No Butler, Lowry or Tucker, but Heat still escapes with win vs. Nets. Takeaways and reaction
There was so much working against the Miami Heat in Brooklyn: The Heat’s fifth game in seven nights while missing three starters against a Nets team welcoming back superstar Kevin Durant from injury.
But as usual, the Eastern Conference-leading Heat (42-22) stubbornly pushed forward to escape with a 113-107 short-handed win over the Nets (32-32) on the second night of a back-to-back Thursday at Barclays Center. It marked Miami’s 10th win in the past 12 games.
Paired with the Chicago Bulls’ loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday, the win also pushed the first-place Heat to a 2.5-game lead over the second-place Philadelphia 76ers and third-place Bulls in the East standings.
“Guys were exhausted mentally, emotionally, physically,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You could tell nobody felt great today. When you get in at 4 a.m. and get to bed and the sun is already coming up, you’re not going to feel awesome. So it was just a matter of trying to come together and inspire each other and just find a way to gut it out.”
Overcoming the absence of three starters in Jimmy Butler (left big toe irritation), Kyle Lowry (personal reasons) and P.J. Tucker (left knee pain), the Heat trailed by as many as 16 points in the second quarter.
After falling behind by 16 with 4:38 left in the second quarter, Miami closed the first half on a 19-10 run to trim the deficit to only seven entering halftime.
The Heat carried that momentum into the second half, opening the third quarter on a 21-7 run to pull ahead by seven points midway through the third quarter and take control of the game.
The Heat was in front the rest of the way, extending its lead to as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter. The Nets made a late run to cut the deficit to only two with just 2:23 to play, but that’s the closest they would get.
Center Bam Adebayo was the catalyst for the Heat, finishing with 30 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
“Bam was sensational the entire game,” Spoelstra said. “Just really inspiring, doing it on both ends. He was facilitating so much of our offense on the handoffs, at the elbow, in the post. He was making the right reads. I think that just gives everybody a lot of confidence. He was hitting guys on cuts.”
Max Strus got hot from three-point range, scoring 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting on threes.
Off the bench, the Heat got 27 points and eight assists from Tyler Herro and 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting from Caleb Martin.
After totaling 67 points on 58.7 percent shooting from the field and 9-of-18 (50 percent) shooting on threes in the first half, the Nets were limited to 40 points on 32.4 percent shooting in the second half as the Heat turned to its zone defense down the stretch.
Durant finished with 31 points on 10-of-21 shooting, four rebounds and four assists in his return from a sprained left MCL that forced him to miss the previous 21 games.
Along with missing Butler, Lowry and Tucker, the Heat remained without Markieff Morris (return to competition reconditioning) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery).
Oladipo was with the team in Brooklyn and went through a pregame workout with assistant coach Anthony Carter as he moves closer to making his season debut. The Athletic reported that the plan is for Oladipo to make his return on Monday against the Houston Rockets.
The Heat now returns to Miami to begin a season-long seven-game homestand on Saturday against Joel Embiid, James Harden and the Philadelphia 76ers. The Heat plays 11 of its next 12 games at home.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Nets:
One night after wasting a 14-point fourth quarter lead in a brutal loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Heat was in danger of allowing a late lead slip away again on Thursday. But the Heat held on.
After extending its lead to 12 with 4:21 to play, the Nets went on a 10-0 run to cut the Heat’s lead to just two with 2:23 remaining. Durant had a chance to put Brooklyn ahead at that point, but missed a three-pointer with 57.9 seconds left to allow Miami to hold on to a two-point advantage.
The Heat’s late-game offense was again shaky, as it missed five straight shots during that run.
But Adebayo came through to end that drought by hitting a five-foot bank shot over Goran Dragic to push the Heat’s lead to four with 35.5 seconds to play. Herro, who was being defended by the length of Durant, initiated the play by lobbing the pass to Adebayo as the Nets fronted him in the post for the critical assist.
“I thought the poise down the stretch was much better,” Spoelstra said. “With Tyler, he made some big plays and that one over the top to Bam was probably the biggest play of the game and it took two or three reads on that play alone when they switched, then denied the wing, still had the poise to get it over the top and Bam made a heck of a finish.”
