Without Adebayo, Butler and Herro, Heat closes road-heavy stretch with loss to Nets. Takeaways
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 112-97 loss to the Brooklyn Nets (7-8) on the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday at Barclays Center to drop its second straight game and close its five-game trip at 2-3. The Heat (10-7) now returns to Miami to begin a homestand with an important NBA In-Season Tournament game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday:
The Heat has overcome injury issues in the past. But the short-handed Heat couldn’t overcome the absence of some of its best players on Saturday.
The Heat was without its top four scorers against the Nets, as Bam Adebayo (left hip contusion), Jimmy Butler (right ankle sprain), Tyler Herro (right ankle sprain) and Duncan Robinson (right thumb sprain) missed the game.
In addition, the Heat was without R.J. Hampton (right knee sprain), Orlando Robinson (G League assignment) and Dru Smith (season-ending ACL injury) against the Nets.
That left the Heat with just 10 available players: Thomas Bryant, Jamal Cain, Haywood Highsmith, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Nikola Jovic, Kevin Love, Kyle Lowry, Caleb Martin, Josh Richardson and Cole Swider.
The long injury list forced the Heat to use a new starting lineup of Lowry, Richardson, Jaquez, Highsmith and Bryant. The Heat has already used an NBA-high 11 different starting lineups through the first 17 games of the season.
The Heat started slow, with the Nets opening the game on a 20-8 run.
Despite shooting 9 of 20 (45 percent) from three-point range in the first half, the Heat entered halftime in a 10-point hole. That’s because the Heat committed 11 turnovers and the Nets shot even better from three-point range at 10 of 20 (50 percent) in the first two quarters.
But after making nine threes in the first half, the Heat shot just 2 of 14 (14.3 percent) from three-point range in the second half. Miami also committed 18 turnovers in the loss that turned into 18 points for Brooklyn.
The Nets’ lead grew to as large as 21 points in the second half and the Heat never was able to make a late push to get back in the game. Miami spent the entire fourth quarter trailing by double digits.
“It was a pretty ugly game and we were doing whatever we possibly could to try to keep it within striking distance and we just weren’t able to keep it to six or eight points throughout the course of that second half,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That was frustrating. But it wasn’t a matter of want or lack of effort, those kind of things.”
As expected, the Heat’s offense struggled without so many of its top players. Miami scored at a pace of just 101 points per 100 possessions on Saturday, which is its third-lowest single-game offensive rating of the season.
“Offensively, they definitely flattened us out with a lot of their switching,” Spoelstra added. “We didn’t have our switch killers to be able to attack that. But I thought that was also important for the other guys to go through that exercise of playing out of switches and learning how to find different weaknesses, work together to move the ball and still get to our identity, the paint attacks even without Jimmy and Bam or the gravity that Duncan could create.”
Meanwhile, Brooklyn’s entire starting lineup scored double-digit points led by a game-high 24 from Mikal Bridges.
“They just continued to hit shots,” Martin said of the Nets. “I think we were trying to put them in tough positions defensively and we were getting to the right spots, we just weren’t getting there quick enough or far enough. Running guys off the line, I think we let them get too comfortable around the perimeter and they were just knocking down shots.”
Two bright spots for the Heat in Saturday’s defeat? The play of Martin and Jaquez.
In Martin’s sixth game back from injury, he finished with a season-high 22 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists in 31 minutes.
“You’re seeing more of the quick twitch and that explosiveness laterally or in the gaps and all of those different things that he provides that are X factors for us,” Spoelstra said when asked about Martin’s performance.
Jaquez, who was taken by the Heat with the 18th overall pick in this year’s draft, continued his strong rookie season with 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting on threes, five rebounds and four assists in 31 minutes.
“He has a knack for the ball and a knack for the play that needs to be made offensively,” Spoelstra said of Jaquez.
By early in the second quarter on Saturday, the Heat had already used all 10 of its available players.
The Heat’s bench rotation included each of the five available reserves: Martin, Love, Cain, Swider and Jovic.
Martin and Love are consistent members of the Heat’s bench attack. But Cain, Swider and Jovic were just playing for Miami’s G League affiliate a few days ago before re-joining the Heat in recent days to provide depth to a short-handed roster.
Jovic, who the Heat drafted with the 27th overall pick last year, received a rare opportunity to play. He finished his third NBA appearance of the season with one point that came at the free-throw line, six rebounds, five assists and five fouls in 17 minutes.
Swider, who is on a two-way contract with the Heat, added 11 points with the help of 3-of-7 shooting on threes in 20 minutes in his 10th career NBA regular-season appearance.
Cain, who is also on a two-way deal with the Heat, contributed seven points, three rebounds and one steal in 29 minutes in his fourth NBA appearance of the season.
