Takeaways from Heat’s ‘mentally tough’ road win over Jazz, without Jimmy Butler, to end skid
The short-handed Miami Heat left Los Angeles encouraged despite a pair of painful three-point losses because of the fight it showed.
That fight, and some efficient basketball, from the Heat (8-5) resulted in a 111-105 win over the Utah Jazz (8-5) at Vivint Arena on Saturday despite being without its best player in Jimmy Butler because of a sprained right ankle. The victory snapped Miami’s three-game losing skid to begin its current five-game West Coast trip.
The Heat’s all-time record when playing on the road against the Jazz improved to 12-22.
“I just thought this was probably one of our more mentally tough wins,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said to open his postgame press conference. “It was a quick turnaround after a back-to-back and an afternoon game. I know the guys didn’t feel incredible this morning when we were going through our walk through. So this was going to be more about toughness and mental toughness and doing whatever was necessary to come out of here with a win.
“For those of us that have been with the Heat franchise long enough, we know how hard it is to win in this building. Over the years, you could probably count on one hand us walking out of here with a win and we will definitely take it.”
It marked the second consecutive game that Butler has missed with the injury, but the Heat overcame his absence with an ultra-efficient offensive performance against a Jazz defense that entered as the NBA’s ninth-most efficient unit.
The Heat shot 49.4 percent from the field and 13 of 33 (39.4 percent) on threes.
Miami was in control throughout and led by as many as 27 points. The Heat took the lead with 7:41 remaining in the first quarter and never trailed again.
But the Jazz attempted a late comeback and nearly pulled it off. With the Heat ahead by 22 with 4:31 to play, the Jazz used an 18-0 run to cut the deficit to only four with 14.5 seconds to play.
That’s the closest the Jazz got, as guard Tyler Herro made two free throws after being intentionally fouled to increase the Heat’s lead to six with 10.9 seconds remaining.
In total, five Heat players finished with double-digit points.
Heat forward Duncan Robinson broke out of his early-season shooting slump to finish with 22 points on 6-of-11 shooting from three-point range.
Kyle Lowry scored 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting to go with six rebounds and four assists.
Bam Adebayo contributed 13 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
P.J. Tucker was solid with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Herro ended the game with a team-high 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
The only real blemish on the Heat’s offensive performance was its 21 turnovers.
Utah settled for outside shots for most of the game with Miami mixing in its zone defense, as the Jazz took a season-high 53 threes on Saturday. Utah shot 41.2 percent from the field and 17 of 53 (32.1 percent) on threes while committing 17 turnovers.
“I thought it was really good for us in the first half,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s zone defense. “The Jazz are a tough team to play against. ... That helped us a little bit manage that ball movement game. But then in the second half, we were able to just stick to our base defense and mostly just play man.”
The Heat will close its five-game trip on Monday against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Jazz:
The Heat’s record without Butler since the start of last season has not been good. But Miami found a way to earn a quality win without him Saturday.
With Butler missing his second consecutive game Saturday because of a sprained right ankle, the Heat improved to 1-1 without him this season.
The Heat is now 8-14 in games that Butler has missed since the start of last season. Miami has posted a 40-23 record when he has been available.
When Spoelstra was asked if he’s concerned about the possibility of Butler missing a long stretch of games, he said: “No. I see he’s making progress. I don’t have a time frame for when he’ll be back. But he’s still on this road trip.”
Herro again started in place of Butler on Saturday.
The Heat has not been worried about Robinson’s early-season shooting slump, and for good reason.
Known as one of the NBA’s top outside shooters, Robinson snapped out of his slump for at least one game to make a season-high six threes.
Robinson entered Saturday shooting just 31.2 percent from three-point range through the first 12 games this season after making an incredible 44.6 percent of his threes in 2019-20 and 40.8 percent of his threes in 2020-21, with only Sacramento’s Buddy Hield (553) and Portland’s Damian Lillard (545) totaling more made threes than Robinson (520) in those two seasons.
Robinson shot just 5 of 24 (20.8 percent) on threes during the Heat’s two losses in Los Angeles.
“I liked the looks that he was getting before,” Spoelstra said. “It’s not just about the final result. I know it matters to all the fans. I know it matters to him, of course. But one way or another, he creates great reactions or overreactions that help our offense. “
Robinson’s three-point percentage for the season went up to 33.3 percent after Saturday’s performance.
There was a scary moment early in Saturday’s game, when it looked like the Heat could also have to play without Lowry.
Lowry left the game with 7:05 left in the first quarter after taking a charge on Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell. As Mitchell drove to the basket, he elbowed Lowry in the face.
“He was coming down fast and I just wanted to make a good play,” Lowry said of the sequence. “[Tucker] did a good job of forcing him down to the paint and Tuck knows I got his back. Don kind of tried to Euro slash go through me and tried to get the move off, and he hit me with a little bit of an elbow by mistake. ... It took a second to get my train of thought back.”
With an ice pack to the side of his face, Lowry returned to the Heat’s bench just a few minutes later and re-entered the game with 1:27 remaining in the opening quarter.
Lowry ended up being an important part of Miami’s winning formula on Saturday. After scoring 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Lowry continued his aggressive play with Butler out to score 21 points on 14 shots.
Lowry has averaged 15 shots per game over the last three games, with Butler only playing one quarter during that stretch. Lowry averaged just 9.2 shots per game this season before this three-game span.
Adebayo played despite swelling in his left knee.
After not appearing on the Heat’s injury report on Friday, Adebayo was downgraded to questionable for Saturday’s game just hours before tipoff when his left knee swelled up following the team’s morning walk through.
But Adebayo was able to play in his usual starting role for the Heat.
Adebayo has been dealing with a lingering bruised left knee for the past two weeks and missed the Heat’s road win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 30 because of the injury. He has been on and off the injury report since with the knee issue.
The injury stems back to a knee-to-knee collision early in the season, and he reaggravated it during the Heat’s current trip..
“On this road trip he hit it again,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo. “He’s padded, but those things can be tender and then you’re playing 37 minutes a game, jumping and running and sliding. It can get swollen.”
The Heat has struggled in a few recent fourth quarters.
In the teams’ first matchup of the season last week, the Heat led by 19 with 5:20 to play and Utah used a 24-6 run to cut the deficit to just one in the final seconds. Miami hung on for a 118-115 victory.
It was pretty much the same story Saturday, as the Jazz scored 18 unanswered points late in the fourth quarter to trim the Heat’s lead from 22 to four points in the final seconds. Miami escaped with a victory again.
Also, the Heat allowed a lead to slip away late in Wednesday’s overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center. Miami led by nine points with 4:45 remaining in the fourth quarter of that defeat.
“These are high-class problems,” Spoelstra said. “Learning how to hold leads on the road. I would much rather be in these kinds of positions to be able to try to figure this out, which we are getting better at, than the opposite.”
Butler was not on the court for two of those games — Saturday’s win over the Jazz and Wednesday’s loss to the Lakers — because of his ankle injury.
“No, we don’t want to put it on Jimmy,” Spoelstra said when asked if Butler’s absence is to blame for the Heat’s recent fourth-quarter issues. “I mean, Jimmy is one of the best closers in the game and certainly that would help in half-court sequences. But we’ve had more than enough.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 7:45 PM.
