Lowry, Robinson lead Heat over Pacers to snap two-game skid. Takeaways from the win
It wasn’t pretty at times, but the Miami Heat’s two-game losing streak is over.
Kyle Lowry scored 26 points, Duncan Robinson added 24 points — both season highs — and the Heat withstood late flurry to pull away in its 113-104 win over the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Miami (14-9), playing without Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler, led by as many as 20 points with 6:56 left in regulation before the Pacers (9-16) slowly began to chip away. Caris LeVert scored six of his team-high 27 points early in a 15-4 Indiana run that cut Miami’s lead to nine with 42.8 seconds left.
But Gabe Vincent hit a late three to give the Heat a double-digit lead again with 30.5 seconds left to all but seal the game.
“We just played extremely hard tonight,” said Lowry, who scored 20 of his points in the first half. “We’ve been embarrassed two times in a row before this one, so it was just we couldn’t get embarrassed again.”
Here are five takeaways from the game.
Duncan Robinson starts a new streak but provides more than just sharpshooting.
It took Robinson just 75 seconds — and one shot — to make his first three-pointer Friday.
The start of a new streak has begun.
Robinson’s franchise-record 69-game streak with at least one made three-pointer was snapped on Wednesday when he went 0 for 6 from beyond the arc.
But Robinson’s scoring contributions were from more than just three-point range. He made six of his seven free throws. He made three layups. And yes, he made four three-pointers.
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Omer Yurtseven got minutes at center as the Heat continues to figure out how to replace Bam Adebayo — and he made the most of it.
Dewayne Dedmon started for the second consecutive game but coach Erik Spoelstra changed up his approach when Dedmon wasn’t on the floor.
On Wednesday, Spoelstra used starting forward P.J. Tucker as the team’s center at points and also used KZ Okpala off the bench for a season-high 15 minutes.
With the Pacers’ rolling out a bigger lineup — Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner are both 6-11— Okpala didn’t play on Friday. Instead, it was first Udonis Haslem and then Omer Yurtseven playing center when Dedmon wasn’t on the court.
Haslem played just over six minutes in the first half, grabbing a rebound and not attempting a shot from the field.
Yurtseven, meanwhile, flourished. He scored 12 points, eight of which came in the second half, while also grabbing five rebounds and blocking two shots while playing more than 19 minutes.
“From our perspective,” Spoelstra said, “it’s always nice to see young players that have been putting in the time nobody ever gets to see [get rewarded]. It’s always behind the scenes, but I know how hard these young guys have been working to prepare for these moments. They always have an echo in their ears from UD. You have to prepare to be ready and then you have to stay ready so you are ready for when your number is called. That’s what you saw tonight.”
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Tyler Herro continues to play like Tyler Herro.
Herro scored 18 points and, what seemingly always is the case, his baskets came in clutch situations.
Twice the Pacers cut their deficit to three points in the third quarter, only for Herro to hit a three-pointer on the other end. His second of those three-pointers started a 16-8 run over the final 5:05 of the third quarter to give Miami a 92-81 edge going into the fourth quarter.
“What I liked in those moments of truth, the swing moments during the course of the game, we were much more intentional and less random so that we could get the ball where it needs to go and then you look at the results,” Spoelstra said. “Tyler’s is one of our best playmakers, facilitators, attacker, scorers and we were able to get the ball to him and let him do his thing in this moment.”
The Heat’s ragtag bench provides valuable minutes.
With no Adebayo or Butler (or Markieff Morris, who missed his 13th consecutive game with whiplash), the Heat only had 11 players available on Friday. While 68 of their points came from three starters (Lowry, Robinson and Herro), the bench provided meaningful minutes.
Yurtseven’s time on the court was key, given the situation. But Vincent also added 12 points, including a three-pointer with 0.3 seconds left in the second quarter to give Miami a 62-55 halftime lead and the game-icing three pointer in the final seconds. Caleb Martin corralled five rebounds and recorded three assists. Max Strus played 13 minutes.
“They’ve really been diligent working behind the scenes, getting on the same page and learning our system and getting more comfortable with each other and how to bring the strengths out of that group more,” Spoelstra said. “They’re more than ready to continue to step up and we’ll need them to. The game will look a little bit different without Bam and Jimmy, but we’re more than capable with the guys we have.”
There’s little time to relish in the win.
The Heat plays again on Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks to complete their fifth back-to-back of the season. The Heat won its first game against the Bucks this season 137-95 on Oct. 21, the largest margin of victory in a season opener in Heat history. Butler and Adebayo combined for 41 points that night.
This story was originally published December 3, 2021 at 9:32 PM.
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