Heat opens West Coast trip with loss to Nuggets. Takeaways and what went wrong on defense
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 124-119 loss to the Denver Nuggets (23-12) on Friday night at Ball Arena to open a five-game West Coast trip. The Heat (18-18) continues the trip on Saturday with a New Year’s Eve matchup against the Utah Jazz (9 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) to complete the road back-to-back set:
The Heat was in a good position to open the trip with a quality win. But Miami just couldn’t complete the job, as its usually solid defense struggled to slow Denver’s elite offense.
The Heat held an eight-point lead with 9:09 left in the fourth quarter, but was outscored 32-19 the rest of the way as the Nuggets rallied for the victory.
Denver began the comeback with a 13-4 run to take a one-point lead with 5:06 to play. Then the teams went back and fourth in a fourth quarter that included nine lead changes.
But after Tyler Herro was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws to give the Heat a two-point lead with 2:23 to play, the Nuggets responded with a 9-2 run to close the game and seal the win.
Denver shot an ultra-efficient 59.2 percent from the field and 17 of 28 (60.7 percent) from three-point range in the victory, but exploded in the fourth quarter for 39 points on 13-of-16 shooting from the field, 5-of-5 shooting on threes and 8-of-10 shooting from the foul line.
“In the fourth quarter they just got basically anything,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Our closeouts in the fourth quarter really hurt us. Obviously those three closeouts at the end, one on [Nikola] Jokic, one on [Jamal] Murray. But before that, to start the quarter, we just weren’t closing out the way we were capable of. And that proved to be pretty costly, particularly when we had some leads in the fourth quarter.”
The Nuggets entered with the NBA’s second-best offensive rating and the Heat entered with the NBA’s eighth-best defensive rating. Denver clearly won that battle, as Miami posted its fourth-worst single-game defensive rating of the season by allowing 122.8 points per 100 possessions in Friday’s loss.
“We pride ourselves in being able to find a way to win games with defensive stops going down the stretch and I can’t recall a stop in the last three or four minutes,” Spoelstra said. “I’m sure maybe there was one, but I just don’t remember it. It seemed like they were scoring or getting fouled on every single one of those possessions.”
The Heat is 1-12 this season when finishing a game with a defensive rating worse than 115 points allowed per 100 possessions in part because its offense hasn’t been good enough to match that level of scoring. Miami holds the NBA’s sixth-worst offensive rating this season.
Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic was the catalyst on Friday with a triple-double that included 19 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists. Denver guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope contributed a team-high 20 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting from deep.
In total, eight Nuggets players finished with double-digit points.
The Nuggets’ efficient shooting was enough to negate the Heat’s 87-76 edge in field-goal attempts and 30-22 edge in free-throw attempts.
And it turned out that the Heat’s early shooting struggles were too much to overcome.
Miami scored just 19 points on 6-of-20 (20.7 percent) shooting from the field in the first quarter. It marked the Heat’s worst shooting quarter of the season.
The Heat’s offense was much better the rest of the way, shooting 33 of 67 (49.3 percent) from the field during the final three quarters. It just wasn’t enough to match the Nuggets’ high-powered offense.
Herro led the Heat with a team-high 26 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 shooting from deep, 10 rebounds and five assists. He scored 24 points in the second half after a two-point first half.
Heat center Bam Adebayo recorded 22 points with the help of 10-of-11 shooting from the foul line, seven rebounds, two assists, four steals and two blocks.
Heat wing Jimmy Butler finished with 17 points, six rebounds, eight assists and four steals.
Max Strus scored 19 points on 4-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc off Miami’s bench.
Heat starting point guard Kyle Lowry was quiet with three points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field, two rebounds and three assists in 32 minutes.
Close games are nothing new for the Heat, which has now played in a league-leading 24 clutch games this season. A clutch game is defined as a game that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Heat is 13-11 in clutch games this season.
“Got to watch the film and figure it out,” Adebayo said when asked about the Heat’s defensive struggles in Denver. “The thing about it, we don’t want to be mediocre. We don’t want to be in the middle of the pack. So it’s on us to get on the film and review what went wrong.”
The Heat was again missing multiple rotation players on Friday, as its injury issues continued. And Butler is already expected to miss Saturday’s game.
The Heat had just 11 players available for Friday’s game in Denver on the front end of the back-to-back.
Miami was without five players against the Nuggets: Dewayne Dedmon (health and safety protocols), Nikola Jovic (G League) Caleb Martin (left ankle sprain and left quadriceps strain), Victor Oladipo (left knee injury management) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery).
