Lessons to learn from Heat’s triple-overtime loss. And time for another back-to-back
Gabe Vincent heaved the ball from halfcourt as the clock approached zero in double overtime. It banked off the backboard and into the basket, sending the crowd at FTX Arena into a frenzy.
It appeared the Miami Heat had won, had finally completed a 16-point comeback against the Toronto Raptors.
Appeared.
The only problem: Coach Erik Spoelstra had called a timeout as Vincent was driving toward halfcourt with 1.7 seconds left. The basket didn’t count. The game, the Heat’s second in as many nights, rolled into triple overtime where Miami ultimately fell 124-120.
“I’ve been in that situation so many times,” Spoelstra said. “Those are the summer discussions that are hours on end of whether you let guys go or not. It’s a shame that the coach got in the way, but I don’t think he got it off in time.”
(After re-watching the play, Spoelstra was correct that Vincent likely wouldn’t have gotten the shot off in time.)
It was an emotional and exhausting end to an emotional and exhausting comeback bid. Saturday was just the fourth time the Heat has ever played a game with three overtime periods and just the second time that game came on the tail end of a back-to-back.
Five players were on the floor for more than 40 minutes, with Jimmy Butler leading the way with 52:27, followed by Bam Adebayo (45:26), Vincent (45:26), Tyler Herro (44:43) and P.J. Tucker (41:17). All five of them had played at least 28 minutes the night before as well in a win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
And while at the end of the day this game will go down as one loss in late January and not, say, a decisive game in a playoff series, Spoelstra knows he’ll be able to use Saturday’s game as a learning tool.
“These kind of experiences, even through the emotion and frustration, all of that, I think you get better in these kind of games,” Spoelstra said. “There is just so much context and emotion.”
The context: Miami trailed by as many as 16 points with 4:21 left in the third quarter. Everyone not named Butler was either having an off night or had been playing streaky to that point in the game.
Miami got the deficit down to 10 by the end of the quarter and tied the game with 4:24 left in regulation when Butler somehow converted a turnaround fadeaway with Fred VanVleet draped on top of him contesting the shot.
“We never gave up, so you have to like that and respect that,” said Butler, who finished with 37 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists for his second triple-double in four games. “I feel like we got better in the sense of fighting back, learning from our mistakes early on, correcting them and executing and getting the shots that we wanted to get down the stretch.”
But there were opportunities for the Heat to put Toronto away in those final four minutes — and in each of the three overtime periods — that never came to light.
The Heat couldn’t get a shot off after Toronto tied the game with 2.9 seconds left in regulation.
On to overtime.
Vincent gave the Heat a two-point lead, 105-103, with 1:13 left in the first overtime. After the Heat forced a shot clock violation on the other end, Herro missed a three-pointer that could have iced the game. Toronto made a pair of free throws to tie the game and Butler lost the ball trying to drive to the paint on the Heat’s final possession.
On to double overtime.
The Heat played from behind here, after VanVleet’s three-pointer put the Raptors up 114-112 with 42.7 seconds left. Herro missed his initial jump shot but corralled his own rebound and sent a putback into the basket to tie the game again with 26.6 seconds left. The Heat got a stop on the other end and Herro airballed the potential game-winning floater from 12 feet out as the buzzer sounded.
On to triple overtime.
An eight-point run by Toronto gave the Raptors a 122-117 lead with 2:17 left in the frame. Vincent knocked down a three-pointer to cut the deficit to two, but Herro missed a step-back three-point shot with 35.3 seconds left. Pascal Siakim hit a pair of free throws.
Game over.
“We got great looks,” Adebayo said. “They just didn’t go in. You gotta live with that.”
“Nobody likes to lose,” Butler added. “They played a well-rounded game from start to finish and good for them. They are a really good team, but I think we got better.”
Now, another back-to-back
The Heat is back on the road, starting a six-game road trip.
It starts with another back-to-back — Monday against the Boston Celtics and a rematch with the Raptors in Toronto on Tuesday.
A rare four-games-in-five-nights situation, something the NBA has tried to avoid in recent years, that surfaced as a result of rescheduling. The Heat’s postponed game against the San Antonio Spurs from Dec. 29 was moved to Thursday, when the Heat was originally supposed to play the Raptors on the road. The Toronto game, as a result, got pushed up to Tuesday.
“We’re just in a different time right now,” Spoelstra said. “We appreciate just the opportunity to continue our business. ... We will just figure it out once we get out on the road.”
Butler put it in simpler terms.
“Nobody cares,” Butler said. “We have four games in five nights. We better figure out a way to win.”
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