Takeaways and details from the Heat’s win over Spurs, and an update on the East playoff race
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 116-111 bounce-back win over the San Antonio Spurs (31-30) on Wednesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena to end its three-game homestand at 2-1:
The second half has been a struggle for the Heat (33-30) recently, but Miami won Wednesday because it did not lose the second half.
In Friday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the Heat was outscored by 14 points in the second half.
In Saturday’s win over the Chicago Bulls, the Heat lost the second half by 15 points.
In Monday’s loss to the Bulls, the Heat was outscored by nine points in the second half.
Add it all up, and Miami was outscored by 38 points in the second half of its previous three games.
The Heat didn’t dominate the second half Wednesday, but it did enough to hold on for the win. In other words, Miami didn’t lose the second half.
The Heat turned a narrow one-point halftime lead into a five-point win. Miami outscored San Antonio 61-57 over the final two quarters.
The Heat did face adversity in Wednesday’s second half, though.
The Spurs opened the third quarter on a 20-12 run to build a seven-point advantage. The Heat responded by scoring the final 15 points of the period to enter the fourth quarter with an eight-point lead.
Miami led by as many as 10 points in the fourth. The Spurs then cut the deficit to just three with 44.3 seconds to play, but that was the closest they would get as Jimmy Butler drew a foul on the next possession and hit both free throws to put the Heat ahead by five.
The Spurs won the fourth quarter 37-34, but the Heat’s dominant finish to the third period was the difference in the game.
“It’s a game of runs, it’s a game of skirmishes throughout the course of the game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We won probably the majority of the skirmishes, but they did a great job of then coming back every single time. But I think we managed those moments a little bit better tonight. It became harrowing at the end, but you have to expect that. And then hopefully you can grow and learn from it.”
Five Heat players finished with double-digit points led by Butler, who ended the night with a game-high 29 points on 11-of-23 shooting, eight rebounds and six assists. Butler’s 23 shot attempts on Wednesday is the most he has finished a game with in a Heat uniform, including the regular season and playoffs.
Bam Adebayo contributed 21 points, 11 rebounds and two assists. His signature play of the night came when he caught a pass from Goran Dragic on a roll to the basket and dunked it over Spurs center Jakob Poeltl with 8:15 left in the fourth quarter.
Kendrick Nunn, who missed Monday’s loss to the Bulls because of a neck spasm, returned Wednesday and totaled 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting. He’s averaging 16.3 points on an ultra-efficient 51.6 percent shooting from the field and 41.2 percent shooting on threes in the Heat’s last 11 games since rejoining the starting lineup in Victor Oladipo’s place.
Dragic finished with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting and seven assists off the bench.
After the Spurs took a seven-point lead with 4:13 left in the third quarter, Miami outscored San Antonio 49-37 the rest of the way.
Dejounte Murray led the Spurs with a triple-double that included 22 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
“The way we played tonight, if we play consistent like that in these last nine games, we will be OK,” Adebayo said. “My teammates believe in me and Jimmy to make plays. When everybody is in a rhythm and everyone gets touches and makes shots, it’s good for all of us.”
With nine regular-season games remaining, the Heat remains in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings.
Each of the three teams immediately ahead of Miami played Wednesday, with the No. 4 New York Knicks (35-28) winning, the No. 5 Hawks (34-29) losing and the No. 6 Boston Celtics (33-30) winning.
Despite still owning the same record as the Celtics, No. 7 Miami is behind No. 6 Boston because of the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Celtics lead the season series 1-0, with the teams facing off two more times on May 9 and 11 in Boston.
The Heat pulled within one game of the No. 5 Hawks, but Atlanta owns the tiebreaker between the two teams.
The Heat remained two games behind the No. 4 Knicks, but Miami owns the tiebreaker over New York after sweeping the season series 3-0.
The Heat is also now 2.5 games ahead of the No. 8 Charlotte Hornets, which fell to the Celtics on Wednesday.
Next up for the Heat is a quick two-game trip that begins Saturday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“It’s go time. We are trying to make a push in these standings,” Adebayo said. “There is no looking back. We know what’s ahead of us.”
Spoelstra reached an impressive milestone, earning his 600th regular-season win as a head coach.
With Wednesday’s victory, Spoelstra became just the 27th coach in NBA history to win at least 600 regular-season games and joined Gregg Popovich with the Spurs (1,308), Jerry Sloan with the Utah Jazz (1,127), Red Auerbach with the Boston Celtics (795), Red Holzman with New York Knicks (613) and Phil Jackson with the Los Angeles Lakers (610) as the sixth coach to reach that mark with one franchise.
“It is humbling,” Spoelstra said. “Obviously, I always think about [Heat president Pat Riley] and [Heat managing general partner Micky Arison] for having this incredible opportunity to be able to coach with this franchise. I feel a great responsibility to do it the right way for something that they started and created.”
The recent signing of veteran center Dewayne Dedmon is already yielding positive results in important moments for the Heat.
Dedmon finished Wednesday’s win with 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting, nine rebounds and one block in 16 minutes off Miami’s bench.
Dedmon, who signed with the Heat as a free agent for the remainder of the season on April 8, has averaged 8.4 points on 26-of-35 (74.3 percent) shooting from the field and 15-of-17 shooting from the foul line, 5.9 rebounds, 0.6 steals and 0.6 blocks in 13.4 minutes over his first eight games with Miami.
Dedmon, who began Wednesday’s game with a jersey that had his last name misspelled as “DEDMAN” before switching it out for an accurate version, has also grabbed a total of 16 offensive rebounds since joining the Heat.
Per 36 minutes, Dedmon is averaging 22.6 points, 15.8 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.7 blocks this season.
The Heat needs a reliable and consistent big man it can turn to when Adebayo goes to the bench, and Dedmon has filled that role.
Dedmon, 31, has posted a plus/minus of plus-49 with the Heat.
Those positive minutes are important because they are coming when Adebayo is off the court. Dedmon and Adebayo have not played together yet this season, with Spoelstra opting to stagger their minutes.
“It’s always good when you can get your starters a good amount of rest,” Dedmon said of helping the Heat survive the non-Adebayo minutes. “He comes out of the game and I come in ready to produce and let him catch his breath.”
With Wednesday marking the seventh consecutive game that Dedmon has been used as the first big off the Heat’s bench, playing time for rookie center Precious Achiuwa and veteran forward Nemanja Bjelica has been limited.
Achiuwa and Bjelica received DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) on Wednesday.
The Heat remained without two rotation guards, but there is an encouraging update on Tyler Herro.
Herro missed this third consecutive game because of a sore right foot. It’s the fourth game he has missed with the lingering injury in the past six games.
But Spoelstra said Wednesday a recent MRI on Herro’s foot showed no structural damage.
“He’s doing treatment and doing everything he possibly can to get out there as soon as possible,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t have a new update for you. But he is making progress. As far as anything structurally wrong, he’s clear on that.”
Herro, who has missed 15 games this season, is averaging 14.9 points while shooting 42.7 percent from the field and 34.4 percent on threes in 48 games (14 starts) in his second NBA season. The 21-year-old has been used in a bench role since early February.
The Heat was also without Oladipo, who missed his 11th consecutive game Wednesday with right knee soreness. The team has not offered a timetable for his return.
The Heat’s other 14 players were available against the Spurs.
The Spurs were without starting guard Derrick White because of a sprained right ankle.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 10:33 PM.
