Short-handed Heat falls to Clippers to drop to 1-2 on West Coast trip. Takeaways from loss
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 121-104 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers (20-12) at Crypto.com Arena on Monday night to drop to 1-2 on its five-game West Coast trip. The Heat (19-14) remains in Los Angeles to take on the Lakers on Wednesday:
The Heat always believes it has enough to win games regardless of who’s out. But the Heat didn’t have enough on Monday.
The Heat’s injury issues this season continued against the Clippers, entering the game without Jimmy Butler (right foot irritation), Caleb Martin (right ankle sprain), Josh Richardson (left back facet syndrome), Haywood Highsmith (concussion protocol) and Dru Smith (right knee surgery).
That left the Heat without four rotation regulars, with Butler, Martin, Richardson and Highsmith out.
Meanwhile, the Clippers’ entire roster was healthy for Monday’s game.
That proved to be too much to overcome, as the Clippers continued to show they’re one of the NBA’s elite teams when healthy. The Clippers have now won 12 of their last 14 games after a shaky 8-10 start to the season.
“We had enough guys to get this win tonight,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We had a lot of our main guys in this game tonight and they just outplayed us and you have to credit them. We’ll work to get better.”
The Heat showed its usual fight and resolve early, pulling ahead by as many as 14 points in the opening minutes of the second quarter with the help of a hot 5-of-8 start from three-point range and eight turnovers by the Clippers in the first 13 minutes of the game.
But the Heat’s threes stopped going in at an efficient rate and the Clippers stopped turning the ball over, and things changed fast.
The Clippers stormed back, closing the first half on a 32-17 run to turn a 14-point deficit into a one-point lead at halftime.
The Clippers then carried that momentum into the second half, beginning the third quarter on a 14-5 run to extend their lead to 10.
The Heat trailed for the entire second half, as the Clippers’ lead grew to as large as 22 points in the fourth quarter.
The Clippers dominated the second half, outscoring the Heat 62-46 over the final two quarters.
After making five of its first eight threes on Monday, the Heat shot just 6 of 26 (23.1 percent) from three-point range the rest of the way.
The result was the Heat’s fifth double-digit loss of the season and its most lopsided defeat of the season.
With Butler out, Adebayo and Herro were relied on to do most of the heavy lifting for the Heat’s offense. But both turned in inefficient shooting performances.
Adebayo scored 21 points on 6-of-17 shooting from the field, but still made a positive impact with 9-of-13 shooting from the foul line, 15 rebounds and four assists.
Herro closed the loss with 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field and 4-of-8 shooting on threes, six rebounds and six assists. He was held scoreless in the second half.
The Clippers were led by the trio of George, Leonard and Norman Powell, who combined to score 69 points.
Leonard totaled 24 points, George finished with 23 points and Powell recorded 22 points.
With so many of its best perimeter defenders out, the Heat relied on its zone a lot against a quality Clippers offense.
Missing the perimeter defense of Butler, Martin, Highsmith and Richardson against a Clippers offense featuring Leonard, James Harden, George and Russell Westbrook proved to be too much to overcome.
But the injury-depleted Heat tried to slow the Clippers by throwing zone at them for large chunks of the game.
It worked a bit to start, as the Clippers committed their eighth turnover of the night with 11:01 left in the second quarter.
Then the Clippers found an offensive rhythm to total 36 points on 14-of-21 (66.7 percent) shooting from the field and 6-of-10 (60 percent) shooting on threes in the second quarter. The Clippers committed just one turnover over the final 11:01 of the first half.
The Clippers went on to total 62 points on 56.8 percent shooting from the field in the second half.
With the Heat allowing 126 points per 100 possessions in Monday’s loss, it marked Miami’s fifth-worst single-game defensive rating of the season.
“I have to go to work and we have to get to work on that,” Spoelstra said. “Defensively, we can be better. That’s not taking away from anything that the Clippers did. We struggled again in one-on-one situations, whether it was in the man or in zone when they just kind of isolated in the zone. Repeated attacks off the dribble.”
As for the Heat’s zone, the Clippers shredded it to score 1.37 points per possession in 38 possessions against the zone on Monday.
With so many of its top defenders unavailable against a talented Clippers offense, Monday was a night for zone. It just didn’t work.
“I think we let them get too comfortable on the offensive end,” Herro said. “We tried to switch some defenses, make some adjustments. So credit to them, they made shots. But I feel like we could have put a little bit more pressure on them, make them feel us a little bit more on that end of the court.”
In his first game back home in Los Angeles since being drafted by the Heat this past summer, Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. made his ninth NBA start.
With a bunch of friends and family in attendance, Jaquez finished Monday’s loss with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, four rebounds, two assists and four steals.
Jaquez, who grew up in nearby Camarillo, Calif. and played college basketball at UCLA, received a loud applause from the Los Angeles crowd when he was introduced as a starter. He also drew cheers whenever he made a basket.
“The home crowd, I definitely felt and heard the love from the people in the crowd,” Jaquez said. “… It wasn’t a home game for us, but it felt like a home game for me. I was just really happy to see all the support.”
Jaquez’s homecoming also came on Mexican Heritage Night for the Clippers. Jaquez is of Mexican descent.
The Heat’s ongoing injury issues led to another new starting lineup.
The Heat opened Monday’s game with a lineup of Kyle Lowry, Herro, Jaquez, Jamal Cain and Adebayo for its league-leading 19th different starting lineup in the first 33 games.
“We’ll do whatever we have to do. Everybody is ready,” Spoelstra said. “Nobody cares if we have guys out and we’re not making any excuses for it.”
Lowry, Herro and Adebayo are fixtures in the Heat’s starting lineup when healthy, but Jaquez and Cain were the ones promoted from the bench to start Monday.
It marked Cain’s first career NBA start. Cain, who is on a two-way contract with the Heat, closed his milestone night with nine points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field, three rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block.
This starting lineup left Kevin Love, Duncan Robinson, Thomas Bryant, RJ Hampton, Nikola Jovic, Orlando Robinson and Cole Swider as the only Heat reserves available Monday.
The Heat went with a bench rotation of Love, Duncan Robinson, Hampton and Thomas Bryant against the Clippers before emptying the bench late in the lopsided defeat.
Love finished with 17 points and Duncan Robinson finished with 15 points off the Heat’s bench.
Leonard returned from injury to play against the Heat for the first time since Feb. 5, 2020.
After missing the previous four games with a left hip contusion, Leonard made his return for the Clippers to finish Monday’s win with 24 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals.
With Leonard battling injuries in recent seasons, it marked his first time playing against the Heat in almost four years. But the Heat still entered very familiar with Leonard after facing him in the NBA Finals in 2013 and 2014 when he was with the San Antonio Spurs.
“When he’s out on the court, I think he’s one of the winningest players in league history during the regular season,” Spoelstra said before Monday’s game. “So if he’s healthy and he’s out there, he puts his team in a position to win.”
The Clippers have won 10 straight games when Leonard plays, as they last lost with Leonard in the lineup on Nov. 30.
This story was originally published January 2, 2024 at 12:56 AM.
