Takeaways from Heat’s loss to Cavaliers to open trip and where Adebayo, Butler were missed
The Miami Heat has turned to the power of the three-pointer in order to survive life without injured stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.
But the Cleveland Cavaliers (17-12) flipped the script, hitting 16 threes to defeat the short-handed Heat 105-94 on Monday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Miami (16-12) fell to 0-1 on its four-game trip.
With the Heat packing the paint and working to limit opportunities around the rim as it usually does, the Cavaliers took advantage to shoot 16 of 36 (44.4 percent) from three-point range.
Veteran forward Kevin Love led the way with 23 points on 5-of-8 shooting from deep off the bench. All of his points came in the second half.
The Heat still kept the game relatively close for most of the night, as it entered the fourth quarter trailing by just five points. But the Cavaliers pulled away in the fourth, leading by as many as 16 points in the final period.
The Heat made 13 threes, was outscored 17-5 from the foul line and committed 16 turnovers that Cleveland turned into 26 points.
Heat forward P.J. Tucker finished one point shy of tying his career-high of 24 points. He ended the loss with 23 points, nine rebounds, five assists and one block in 35 minutes.
Heat guard Kyle Lowry contributed 22 points, three rebounds and five assists.
With Tucker and Lowry combining to shoot 9 of 16 on threes, the rest of the Heat’s roster shot just 4 of 24 from deep.
The Heat continues its four-game trip on Wednesday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Cavaliers:
The Cavaliers made a lot of threes against the Heat ... again.
Cleveland entered shooting 35.3 percent from three-point range this season, which ranks right around the middle of the NBA.
But against the Heat this season, the Cavaliers have looked like one of the best outside shooting teams in the league.
Cleveland made 16 of 31 threes in a victory in Miami on Dec. 1 and followed up that performance by hitting 16 threes in Monday’s win over the Heat.
The Cavaliers have finished with 16 or more made threes in four games this season. Two of them have come against the Heat.
“They’re a good team,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You can’t expect it to be easy. It’s not like they don’t make threes. They average almost 13 a game, so it’s three above their average. Obviously, they want to get opportunities in the paint and they have great size. But it always looks a little bit different when you’re making shots and they were able to make some shots and keep that separation. Every time we were able to get back into it, it seemed like somebody hit a big three.”
Some of that’s because Miami allows the second-most three-point attempts in the NBA at 40.2 per game, but the other part is the Cavaliers have just made a high percentage of their three-point looks against the Heat.
The Heat is 3-7 this season when its opponent makes 16 or more threes.
With Adebayo and Butler, the Heat continues to have trouble generating free throws.
Miami finished Monday’s loss just 5 of 9 from the foul line. Over the last three games — all played with Adebayo and Butler — the Heat has attempted a total of just 30 free throws.
That’s a low number, considering Miami is averaging 19.8 free throws per game this season.
But some of this is to be expected with Adebayo and Butler unavailable. Adebayo (6.2 free throws per game) and Butler (8.3 free throws per game) have combined to take 14.5 free throws per game this season.
The Heat’s drives to the basket have stayed right around their season average during this stretch, so it’s not that players aren’t being aggressive getting into the paint. But a lot of those drives have resulted in kick outs for three-point looks.
“We’re attacking still and we’re still getting to the basket,” Lowry said. “But we’re attacking and spraying. The one thing about this overall season is we’re missing two guys who generate probably 15 to 17 free throws a game or whatever it is they generate. It’s not going to be easy for us to make that up. But we’re trying to make that up in other ways, try to make more threes and shoot more threes and make more plays and get more shots on goal.”
The Heat has taken 40 or more threes in each of the last three games without Adebayo and Butler.
“We’re not jacking, we’re still trying to play to our identity,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s recent high three-point numbers. “We’re an aggressive team. I think, especially in the first half, we had some really good clean looks. A lot of them came off of the right play. Guys getting into the paint, attacking, making the extra pass, finding the open player. I was pleased with the kind of threes we were getting particularly through three quarters.”
What the Heat really misses is Adebayo and Butler’s production in isolation situations. That’s where they draw a lot of their fouls.
Then again, the Heat is 2-1 over the last three games.
“We won two out of three games with the free-throw disparity,” Tucker said. “We had chances to win tonight. We could have still won the game.”
Tucker continues to take on and thrive in a bigger offensive role with Adebayo out.
On Monday, Tucker scored a season-high 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 shooting on threes. He also grabbed nine rebounds and dished out five assists.
It marked the first time this season that Tucker has taken more than five threes in a game.
“P.J. knew that he would have some opportunities behind the three-point line because of the way they defend,” Spoelstra said. “He was able to capitalize on that. But also his screening is so invaluable for us, getting guys open. Things that probably the average fan doesn’t notice.”
Tucker added: “I knew I was going to get a lot of threes tonight. I was going to get even more. The way they help off.”
With Adebayo unavailable as an offensive hub, more of the Heat’s offense is running through Tucker and he has looked good in that role.
Tucker has recorded 22 assists over the last four games — four assists in last Monday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, eight assists in Wednesday’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks, five assists in Saturday’s win over the Chicago Bulls and five assists on Monday. Before this stretch, he had finished a game with more than three assists just twice this season.
Every Heat player who logged minutes in Monday’s loss finished with a negative plus-minus except for Tucker, who ended the night with a flat plus-minus of zero.
Duncan Robinson made Heat history in Cleveland.
Robinson appeared in his 175th consecutive regular-season game on Monday, a streak that dates back to April 9, 2019. That broke the franchise record held by Glen Rice, who appeared in 174 straight regular-season games for the Heat during a streak that spanned from 1992 to 1994.
But it was otherwise a quiet night for Robinson, who finished with six points on 1-of-7 shooting on threes.
Butler did not travel with the Heat and there’s no timetable for his return, but a return during the trip has not been ruled out. Also, there’s now a Tyler Herro injury that needs to be monitored.
Butler missed his third straight game because of a tail bone contusion. He has actually missed seven of the past eight games because of the injury, returning to play and re-aggravating his tail bone contusion in last Monday’s loss to the Grizzlies.
“I don’t know,” Spoelstra said Monday when asked if Butler could return during the four-game trip that ends Sunday in Detroit. “We’re literally day to day. If something changes, it will change.”
The trip brings the Heat close to home when it takes on the Orlando Magic on Friday. While that presents a clear and easy opportunity for Butler to rejoin the team without having to take a flight, Spoelstra said Butler will rejoin the Heat wherever it is when he’s healthy.
“If it was somewhere else and he was healthy and we could find a way to get him here, it’s more about his health at this point,” Spoelstra said.
The Heat was also without Adebayo (thumb surgery), Caleb Martin (health and safety protocols), Markieff Morris (whiplash) and Victor Oladipo on Monday. Adebayo, Butler, Martin and Morris did not travel, but Oladipo is with the team on the trip to spend more time with his coaches and teammates as he continues to rehabilitate from May surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee.
Herro suffered a right quad contusion in the second quarter of Monday’s loss, but managed to play through the injury to finish the game with 12 points on 6-of-15 shooting, two rebounds and two assists in 25 minutes.
“We’ll see tomorrow,” Spoelstra said following the game regarding Herro’s injury.
This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 9:27 PM.
