Life without Bam Adebayo begins with blowout loss to Cavaliers. Takeaways from the defeat
Life without Bam Adebayo is going to be hard. Life without Adebayo and Butler is even harder.
Wednesday was further proof of that, as the Heat (13-9) fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers 111-85 at FTX Arena without stars Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. It’s Miami’s most lopsided loss of the season.
“We don’t want to take anything away from what Cleveland did,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about the challenge of playing a game just hours after learning Adebayo would need to miss an extended stretch. “There is a human part of it. We all felt like it was a punch to the gut. Bam was with us yesterday and he was basically in great spirits and everything. That probably plays a part to it.”
Adebayo missed his first game after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb during Monday’s home loss to the Denver Nuggets. He’ll undergo surgery this weekend and he’s expected to miss approximately six weeks.
Butler missed his second straight game with a tail bone contusion.
Without two of its best players, the Heat struggled on both ends.
Miami shot just 37.6 percent from the field and 12 of 37 (32.4 percent) on threes. Meanwhile, Cleveland shot 54.4 percent from the field and 16 of 31 (51.6 percent) on threes.
The Cavaliers (12-10) were in control from start to finish and pulled ahead by as many as 31 points. Cleveland entered the second quarter with a 15-point lead, halftime with an 18-point lead, and the fourth quarter with a 24-point lead.
The Heat’s final lead of the game came at 5-3 early in the first quarter.
It was a dominant effort from the Cavaliers, which won the rebounding battle 46-28 and outscored the Heat 21-9 at the free-throw line.
With Wednesday’s win, the Cavaliers finally snapped their 20-game losing skid against the Heat in Miami and earned its first road win over the Heat since Jan. 25, 2010. It was the Heat’s longest home winning streak against any opponent in franchise history.
The short-handed Heat takes its two-game losing skid on the road for a quick two-game trip that begins Friday night against the Indiana Pacers.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Cavaliers:
Adebayo spoke after the game and was clearly crushed by the diagnosis.
“It was rough. This is my first major injury in my NBA career,” Adebayo said. “So definitely one of those things where I didn’t expect that. So I would say unexpected.”
Adebayo said he received the diagnosis Wednesday morning.
“I’m not the type of person that will put out negative energy,” he said. “So I always think positive. Today was a downer. But for these six weeks, I can’t change nothing about it. That’s my only option. ... I’m already ready for my six weeks to be over. But it’s a grind. Get back healthy and help my team win some games.”
The Heat’s offense struggled without Adebayo and Butler, as expected.
Cleveland, which entered with the NBA’s fourth-best defensive rating for the season, limited Miami to just 85 points on 37.6 percent shooting.
The Heat struggled to generate offense around the rim against the Cavaliers’ length. Cleveland starts three players who stand 6-10 or taller in Jarrett Allen, Lauri Markkanen and Evan Mobley and entered limiting opponents to the NBA’s second-worst shooting percentage around the rim at 57.8 percent.
That challenged Miami, especially without Adebayo and Butler available to crack Cleveland’s quality defense.
The Heat shot just 12 of 26 (46.2 percent) from around the rim and 15 of 35 (42.9 percent) from inside the paint.
“It definitely impacted us,” Spoelstra said of the Cavaliers’ length. “They’re a very good defensive team. They have great size, length, they’re well-coached, well-schooled with what they’re trying to do and they’re doing it with intention. You have to be very intentional executing against that kind of size. They did a really good job of protecting the paint and protecting the rim.”
Heat starters Kyle Lowry and Duncan Robinson combined for just seven points on 2-of-16 shooting from the field and 1-of-11 shooting from three-point range.
The Heat’s best offensive player on Wednesday was Tyler Herro, who returned from a two-game absence due to an illness. Herro ended the night with a team-high 21 points on 9-of-23 shooting and six assists.
Robinson’s shooting slump continued, but his streak did not.
After finishing 1 of 9 from three-point range in Monday’s loss to the Nuggets, Robinson finished Wednesday’s loss to the Cavaliers scoreless and shot 0 of 6 from deep. He did not play in the fourth quarter.
It marked the end of Robinson’s streak for consecutive regular-season games with a made three-pointer. The streak ended at 69 games, which is a franchise record. The last regular-season game he did not hit a three-pointer in was a Feb. 9 Heat win over the New York Knicks.
Spoelstra said he was not aware of the streak.
“At that point, we’re not playing for somebody’s individual streak,” he said of not playing Robinson in the final period. “He’ll have plenty of opportunities to go on another one.”
Robinson is shooting just 31.8 percent from three-point range through the first 22 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.
Dewayne Dedmon started in Adebayo’s place at center. But it was what the Heat did when Dedmon was on the bench that was noteworthy.
Dedmon moved from backup center to starting center in Adebayo’s absence and that will likely continue for as long as Adebayo is out. Dedmon finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds in 31 minutes.
With Dedmon playing as a starter, who moved into his spot in the Heat’s bench rotation? Forward KZ Okpala, kind of.
During the first non-Dedmon minutes of the night, Miami opted to go small instead of turning to other frontcourt options like rookie center Omer Yurtseven, veteran forward Udonis Haslem or Okpala. The 6-5 P.J. Tucker played as the Heat’s center during the three first-quarter minutes that Dedmon spent on the bench.
But Okpala, 22, entered the game with 6:46 remaining in the second quarter. He was the big Spoelstra turned to while Dedmon was on the bench.
Okpala finished with six points, one rebound and one assist in 15 minutes. It marked the 10th game he has appeared in during his third NBA season and just the third that he has logged first-half minutes in.
Yurtseven only entered the game in the final minutes with the Cavaliers already ahead by more than 20 points. Haslem did not play.
Butler’s return may not come until next week.
Butler suffered his tail bone contusion on a hard fall during Saturday’s win over the Chicago Bulls, and he has missed the Heat’s two games since then.
There’s a real chance Butler could also miss the Heat’s upcoming two-game road trip because of the injury, too, according to a league source. Miami travels to take on the Pacers on Friday and the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday.
The Heat’s first game after that trip is Monday against the Memphis Grizzlies at FTX Arena.
Wednesday marked the fifth game that Butler has missed this season, with the Heat now 2-3 when he has been unavailable. He also sat out three games earlier this month because of a sprained right ankle.
Butler is averaging team highs in points (23.6), steals (2.1) and minutes (34.2) this season.
This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 9:48 PM.
