Takeaways from Heat’s loss to Celtics, as offense struggles and Kyle Lowry sprains ankle
It has been nearly a perfect start to the season for the Miami Heat.
But the Heat’s play on Thursday night was far from perfect, as it fell to the Boston Celtics 95-78 at FTX Arena. Heat starting point guard Kyle Lowry also sprained his left ankle in the final seconds of the third quarter and did not return.
Miami (6-2) entered outscoring opponents by an NBA-high 16.7 points per game, with its first loss of the season coming in overtime on the road against the Indiana Pacers.
The Heat’s offense entered as the second-most efficient unit in the NBA, but was limited to 78 points on 34.6 percent shooting from the field and 9-of-41 (22 percent) shooting on threes while committing 18 turnovers on Thursday. It represents the fewest points that the Heat has scored in a game since totaling 74 points in a Jan. 17, 2016 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“Defensively, you do have to give Boston credit,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s probably as poorly as we’ve played offensively all season, including the preseason and training camp. But those nights are going to happen.”
After beginning the second quarter with a six-point lead, the Heat was outscored 77-54 the rest of the way.
The Heat made a run in the third quarter to trim a 20-point deficit to eight with 2:30 left in the period. But the Celtics (4-5) closed the quarter on an 11-1 run to regain control and enter the fourth quarter with an 18-point advantage.
The Heat’s trio of Bam Adebayo (13 points on 4-of-8 shooting, seven rebounds and four assists), Jimmy Butler (20 points on 8-of-18 shooting, four rebounds and two assists) and Lowry (six points on 2-of-9 shooting, seven rebounds and five assists) combined for 39 points on 40 percent shooting.
Tyler Herro, who’s averaging 20.4 points per game this season, was limited to six points on 3-of-11 shooting.
The Heat’s defense wasn’t bad in the loss, as it held the Celtics to 39.7 percent shooting. But Miami’s offense was just too inefficient to overcome.
“We had stretches where we played good basketball, did some good things,” Heat forward Duncan Robinson said. “I thought we showed some fight. Obviously, weren’t able to kind of get over the hill to get back into the game fully. But I thought we had stretches where we defended well. Obviously, the offense struggled.”
Next up for the Heat is a Saturday matchup against the Utah Jazz at FTX Arena. The Jazz is 7-1 this season.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Celtics:
Kyle Lowry watch now begins.
Lowry exited Thursday’s game early after Robinson fell into his left ankle at the end of the third quarter. There was no immediate update on Lowry from the team other than the diagnosis of a sprained left ankle.
“We’ll find out [Friday],” Spoelstra said of Lowry’s injury. “I know him well enough that it’s very similar to Jimmy. You ask him how he’s doing and he’s like, ‘Fine.’ But we’ll have to see how it responds.”
Lowry, 35, already missed one game this season — the Heat’s loss to the Pacers on Oct. 23 — because of a sprained left ankle. The hope is that Lowry’s injured ankle is again a short-term issue.
Lowry played in the fewest games (46) last season since his rookie year and also logged the fewest minutes (1,601) since 2011-12, in part because of the pandemic-shortened schedule.
But Lowry has proven to be relatively durable throughout most of his NBA career, as he has played in 60 or more games in seven of the past nine seasons.
The Heat basically lost the game in the second quarter.
The Celtics outscored the Heat 33-9 in the second period, as Miami turned in a historically bad offensive performance in the quarter.
The nine-point total marked the second-lowest second quarter in Heat history behind only a seven-point second quarter during the 1995-96 season. It’s also the second-lowest scoring quarter (any regulation quarter) since the start of the 2018-19 season.
The Heat shot just 3 of 13 from the field and 0 of 6 on threes while committing 10 turnovers in Thursday’s second quarter. Miami also did not record an assist in the period.
The Celtics took advantage of the Heat’s mistakes to score 11 points off those 10 turnovers.
“I think their switching flattened us out,” Spoelstra said of Miami’s offensive issues in the second quarter. “I think we held the ball a little bit on some possessions and I think some of the turnovers were just very uncharacteristic. Missed catches, miscues on passes where guys were open. So I think all those things played a part. But they capitalized on that and they were able to create some separation.”
Need more evidence for just how much the Heat’s offense struggled? Miami scored two points in the final 7:20 of the second quarter, and both points came on free throws.
Adebayo, Butler and Lowry combined for two points and seven turnovers in the period.
One of the biggest reasons behind the Heat’s inefficient offensive performance was its inability to generate shots in the paint against the Celtics’ switching defense.
With Boston switching most actions, Miami’s offense seemed to flatten out and settle for outside shots or difficult interior passes that resulted in turnovers.
The Heat, which entered averaging 41.6 paint shots per game this season, finished with just 28 paint shots in Thursday’s loss. Miami also attempted just 15 shots at the rim, which is down from its season average of 23.4 per game.
Instead, the Heat’s offense attempted a season-high 41 threes.
“It’s not the first time or the only time we’re going to face those kinds of schemes,” Spoelstra said.
As for the Heat’s new uniforms that the team debuted, players were fans of them.
The Heat wore the Miami Mashup City Edition uniform for the first time in Thursday’s loss. With black as the uniform’s base color, the letter styles used on the jersey pulls from the team’s Miami Floridians, Classic Home and Road, Vice Nights, and Championship Ring Ceremony uniform sets.
“I love it. I love the colors,” Herro said. “All the different fonts, the colors I like. That’s who I am.”
The innovative design also gave Heat players the opportunity to choose their own unique number styles for their respective Miami Mashup uniform. The options included a collection of 72 different numbers across eight styles — pulling from the Hardwood Classics black and white uniforms, Back in Black uniform, the traditional core uniform set, the Floridians uniform, the Vice Nights uniform, the Trophy Ring Banner uniform worn on opening night following the 2013 championship and a 15 Strong numerical font.
“I think they’re dope,” Adebayo said. “They remind me of like, I don’t know, it’s a different jersey than I’ve seen since I’ve been here. But I like the jersey. We get to customize them in our own way and it’s individualized to the point where it means something to a lot of us.”
Robinson added: “Creative. It’s definitely a creative take to give us the autonomy to have some decision making around how they kind of look, which is pretty cool.”
The Heat also debuted the Miami Mashup court in Thursday’s game, which aligned with the design of the uniforms.
The Heat is scheduled to wear the Miami Mashup in 21 more games: Saturday vs. Jazz, Monday at Nuggets, Nov. 15 at Thunder, Nov. 17 vs. Pelicans, Nov. 18 vs. Wizards, Nov. 27 at Bulls, Dec. 4 at Bucks, Dec. 8 vs. Bucks, Dec. 21 vs. Pacers, Jan. 23 vs. Lakers, Jan. 28 vs. Clippers, Jan. 31 at Celtics, Feb. 3 at Raptors, Feb. 10 at Pelicans, Feb. 12 vs. Nets, March 2 at Bucks, March 11 vs. Cavaliers, March 12 vs. Timberwolves, March 25 vs. Knicks, March 26 vs. Nets and March 30 at Celtics.
The fully vaccinated Heat expects booster shots soon.
With COVID-19 cases on the rise around the NBA, Spoelstra said before Thursday’s game that he expects Heat players to soon have the opportunity to receive booster shots.
“We have talked about it and it is a reality, it is still out there,” Spoelstra said. “We have to be as vigilant as possible, whether you’re on the road or at home and be smart about everything and hopefully it changes. We will be making the booster shots available soon.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 10:01 PM.