As if the Heat’s injury report didn’t include enough names, Highsmith left Saturday’s game early after taking a hard fall.
While coming over from the weakside and jumping up to try to block a layup attempt from Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie early in the fourth quarter, Highsmith took a hard fall on his way down and immediately grabbed his lower back.
The Heat was forced to take a timeout as Highsmith remained down on the court. Highsmith eventually was helped up and slowly made his way to the locker room with Heat trainers accompanying him.
Highsmith, 26, never returned to the game. The Heat labeled the injury as a “lower back/SI joint contusion.”
Before leaving the game, Highsmith recorded eight points and four rebounds in 15 minutes.
“Haywood landed on his tailbone. He says he’ll be alright,” Spoelstra said. “But all of that stuff, you just take with a grain of salt until we get back to Miami and get off the plane and see them on Monday.”
The Heat entered Saturday’s contest without three usual starters (Adebayo, Butler and Herro). Highsmith’s early exit with 10:55 remaining in the fourth quarter left the Heat without four members of its preferred starting lineup.
Highsmith made his 12th straight start on Saturday after being moved into the starting unit six games into the season. With the help of Highsmith’s quality defense and ability to force turnovers, the Heat has posted a 9-3 record since he became a starter.
Love also appeared to be in pain after a knee-to-knee collision during Saturday’s loss, but he remained in the game and said after the contest that he was “all good.”
Adebayo’s hip injury continues to be an issue.
Adebayo missed the Heat’s loss to the Nets because of a lingering left hip contusion. He has missed three games this season and all three were because of the same left hip injury.
Adebayo, 26, missed his first game of the season because of the hip contusion in an Oct. 30 road loss to the Bucks.
Following that one-game absence, Adebayo returned to play in the next 10 games before re-aggravating the injury in Monday’s road win over the Chicago Bulls. He was then forced to sit out Wednesday’s win over the Cavaliers in Cleveland.
Adebayo again missed only one game before returning to play in Friday’s loss to the Knicks in New York. Adebayo finished the defeat with 21 points, 12 rebounds and two steals in 35 minutes, but was limited to just four points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field in Friday’s fourth quarter despite playing the entire period.
“No,” Spoelstra said before Saturday’s game in Brooklyn when asked if Adebayo again re-aggravated the injury in Friday’s loss to the Knicks. “It’s just you can see in the fourth quarter that it started bothering him more. It’s the same injury. All it is is a really hard contusion to the hip.”
With the quick turnaround, Adebayo was held out of the Heat’s game against the Nets on the second night of the back-to-back. This gives him three days off between his last game action Friday against the Knicks and the Heat’s next game on Tuesday against the Bucks in Miami.
Butler tried to play on Saturday, but he was also held out against the Nets.
Butler missed Saturday’s game after spraining his right ankle during Friday’s loss to the Knicks. It marked the third game he has missed the season.
“Jimmy’s ankle, he wasn’t ready to play,” Spoelstra said. “He tried to get some treatment to see if it would loosen up. It didn’t. We’ll see how he feels and recovers when we get back to Miami.”
Butler, 34, turned his right ankle during the first half of Friday’s defeat but was able to finish the game. He closed the loss with 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field, 3-of-5 shooting from three-point range and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line, two rebounds and three assists while playing a season-high 36:42.
Butler warmed up at Barclays Center to determine whether he could play against the Nets on Saturday before he was ultimately ruled out about 45 minutes before tip-off.
The expectation is this will be a short-term issue for Butler. The hope is he’ll be able to return for Tuesday’s matchup against the Bucks.
It didn’t end the way the Heat hoped. But this crazy stretch away from home was still a successful one.
Saturday’s loss marked the end of a 10-game stretch that included nine road games for the Heat, which had the team on the road for 17 of the last 19 nights.
Despite closing this segment of the schedule with two straight losses, the bottom line is the Heat still posted an impressive 7-3 record during this 10-game span.
“Overall, we did what we set out to do, which is get to a higher level as a basketball team,” Spoelstra said.
The Heat now returns home for at least a three-game homestand that begins Tuesday against the Bucks. That homestand could potentially grow to four games depending on the NBA’s scheduling once the quarterfinalists are determined in the NBA’s In-Season Tournament.
The Heat will actually spend most of December in Miami. Not including the week that has been left open because of the uncertainty surrounding the In-Season Tournament schedule, seven of the Heat’s 11 scheduled games in December will be played at Kaseya Center.
This is a welcome shift in the schedule for the Heat.
Through the Heat’s first 17 games of the season, 12 came on the road. That’s the most road games for any team in the NBA through Saturday.
This story was originally published November 25, 2023 at 8:26 PM.