It was a redeeming moment after Herro committed three turnovers in the final 4:55 during Wednesday’s late-game collapse.
“You go through different situations throughout a season. You try to learn from them,” Herro said. “Last night was a tough one to swallow for all of us. But I learned from it. In the same situation again, I was able to make the play. Bam is an easy target to hit and he obviously had a smaller guy on him, I was able to get it to him and he finished the play.”
Following Adebayo’s clutch basket, Durant then missed a 6-foot jumper and Herro then took an intentional foul with 23.5 seconds remaining. Herro made both free throws to extend Miami’s lead to six and seal the win.
“You want to grow from your experiences. We had a team meeting and a walk through, and it was painful,” Spoelstra said. “We didn’t want to totally belabor it and do a two-hour film session, but we at least wanted to check the boxes of, ‘Alright, let’s learn from last night’s game.’ Everybody took it to heart and everybody took ownership of it, including myself.”
The result was different on Thursday, but the Heat’s late-game execution still wasn’t great in Brooklyn. Miami missed five of its final six shots and was outscored 10-4 over the final 4:02.
The difference was the Heat made one more play than it did in Milwaukee, with Herro finding Adebayo for that crucial basket in the final minute.
“It just felt good to bounce back, honestly,” Adebayo said. “We feel like we let one slip yesterday. We got back in that situation and nobody wants to have the same situation happen again. So the fact that we can bounce back from that shows how great our team is.”
With three starters out, the Heat used its 17th different starting lineup of the season and it featured a double-big look that didn’t last long.
Miami started two centers, Adebayo and Omer Yurtseven, along with Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson and Strus.
Adebayo and Yurtseven opened the game and played the first 5:57 together. But the Heat was outscored 19-8 during that stretch.
Yurtseven didn’t play again in the game, as Spoelstra opted to start Martin in Yurtseven’s place to begin the second half to surround Adebayo with four shooters.
The switch worked, as Adebayo took advantage of the attention the Heat’s shooters were drawing to make the Nets pay on aggressive rolls to the basket. Adebayo finished with three dunks and 22 paint points on 11-of-12 shooting.
“Bam is one of a kind,” Strus said. “You don’t see that very often, a big that can handle like that, play in the pocket, make plays for others and do it himself, too. We’re very lucky to have Bam. He’s a special talent.”
Of sitting Butler and Tucker on Thursday, Spoelstra said: “This was an organizational decision really with the two of them. They’ve been grinding and working. They’re not long-term issues, but they can be if you don’t handle them immediately. I think they’ll really respond from today and tomorrow, and we’ll see where they are on Saturday.”
The Heat’s undrafted stepped up.
On a night Miami started four undrafted players in Vincent, Robinson, Yurtseven and Strus, it was fitting that a few of its undrafted players played big roles in the win.
Strus scored 11 of his 21 points in the Heat’s game-changing third-quarter.
Martin, who has been dealing with lingering Achilles soreness, totaled 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes off the bench. He’s now shooting 38.8 percent on 2.6 three-point attempts per game this season after making just 24.8 percent of his threes last season.
Durant made his return and made an immediate impact. But the Heat’s zone worked to slow him down in the second half.
Making his return from a sprained left MCL that forced him to miss the previous 21 games, Durant started strong with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the first half with Adebayo defending him for most of the first two quarters.
The Heat then relied on its 2-3 zone look for most of the second half, and it helped to take Durant out of his rhythm. He scored 14 points, but shot just 3 of 11 from the field and 1 of 4 on threes in the second half.
“Spo tricked us with that zone,” Dragic said.
Strus added that the zone worked to “kind of slow them down and make them settle for some shots. I think it was a huge turning point for us.”
The Heat faced Dragic for the first time since trading him to the Toronto Raptors last offseason as part of the sign-and-trade transaction.
In a starting role, Dragic finished with nine points on 4-of-10 shooting and seven assists in 28 minutes against his former team on Thursday. It marked his first game against the Heat since Dec. 9, 2014, and he’s now just 1-12 against Miami during his NBA career.
Before the game, Spoelstra said it would be “weird” to coach against Dragic.
“We’ll have to like rewind to what it was like to coach against him before I knew him and got to develop a relationship with him,” Spoelstra said.
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 10:11 PM.
