Takeaways from Heat’s win over the defending NBA champion Bucks without Adebayo and Butler
The Miami Heat didn’t have stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler, but it still had enough to defeat the defending NBA champions.
The short-handed Heat (15-11) overcame the absences of Adebayo and Butler to earn a 113-104 win over the Milwaukee Bucks (16-10) on Wednesday night at FTX Arena. The result snapped Miami’s three-game losing skid at home and only marked the second loss in the past 12 games for Milwaukee.
“This is where we are right now and this is temporary,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of winning without Adebayo and Butler. “This is not a full-season deal, but we just have to wrap our minds around that it’s all hands on deck and each game is its own journey and we’re going to need our full roster to contribute and it will be different guys at different times.”
Caleb Martin was the Heat’s star Wednesday, finishing with a career-high 28 points with the help of a career-high six made threes on eight attempts. He also recorded eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 34 minutes as he started in place of the injured Butler.
The Heat used a big third quarter to come away with the impressive win, outscoring the Bucks 39-26 in the period to turn a seven-point halftime deficit into a six-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
Heat guard Kyle Lowry was the catalyst, scoring 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range in the period.
Lowry ended the night with 22 points and 13 assists.
Then Max Strus got hot in the fourth quarter to score 16 points in the period on 4-of-7 shooting from deep to help the Heat hold on for the victory. Those were his only points of the night.
KZ Okpala contributed 10 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal in 32 minutes off the bench as part of one of the best performances of his NBA career.
P.J. Tucker was also important to the Heat’s winning formula Wednesday, spending most of the night defending Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. Tucker made Antetokounmpo work hard for his offense, as the two-time NBA MVP was limited to 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting.
Tucker also recorded 15 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals.
Aside from 22 turnovers, the Heat’s offense was sharp. Miami totaled 113 points on 51.9 percent shooting from the field and 22-of-47 (46.8 percent) shooting from three-point range.
The Heat tied a franchise record with its 22 made threes, a mark it has hit only twice before in a March 4, 2020 win over the Orlando Magic and a May 15, 2021 loss to the Bucks.
The Heat will close its three-game homestand on Saturday against the Chicago Bulls.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Bucks:
The Heat used a starting lineup that didn’t include Adebayo, Butler or Tyler Herro. But it did include Martin, who turned in the best performance of his NBA career.
Adebayo (torn UCL in right thumb) and Butler (tail bone contusion) missed the game because of injuries. Adebayo is not expected to return until mid-January and Butler is day-to-day after re-aggravating his tail bone injury during Monday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
As for Herro, Spoelstra opted to keep him in his usual sixth man role.
Instead, the Heat started Martin in Butler’s place alongside Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Tucker and Dewayne Dedmon. The Lowry-Martin-Robinson-Tucker-Dedmon combination played just one minute together this season before Wednesday’s game.
But the lineup was effective, as the Heat built a 16-10 lead before making its first substitution of the game.
Spoelstra’s decision also proved to be a good one because Martin was the Heat’s best player on Wednesday. He scored 17 points and tied a career-high for a single game with five made threes ... in the first half.
Martin ended the game with 28 points with the help of 6-of-8 shooting from deep.
“As a head coach, I just really enjoy watching him work every day and watching his approach to this and watching him compete,” Spoelstra said. “The guys love playing with him. He inspires everybody with his crazy efforts and his competitiveness. He’s our kind of guy.”
Martin entered shooting just 31.1 percent on threes this season and shot 24.8 percent on threes last season with the Charlotte Hornets.
“A lot of it is just confidence,” Martin said of hitting six threes on Wednesday. “I just didn’t play with a lot of confidence last year for some reason and a lot of that was on me and just in my own head.”
Martin has been on the active roster in 24 of the Heat’s first 26 games this season. That means he’s eligible to be active for only 26 of Miami’s 56 remaining games unless his two-way contract is converted to a standard deal, which is looking more and more likely as soon as it can be done while still staying under the luxury tax in late February.
