Takeaways from the Heat’s third straight home loss, as Jimmy Butler re-aggravates injury
Each team was missing one of its best players, as the Miami Heat played without center Bam Adebayo and the Memphis Grizzlies continued life without guard Ja Morant.
But only one team has found a way to consistently win without its star, as the Grizzlies (14-10) moved to 5-0 since Morant was sidelined because of a sprained left knee with a 105-90 victory over the Heat (14-11) on Monday night at FTX Arena. Miami fell to 1-3 since Adebayo went out with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb.
The Grizzlies were in control from the start, as the Heat never led. Memphis entered the second quarter with a nine-point advantage, halftime with an 11-point lead, the fourth quarter with a 15-point lead and pulled ahead by as many as 18 points during the victory.
The Heat turned in a sloppy performance that included a season-high 23 turnovers. The Grizzlies capitalized to total 27 points off of those mistakes.
Heat star Jimmy Butler returned after missing the previous four games with a tail bone contusion, but he was very clearly still not 100 percent. He ran up and down the court gingerly for most of the night, recording 10 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals in 25 minutes before exiting the game midway through the third quarter after re-aggravating his tail bone injury.
Tyler Herro scored a team-high 24 points on 11-of-19 shooting for the Heat. Kyle Lowry contributed 17 points, four rebounds and eight assists.
The Grizzlies’ entire starting lineup finished with double-digit points led by 21 points apiece from Dillon Brooks and Desmond Bane. Center Steven Adams recorded 17 points and 16 rebounds to help Memphis finish with a 47-36 rebounding edge over Miami.
The Heat, which has dropped three straight games at FTX Arena, continues its three-game homestand on Wednesday against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Grizzlies:
Butler returned, but he was forced to leave the game early after re-aggravating his injury.
Butler, who missed the previous four games with a tail bone contusion, ended his first stint of Monday’s game with two points on 1-of-7 shooting in nine first-quarter minutes.
During that stretch to open the contest, Butler came crashing to the court after a missed layup with 8:20 left in the first quarter. Butler was slow to get up as he reached for his tail bone, but he eventually walked gingerly to the bench and remained in the game.
As Butler walked to the bench following the fall, he voiced his displeasure with the officials. He had to be restrained by teammates and coaches as he argued that he was fouled on that layup attempt, picking up a technical in the process.
Butler labored through the rest of his minutes on Monday before eventually retreating to the Heat locker room during the third quarter. He never returned to the game after re-aggravating his tail bone injury.
“I don’t have an update other than he’s very sore,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Monday’s loss. “What was it, the fifth play of the game he drew contact and he got shoved and landed on his tail bone again. I don’t think there could’ve been a worse scenario for us to start the game. He had really been preparing this past week. It is a contact sport. It’s an unpredictable thing. Insult to injury, we didn’t get the call on that either. But he definitely re-aggravated it. You can tell from that point on he was not his usual self. So we’ll re-evaluate him tomorrow and see where we are.”
The question now becomes: Can Butler recover in time to play in Wednesday’s game against the Bucks? He has already missed seven games this season.
Before Monday’s game, Spoelstra emphasized the importance of limiting turnovers against an opportunistic Grizzlies team. The Heat did not get the message.
Miami committed a season-high 23 turnovers that Memphis turned into 27 points. Fifteen of the Heat’s turnovers came in the first half.
“The empty possessions, turnovers when there are swing moments just when we were starting to get some momentum and that usually led to a basket going the other way,” Spoelstra said. “It’s a big credit to who they are and what they do and the style of play they have. They can really speed you up, they have quick hands, they constantly are reaching, running through passing lanes, speeding you up. We did not handle that well, particularly in the first half.”
The Grizzlies have taken advantage of opponents’ mistakes this season, averaging the ninth-most points off of turnovers at 17.4 per game.
But without Morant’s brilliance to lead the half-court offense, the Grizzlies have turned it up a notch. Memphis entered averaging 19.5 points off of turnovers in the first four games Morant missed with his knee injury and totaled 27 points off Miami’s errors on Monday.
“They’re long, young, athletic,” Herro said of the Grizzlies. “They fly around and gamble a lot for steals. I think a little bit of both them just being disruptive and us just being careless with the ball.”
Herro committed a team-high five turnovers, and Lowry and Gabe Vincent each committed four turnovers.
The Heat finished with 23 or more turnovers just once last season.
The Heat’s approach to filling the void left behind by Adebayo has been a bit different each game.
With Adebayo missing his fourth straight game because of a torn UCL in his right thumb on Monday, the Heat’s power rotation again looked different.
Dewayne Dedmon started in Adebayo’s place for the fourth consecutive game and that likely won’t change during Adebayo’s absence.
But it looks like Spoelstra is still searching for the right plan to fill the non-Dedmon minutes.
On Monday, Spoelstra went with a small-ball approach and slid starting power forward P.J. Tucker (6-5, 245) into the center spot for most of the minutes that Dedmon spent on the bench before the game got away from the Heat. Miami outscored Memphis by five points with Tucker at center, but the defensive metrics for the season have not been positive with Tucker playing as the Heat’s only big.
“I need to take a look at it more necessarily before I make any kind of assumptions or conclusions about it,” Spoelstra said when asked why the Heat’s defense has struggled with Tucker playing at center. “But we’re in a place right now where all of our frontcourt players have to be ready to play based on the matchup.”
In the first three games that Adebayo missed because of his thumb injury, rookie center Omer Yurtseven and forwards KZ Okpala and Udonis Haslem were each given opportunities in that role.
Yurtseven entered Monday’s game with 4:35 left in the third quarter with Tucker on the bench because of foul trouble and played the rest of the way. Yurtseven finished with six points, four rebounds and two assists in 17 minutes.
Okpala only played the final minute of the game with the Grizzlies already in control and Haslem was unavailable because of gastrointestinal issues.
The approach will likely continue to change with Adebayo expected to miss about six weeks.
There was an encouraging sign for the Heat before Monday’s loss.
Forward Markieff Morris was on the court for pregame work, which marked the first time he has been seen working on the main court since he was sidelined one month ago because of whiplash.
“You’re not supposed to have seen that,” Spoelstra said with a smile when asked about Morris’ pregame session. “Next game, he’ll be up in the practice court. I do not have a new update on him.”
Morris missed his 15th consecutive game Monday because of whiplash suffered on a shove from Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic on Nov. 8.
The Heat’s hope is that Morris will be cleared to play in games soon and Monday’s on-court shooting session was a step in the right direction. But there is still no definitive timetable for his return.
Nearly seven weeks into the schedule, the Heat finally began its first homestand of the season lasting longer than two games.
The Heat opened a three-game homestand with Monday’s loss. It continues Wednesday against the Bucks and concludes Saturday against the Chicago Bulls.
Because of its road-heavy schedule to start, it marks the Heat’s longest homestand of the season up to the point.
Monday was the Heat’s 25th game of the season and only its 10th at FTX Arena. By mid-January, Miami will have played 26 of its first 42 games on the road.
The Heat is 6-4 at home and 8-7 on the road this season.
“I think all these road experiences have been good for us,” Spoelstra said before Monday’s loss. “But we want to take advantage and make the most of this week.”
The Heat isn’t off to a good start.
This story was originally published December 6, 2021 at 10:04 PM.