That left the Heat without three rotation players, as Dedmon, Martin and Oladipo have been regulars in the rotation when they’ve been available.
So others on Miami’s roster were forced to step into bigger roles on Friday like undrafted rookie Orlando Robinson, who again provided solid minutes as the backup center in Dedmon’s absence. Robinson closed with 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 shooting from the foul line and five rebounds in 18 minutes.
Oladipo is expected to return to play in the back end of the back-to-back on Saturday against the Jazz, as the Heat continues to take a cautious approach after he recently returned from a left knee injury that forced him to miss the first 24 games of the season.
But Butler is expected to miss Saturday’s game against the Jazz as part of the Heat’s injury management plan for his troublesome right knee that kept him out for seven straight games in November. Miami has not played Butler in both games of any December back-to-back.
Because of all the injuries it has dealt with this season, the Heat used its 15th different starting lineup on Friday.
In fact, the Heat has not started the same lineup in consecutive games over its last nine games. The last time Miami used the same starting lineup in consecutive games was in a Dec. 10 loss to the San Antonio Spurs and a Dec. 12 win over the Indiana Pacers.
On Friday, forward Haywood Highsmith started in place of the injured Martin. Highsmith started alongside Lowry, Herro, Butler and Adebayo against the Nuggets.
In Highsmith’s third start of the season and fourth start of his NBA career, he finished with seven points, two rebounds and two steals in 21 minutes.
All of the Heat’s injuries have limited its preferred starting lineup of Lowry, Herro, Butler, Martin and Adebayo to opening just 12 of the first 36 games this season. When this lineup has been available, it has outscored opponents by an impressive 10.7 points per 100 possessions in 172 minutes together this season.
This combination just hasn’t been on the court together enough yet.
It was a record-setting night for Heat sharpshooter Duncan Robinson.
By shooting 3 of 7 from beyond the arc in Friday’s loss, Robinson set a new franchise record for the most career threes made by a Heat player. Robinson has now hit 807 threes in his Heat career, surpassing the previous record of 806 made threes set by Tim Hardaway.
Hardaway did it in 367 regular-season games with the Heat. Robinson pulled off the accomplishment at a much faster pace, breaking Hardaway’s record in 265 regular-season games.
“I mean, it’s not nothing,” Spoelstra of Robinson’s feat. “It’s pretty remarkable what he’s been able to do and how much he’s had to overcome with the different path to get to this point. I’m happy for him. And I know Timmy was happy for him. I just wish it could have led to a win.”
This record is another reminder of the elite three-point shooter Robinson is.
While Robinson entered Friday shooting just 33.9 percent from three-point range this season — his lowest percentage since his rookie year in 2018-19 — he has earned the reputation as one of the NBA’s top outside shooters. He entered this season shooting 40.6 percent on threes in his first four NBA seasons and set a Heat record for threes made (270) in a single season in 2019-20.
Even when including this season’s struggles, Robinson is still shooting 40.1 percent on 7.6 three-point attempts per game for his NBA career. Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are the only other two players in league history who have shot better than 40 percent from deep on seven or more three-point attempts per game in their NBA careers.
Robinson added another item to his impressive three-point shooting resume on Friday by setting a new franchise record for the most career three-pointers made by a player in a Heat uniform.
“You want to do it in a win, for sure. So that’s disappointing,” Robinson said. “But I just feel very fortunate and blessed to get it. A lot of people contributed to it, certainly not just myself. So I’m grateful for that. I’ll definitely take a second to just appreciate it.”
The Heat’s struggles in Denver continued.
Friday’s result marked the Heat’s sixth consecutive loss against the Nuggets in Denver — a skid that dates back to the 2017-18 season. Miami has dropped its last five games in Denver by a combined total of 75 points.
The Heat owns a 13-23 all-time record in games played against the Nuggets in Denver, which can be a challenging place for opponents because of the altitude.
Next up for the Heat is a game in another troublesome place. The Heat holds a 12-22 all-time record in Salt Lake City, where it will take on the Jazz on Saturday on the second night of the back-to-back.
“My expectation is do whatever it takes to get the win,” Herro said of his mentality entering Saturday’s game against the Jazz. “We felt like we should have got this one tonight to just put ourselves in a better position for tomorrow. But with us dropping tonight, tomorrow is going to be a big game for us.”
The good news for the Heat is it doesn’t have to play another back-to-back any time soon. With no back-to-backs in January, Miami’s next back-to-back set is Feb. 10-11.
This story was originally published December 30, 2022 at 11:39 PM.