“I just think his confidence is growing,” Lowry said. “He understands that he’s on a two-way, so he’s playing for a job. He’s playing for a contract. He’s playing to prove that he belongs and he just continues to get better.”
Without Adebayo and Butler, the Heat’s offense relies on ball movement and three-point shooting. Miami excelled in both areas against Milwaukee.
The Heat finished with 32 assists on 40 made shots and converted on 22 of its 47 three-point attempts on Wednesday. As noted above, the 22 made threes tied a franchise record.
In the Heat’s three wins without Adebayo and Butler this season, the Heat has shot 45 percent on threes against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 15, 47.1 percent on threes on Friday against the Indiana Pacers and 46.8 percent on threes on Wednesday against the Bucks.
“Just shooting them things tonight. Getting them up,” Lowry said. “That’s what coach said. I don’t know, I think we had to shoot a certain number. So we just got them up.”
The Heat is now 3-2 this season in games without Adebayo and Butler.
After a sloppy first half, the Heat needed to clean things up to have a chance against the Bucks. Miami did that.
Miami committed 17 first-half turnovers for the second straight game. Milwaukee scored 22 points off those mistakes in the first two quarters.
That allowed the Bucks to overcome 37 percent shooting from the field and 6-of-23 shooting from three-point range in the first half to enter halftime with a seven-point lead. Milwaukee took nine more shot attempts and 11 more free throws than Miami in the first two quarters because of all the Heat’s empty possessions.
But the Heat was much more efficient in the second half, committing only five turnovers in the final two quarters. That allowed Miami to take one more shot, 40-39, than Milwaukee in the second half.
Spoelstra continues to modify his plan at center without Adebayo based on the matchup. Okpala was the big of choice on Wednesday.
After playing small with the 6-5 Tucker at center in the non-Dedmon minutes for most of Monday’s loss to the Grizzlies, the Heat turned to rookie center Omer Yurtseven (6-11, 275) to play as the first big off the bench on Wednesday.
But after Yurtseven committed two turnovers and two quick fouls, he was subbed out after four minutes in the first quarter.
That’s when Okpala (6-8, 215) replaced Yurtseven with 1:44 left in the first quarter and Spoelstra stuck with him the rest of the night.
Okpala, who has yet to find a consistent role in the Heat’s rotation in his third NBA season, finished the first half with five points on 2-of-2 shooting, two rebounds, one steal and one block in 11 minutes.
Spoelstra again went with Okpala to play the non-Dedmon minutes in the second half. Okpala was on the bench for only 2:32 over the final two quarters and played the entire fourth quarter.
Okpala, 22, finished with season-highs in points (10), made field goals (4) and made threes (2), tied a career-highs in assists (2) and blocks (2), and set a new career-high in rebounds (9). He also impressed with his defensive versatility, effectively switching and guarding different positions.
Dedmon played just 2:32 in the second half.
“Tonight we really felt that we needed that versatility defensively,” Spoelstra said.
Even though the Heat lost the first quarter, it still managed to end a a recent trend of dismal starts
Miami entered with losses in four of the last five games and was outscored in the first quarter in each of those four losses by a combined 44 points. The Heat averaged 21.8 points on 35.9 percent shooting while the opponent averaged 32.8 points on 56.6 percent shooting in those four first quarters.
The Heat turned it around (kind of) on Wednesday, pulling ahead by as many as nine points in the opening quarter. But the Bucks still managed to end the period with a two-point lead.
The numbers were much better for Miami, though. In Wednesday’s first quarter, the Heat totaled 24 points on 52.6 percent shooting and the Bucks scored 26 points on 34.8 percent shooting.
The primary reason Miami still entered the second quarter facing a deficit was because of its turnover issues.
The Heat improved to 5-9 this season in games that it has lost the first quarter in.
This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 10:16 PM.
