No Herro, no Lowry, Butler ejected. Takeaways and details from another short-handed Heat win
Waves of adversity continue to be thrown at the Miami Heat and the Heat continues to overcome them.
Kyle Lowry missed his second straight game because of personal reasons, Tyler Herro was unavailable after entering the NBA’s health and safety protocols and Jimmy Butler was ejected in the second quarter after picking up two quick technicals for yelling at an official.
But the Heat (29-16) still managed to earn a 104-92 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers (18-26) on Wednesday night at FTX Arena. The Heat, which has won 15 of its past 20 games, completed its four-game homestand with a 3-1 record.
The Heat took control of the back-and-forth affair in the fourth quarter.
With the game tied at 87 with 6:57 to play, the Heat scored eight unanswered points to create some breathing room and take an eight-point lead with 3:48 left. Max Strus then hit a three-point dagger to put the Heat ahead by 10 with 2:03 remaining.
Miami closed the game on a 17-5 run.
Without Butler, Herro and Lowry, Heat star center Bam Adebayo took control of the game late. In his second game back from a right thumb injury, Adebayo scored 10 points in the fourth quarter.
Adebayo, who scored 10 of the Heat’s final 15 points, finished with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting, 11 rebounds, four assists, five steals and three blocks.
It was a close game throughout, as the Heat led by just two points at halftime. The game included 14 lead changes and four ties through the first three quarters.
Along with Adebayo’s dominant fourth quarter, the Heat also got another strong performance from Caleb Martin. He finished with a team-high 26 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, 3-of-5 shooting on threes and 7-of-7 shooting from the foul line, eight rebounds and two assists off the bench.
The Heat now hits the road for a quick one-game trip to take on the Hawks in Atlanta on Friday. Miami remains in second place in the Eastern Conference, just percentage points behind the first-place Chicago Bulls.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Trail Blazers:
A wild sequence led to the second ejection of Butler’s NBA career.
After driving to the basket and getting the foul call on a layup for a potential three-point play with 2:28 left in the second quarter, a frustrated Butler immediately got in the face of official Mousa Dagher and had some words for him. Dagher called the first technical on Butler.
But Butler continued yelling as he walked away from Dagher and was called for his second technical just seconds later by Crew Chief Courtney Kirkland.
In a pool report following the game, Kirkland was asked to explain the first technical called on Butler: “The aggressive manner in which he approached Mousa Dagher and the profanity that he yelled at him resulted in the first technical foul.”
Of the second technical that followed very shortly after, Kirkland said: “The second one was the fact that he yelled egregious profanity at Mousa, and that’s why he was given the second technical foul.”
The root of Butler’s anger looked to be what he thought were fouls that weren’t called by the officials prior to that play.
“I thought that was a pretty quick trigger coming from somebody on the other side of the court,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I thought it was diffused. I thought he had an explosion of real emotion and then Jimmy walked away. He walked away and I really commend him for that.”
Butler did not speak to the media following the game.
Butler left the game with four points on 1-of-4 shooting, three rebounds and three assists in 15 minutes.
When Butler was ejected, the Heat was ahead 50-47. Even without Butler, Herro and Lowry, the Heat still managed to outscore the Trail Blazers 46-36 in the second half.
Martin started the second half in Butler’s place.
The Heat’s second-half success really came in the fourth quarter, led by an elite defensive effort.
The Trail Blazers entered the fourth quarter with a two-point lead after winning the third period 24-20.
But the Heat dominated the fourth, outscoring the Trail Blazers 26-12 in the period. Portland shot just 5 of 23 (21.7 percent) from the field and 0 of 9 from three-point range in the quarter.
“I bet that was my boss’ favorite fourth quarter of the season,” Spoelstra said, referring to Heat president Pat Riley. “That fourth-quarter defensive effort probably made all of those historical Heat teams with Zo and Timmy, P.J. Brown, Majerle, Bruce Bowen, hey probably all would really appreciate that kind of game.”
The 12 points represent the fewest that Miami has allowed in a fourth quarter since holding the Indiana Pacers to 11 fourth-quarter points on Feb. 2, 2019.
The Heat also allowed just 52.2 points per 100 possessions in Wednesday’s fourth quarter, which is its lowest fourth-quarter defensive rating since the 2018-19 season.
The Trail Blazers’ starting backcourt of Anfernee Simons and CJ McCollum combined for 40 points on 9-of-13 shooting on threes in the first half. But they totaled just 11 points on 1-of-10 shooting on threes in the second half.
