Takeaways from Heat’s (rare) double-digit win over Bucks to continue encouraging stretch
The Miami Heat’s best stretch of the season continues.
Despite missing three starters because of injuries, the Heat still managed to close its four-game homestand with a dominant 111-95 win over the also short-handed Milwaukee Bucks (27-16) on Saturday afternoon at Miami-Dade Arena. The Heat (24-20) went 3-1 on the homestand and has won 12 of its last 17 games to move four games above .500 for the first time this season.
“We’ve really been enjoying basketball and you see it on the court,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said of the 12-5 stretch, “We’re way more connected than we’ve been since the beginning of the season. And we’re executing, making plays, and guys making shots and getting in a rhythm.”
The Heat swept its set of consecutive games against the Bucks in Miami after also defeating Milwaukee on Thursday. The Bucks were without superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo in both games.
The Bucks’ biggest lead on Saturday was by one point and it came early in the first quarter, as the Heat essentially was in control from start to finish. Miami led by as many as 20 points on the way to its sixth double-digit win of the season.
Even when the Bucks rallied from a double-digit deficit to pull within one point with 6:10 left in the third quarter, the Heat responded by going on a 34-17 run to push its lead to 18 points with 7:13 to play in the game.
Gabe Vincent led the Heat with a team-high 27 points and five steals.
Victor Oladipo was again a spark off the Heat’s bench with 20 points, two rebounds, five assists and three steals. He totaled 11 points in the fourth quarter.
Adebayo contributed 20 points and 13 rebounds in 31 minutes for the Heat. He scored 14 points in the fourth quarter.
The big lead allowed Jimmy Butler to spend the entire fourth quarter on the bench. Butler ended the game with 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field and four rebounds in 27 minutes.
The Bucks struggled to generate efficient offense against the Heat without Antetokounmpo for the second straight game. After shooting 40.2 percent in Thursday’s loss in Miami, Milwaukee shot just 40.5 percent on Saturday.
Next up for the Heat is a three-game trip that begins Monday against the Hawks in Atlanta.
“What you want out of a team is that you’re growing from your experiences, particularly if you have some tough times of adversity,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You want that to bring your team closer together and that’s kind of what I’ve been saying that that’s what I felt the last three weeks.”
Five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Bucks on Saturday:
Both games between the Heat and Bucks this week were missing key characters. On Saturday, each team was without multiple starters.
The Heat remained without starters Tyler Herro (left Achilles soreness), Kyle Lowry (left knee discomfort) and Caleb Martin (left quadriceps strain) on Saturday.
It marked the third straight game that Herro and Lowry have missed with their respective injuries, as Herro also was away from the team earlier this week following the birth of his son, Harlem Herro. Martin sat out his fifth straight game on Saturday.
When asked about Lowry’s lingering left knee issue that forced him to miss two straight games in December and now three consecutive games this month, Spoelstra said: “We’re still treating him day to day and continue to be on that protocol until he’s ready.”
The Bucks remained without two starters, Antetokounmpo (left knee soreness) and Khris Middleton (right knee soreness) on Saturday. Antetokounmpo missed both games in Miami this week and Middleton missed his 15th consecutive game.
Those absences didn’t allow for a true read on how the teams match up, even though they faced each other two times in three days.
The Heat also was without Nikola Jovic (lower back stress reaction) Duncan Robinson (finger surgery) and Omer Yurtseven (ankle surgery) on Saturday. The Bucks also did not have Serge Ibaka (personal reasons).
With Saturday’s game airing on ABC, that left the national television audience watching a diluted version of both teams.
With Adebayo and Butler as the only available players from the Heat’s preferred starting lineup, it opened Saturday’s game with a five-man unit of Vincent, Max Strus, Butler, Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo for the second straight game and second time this season.
The Heat’s preferred starting lineup of Lowry, Herro, Butler, Martin and Adebayo has been limited to just 14 games together so far this season because of ongoing injury issues.
With Antetokounmpo and Middleton out, the Bucks went with a starting lineup of Jrue Holiday, Grayson Allen, Pat Connaughton, Bobby Portis and Brook Lopez. It’s the 17th different starting lineup Milwaukee has used this season.
Enough of the Heat’s secondary players stepped up to fill the void left behind by those injured. Highsmith was solid in his 26 minutes, finishing his ninth start of the season with eight points on four shots, seven rebounds and two assists for Miami.
Vincent shined for the second straight game to again step up for the short-handed Heat.
After setting a new career high with 28 points in Thursday’s win over the Bucks, he followed up that performance by nearly establishing a new career high for a second straight game with 27 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc in his third straight start in place of the injured Lowry. The Heat improved to 4-0 this season with Vincent in the starting lineup.
“I think I was just in a rhythm and my guys did a really good job of getting me open time and time again when they were setting screens or cutting or finding me when I’m open in the corner or something,” Vincent said after Saturdays’ win. “They did a good job of that and I made some shots. That always helps.”
Vincent totaled 55 points while shooting 21 of 31 (67.7 percent) from the field and 10 of 19 (52.6 percent) on threes during the Heat’s two-game set against the Bucks.
Before this two-game stretch, Vincent was averaging just 8.1 points per game on 38 percent shooting from the field and 29.1 percent shooting from three-point range in his first 28 appearances the season.
Vincent, who has missed 12 games this season because of a swollen left knee, had not scored more than 20 points in a game before this two-game set against Milwaukee.
Behind Vincent’s shooting display, the Heat put together its most efficient three-point shooting performance of the season.
The Heat finished 11 of 22 (50 percent) from three-point range. It’s the best three-point percentage that Miami has finished a game with this season.
This is notable for the Heat, which entered Saturday with the NBA’s sixth-worst team three-point percentage this season at 33.8 percent after closing last regular season as the NBA’s top three-point shooting team at 37.9 percent.
Along with Vincent’s hot shooting night, Highsmith shot 2 of 2 on threes and Oladipo shot 2 of 4 on threes.
But it is a bit surprising that it took 44 games for the Heat to reach the 50 percent mark from three-point range in a game this season. Miami shot 50 percent or better from deep in eight games last regular season.
Center Dewayne Dedmon was back with the Heat and in uniform on Saturday after serving a team-issued one-game suspension, but he still did not play.
Dedmon was suspended for “conduct detrimental to the team” stemming from his outburst after being subbed out during Tuesday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Dedmon, who served the suspension in Thursday’s victory over the Bucks, got into a heated discussion with Spoelstra on the sideline before swatting a massage gun onto the court during play as he left the bench and stormed back to the locker room.
Even with Dedmon back on Saturday, he was left out of the rotation. The Heat again used undrafted rookie Orlando Robinson ahead of Dedmon as the backup center.
Robinson, who is on a two-way contract with the Heat, finished Saturday’s win with four points, eight rebounds and one block in 17 minutes off the bench.
Things have been trending toward Robinson taking over as the backup center recently, with Robinson now used in that role ahead of Dedmon in the last two games that Dedmon has been available for.
Dedmon, who has played as the Heat’s backup center for most of the season, has struggled to produce positive results while battling through plantar fasciitis in his left foot. The Heat has been outscored by 10.1 points per 100 possessions with Dedmon on the court this season.
Meanwhile, the Heat entered Saturday outscoring opponents by six points per 100 possessions with Robinson on the court this season.
Robinson posted a plus/minus of minus-2 on Saturday.
This story was originally published January 14, 2023 at 3:22 PM.
