the Nets missed their last five shots of the game.
Along with Adebayo, Dragic was important to the Heat’s winning formula on Sunday with 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists off the bench. That included a game-tying transition layup for Dragic with 43.6 seconds left to set up Adebayo’s game-winner.
Kendrick Nunn contributed 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting on threes for Miami.
The Nets’ one star who was available Sunday, Irving, finished with 20 points on 6-of-19 shooting and nine assists.
Brooklyn reserve guard Landry Shamet finished with a career-high 30 points on 7-of-12 shooting on threes.
The Heat is right back at it Monday at 8 p.m. against the Houston Rockets at AmericanAirlines Arena to complete the back-to-back set. Miami remains in seventh place in the Eastern Conference and 1.5 games behind the sixth-place New York Knicks.
“A season can turn around after one game,” Adebayo said. “Crazier things have happened in this league. A season can turn around real fast. We just gotta build off that.”
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s dramatic win over the Nets:
Adebayo’s game-winner will receive most of the attention, but he was also dominant defensively throughout the game.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Nets combined to shoot 3 of 17 with Adebayo as the primary defender. That includes 0 of 8 from Irving when he was guarded by Adebayo.
With Adebayo on the court, the Heat posted an elite defensive rating of 92.4 points allowed per 100 possessions on Sunday. In the 15 minutes that Adebayo was on the bench, the Heat’s defense struggled and allowed the Nets to score at a pace of 139.4 points per 100 possessions.
Adebayo’s ability to switch onto the Nets’ various perimeter players worked to slow Brooklyn’s offense down.
“Bam was really good defensively going down the stretch,” Spoelstra said. “I know we’ll all talk about his game-winner. But defensively, he made some things happen and when in doubt, he would just go up and grab the rebound.”
The only real blemish on Adebayo’s stat line were his team-high seven turnovers. He recorded nine points on 4-of-4 shooting, five rebounds and two assists in the fourth quarter.
The Heat’s outside shooting has been trending in a positive direction recently.
The Heat shot 16 of 39 (41 percent) from deep with the help of an impressive first half. Miami made 12 of 20 threes (60 percent) in the first two quarters, which marked only the fourth half this season that the Heat has finished with 12 or more threes in.
Miami has shot better than 40 percent on threes in five of its past six games. The Heat has hit 41 percent of its threes in the last three games.
This is an encouraging trend for the Heat, which has been one of the league’s worst outside shooting teams this season. Miami entered with the NBA’s fifth-worst team three-point percentage at 34.7 percent.
Miami is 12-4 this season when finishing a game with 15 or more made threes. The Heat entered with the 24th-best offensive rating.
There was a noticeable change to the Heat’s power rotation. Veteran center Dewayne Dedmon was the first big used off the bench and contributed quality minutes.
Miami has used a back-up center by-committee approach for most of the season, with rookie Precious Achiuwa and veteran newcomer Nemanja Bjelica splitting those minutes recently.
But another newcomer played in the back-up center role on Sunday, with Dedmon used as the Heat’s first big off the bench against the Nets. He played one stint in each period — the final 5:03 of the first quarter, a 3:37 stretch in the second quarter, a 4:48 span in the third quarter and 1:53 in the fourth quarter.
Dedmon, who signed with Miami as a free agent for the remainder of the season on April 8, finished Sunday’s win with 10 points and 10 rebounds in 15 minutes. He shot just 1 of 1 from the field but went 8 of 8 at the foul line.
It marked Dedmon’s second appearance since signing with Miami, but his first in non-garbage time. Dedmon’s Heat debut came in Wednesday’s road loss to the Denver Nuggets, when he played the final six minutes of the game with the Nuggets already in control.
Achiuwa and Bjelica did not play Sunday.
Butler played through the pain of a sprained right ankle in the previous two games, but the Heat held him out Sunday.
Butler, 31, turned his right ankle in Tuesday’s road loss to the Phoenix Suns and he still managed to play in the final two games of the trip, including a 30-point performance in Friday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. But Spoelstra said before Sunday’s contest that Butler’s ankle “was not getting better” and the decision was ultimately made to sit him against the Nets.
“If anything, it was just getting worse,” Spoelstra said of Butler’s injured ankle. “So we want to make sure that we can take care of it right now.”
Spoelstra labeled Butler as day-to-day. There’s some hope that Butler could be back for Monday’s matchup against the Rockets.
“Jimmy’s will and competitiveness is obviously immense and we want to make sure that we’re being smart about it,” Spoelstra said.
Butler is averaging team highs in points (21.4), assists (7.2) and steals (2.1) this season.
The Heat is now 5-11 in games that Butler has missed this season, compared to 24-17 when he has played.
Veteran forward Andre Iguodala started in Butler’s place against the Nets alongside Nunn, Duncan Robinson, Trevor Ariza and Adebayo for the Heat’s 23rd different starting lineup this season. Iguodala finished his third start of the season with eight points, three rebounds and five assists.
The only other Heat player who missed Sunday’s game was Oladipo and his status for the remainder of the season is still unclear.
Oladipo, 28, missed his fifth consecutive game and remains out indefinitely because of right knee soreness. He did not travel with the team on its recently completed four-game trip, but he was on the sideline in workout clothes speaking to members of the Nets organization prior to Sunday’s game.
Before Sunday’s contest, Spoelstra was asked whether Oladipo has participated in any basketball-related activities or whether Oladipo would return this season. Spoelstra declined to answer the questions and instead said, “I do not have a new update for you. As soon as I do, I’ll let you all know.”
Oladipo is feeling better, according to a league source, and he has not yet been ruled out for the season. Miami has 15 games remaining on its regular-season schedule.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said during the pregame broadcast Sunday that Oladipo “tweaked the area around quad injury. ... It has been precautionary. They expect him to play.”
Oladipo has not played since exiting the Heat’s April 8 win over the Los Angeles Lakers early. He grabbed his right knee following a dunk with 5:51 to play, and he was subbed out of the game just seconds later and has been unavailable ever since.
Oladipo’s injury history complicates matters, as he suffered a ruptured quad tendon in his right knee in January 2019.
This story was originally published April 18, 2021 at 6:03 PM.