Portland star guard Damian Lillard was unavailable because of an abdominal surgery.
So many stepped up while Adebayo was sidelined. It was Adebayo who stepped up with Butler, Herro and Lowry out on Wednesday.
In his second game back after missing 22 straight games with a thumb injury, Adebayo took charge in the game-deciding fourth quarter.
Along with anchoring the Heat’s defense, Adebayo recorded 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting, five rebounds, one steal and two blocks in the final period.
The Heat led by two points when Adebayo entered with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. He played the rest of the way, with the Heat outscoring the Trail Blazers by 10 points during that stretch.
“Bam’s brilliance is doing things all across the board. It’s allowing us to be more dynamic defensively, to have different coverages,” Spoelstra said. “He at some point in this game probably guarded literally everybody. I bet at least one possession, he guarded everybody on their roster. Then he facilitated for us. Just really made some smart plays.”
The Heat’s depth continues to shine.
Even without the NBA’s leading bench scorer available in Herro, the Heat’s reserves still outscored the Trail Blazers’ reserves 58-12.
Off the Heat’s bench: Martin totaled 26, just two points shy of tying a career-high. Strus scored 15 points, Dewayne Dedmon scored 12 points and Kyle Guy totaled five points.
Gabe Vincent, who started at point guard in Lowry’s place, finished with 11 points, seven assists and three steals.
“We have that underdog mentality,” Adebayo said. “It’s just how it goes. Like Caleb has been playing out of his mind. And he has been doing it all season. A lot of the guys on the scouting report aren’t on the scouting report. So they’re very underrated. We have so much depth that anybody can check in and impact the game.”
Martin added: “This is the deepest team I’ve been a part of. Down the line, everybody is nice. I tell that to everybody I talk to, like everybody is nice. Everybody can hoop.”
Chris Silva and Omer Yurtseven also entered the game off Miami’s bench, but briefly. Silva stepped on the court to shoot the free throw for Butler in the wake of his ejection and was called back to the bench after six seconds, and Yurtseven played the final 7.4 seconds of the first half.
Yurtseven’s streak of consecutive games with double-digit rebounds ended at 14 straight games. That’s the longest such streak by a rookie in Heat history and stands alone as the second-longest overall streak in Heat history behind only Hassan Whiteside’s string of 19 consecutive games in 2017.
It’s also the longest such streak by a rookie since Karl-Anthony Towns grabbed double-digit rebounds in 15 games in 2016.
Udonis Haslem was the only available Heat player who did not play Wednesday.
With Herro becoming the latest Heat player to enter COVID-19 protocols on Wednesday, the team now has a roster decision to make.
Herro, who turns 22 on Thursday, entered health and safety protocols on Wednesday afternoon and missed the Heat’s win over the Trail Blazers.
With the NBA and National Basketball Players Association shortening the quarantine period to five days for asymptomatic and vaccinated players to return to play if testing data shows they’re no longer at risk to be infectious, Herro will also likely miss at least the Heat’s next two games (Friday at Hawks and Sunday vs. Los Angeles Lakers) with his five-day quarantine running through Monday.
The list of Heat players who have yet to enter protocols this season includes Adebayo, Butler, Dedmon, KZ Okpala, Victor Oladipo, Silva and Yurtseven.
“I hate checking that list,” Spoelstra said before Wednesday’s game. “I mean, we’ve checked off a lot of people that are on that list. There are some that are not, and it’s like what are you hoping for at this point. That does create some anxiety for those who have not gotten it yet and hopefully we don’t. But we just move forward. This is what this season is about.”
With Herro entering protocols, the Heat is eligible to have one COVID-19 replacement on a 10-day contract that does not count toward the salary cap or luxury tax. Herro is currently the only Heat player in protocols.
Miami already has one COVID-19 replacement on its roster in Silva, but his 10-day deal expired following Wednesday’s game. The Heat can either re-sign Silva to another 10-day contract to keep him as its COVID-19 replacement or look elsewhere.
One option is veteran guard Brandon Knight, who is currently playing for the Heat’s G League affiliate. Knight, who is from South Florida and attended Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest, recently completed a 10-day contract as a COVID-19 replacement for the Dallas Mavericks.
The Heat also can just move forward without signing a COVID-19 replacement. Teams are only required to sign at least one replacement player if they have two positive COVID-19 cases on its roster.
This story was originally published January 19, 2022 at 10:07 PM.
