Heat defense struggles as Thunder pulls away in fourth quarter. Takeaways and details from loss
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 128-120 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder (25-11) on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center to drop to 1-1 on its four-game homestand. The Heat (21-16) continues the homestand on Friday against the Orlando Magic:
The Thunder has been one of the NBA’s best teams this season and they showed why during the second half of Wednesday’s game.
The up-and-coming Thunder entered with the league’s third-best record, fourth-ranked offensive rating, seventh-ranked defensive rating and third-best net rating after finishing last regular season with a 40-42 record.
“That’s a very good basketball team,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following the loss. “... So you do have to credit them. And they’re very well coached, as well. They’re organized, they play to their strengths on both ends of the court. So where they are in the standings and in the league as the third-best team in the league is not an accident.”
Oklahoma City’s high-level execution was on display in Wednesday’s fourth quarter, opening the period on a 13-0 run to blow open what was a close game. The Thunders’ game-deciding run turned a three-point lead at the start of the final quarter into a 16-point advantage with 7:14 to play.
After shooting 50 percent from the field and 14 of 28 (50 percent) from three-point range through the first three quarters, the Heat missed its first nine shots of the fourth quarter as the Thunder built a double-digit lead.
But the Heat kept pushing, using a late 10-0 run to cut a 16-point deficit down to six with 1:08 left.
The Heat had an opportunity to continue to chip away at the Thunder’s lead, but Tyler Herro missed a fadeaway three-pointer that would have trimmed the deficit to three. Instead, Josh Giddey grabbed the defensive rebound and threw it to Chet Holmgren for a game-sealing dunk in transition to put the Thunder ahead by eight points with 37.3 seconds to play.
“I thought I got fouled,” Herro said of that three-point attempt in the final seconds. “But I feel like I get fouled on a lot of different plays that don’t get called.”
Bam Adebayo (13 points) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11 points) combined to score all 24 of the Heat’s fourth-quarter points. The Thunder won the period 29-24 on its way to the victory.
The Heat lost despite turning in one of its best offensive halves of the season to begin Wednesday’s game, totaling 69 points in the first half on 59.1 percent shooting from the field and 9-of-19 (47.4 percent) shooting from three-point range while committing only three turnovers. The 69 points tied the Heat’s season-high for the first half, as Miami posted its second-best single-half offensive rating of the season at 146.8 points scored per 100 possessions.
The problem was that the Heat still entered halftime only ahead by four points because the Thunder’s offense was also excellent, scoring 65 points in the first half on 69.2 percent shooting from the field and 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) shooting on threes.
“Offensively, I thought in the first half, I thought we did a lot of things really well,” Spoelstra said. “We really were attacking, moving the ball, playing to our strengths and had them on their heels. I just wish it could have kept on going, I wish we didn’t have halftime.”
Halftime happened and the Thunder then opened the third quarter on a 13-0 run to take a nine-point lead.
“I feel like that game flipped in the beginning of the third,” Adebayo said. “We came out with no energy and they came out making shots.”
The Heat responded with an 18-8 run to re-gain the lead and pull ahead by one, setting up a back-and-forth third quarter that included nine lead changes.
That’s when the Thunder finally took full control of the game with a dominant fourth quarter to improve to 11-6 on the road this season. The Heat fell to 10-7 at home.
“That’s where our mental mistakes defensively really started to kick in,” Spoelstra said, referring to the start of the fourth quarter. “That’s where we’re going to get better is to be able to defend, whether we’re making shots or not. We’re going to get there. We’re not there yet. Historically, Miami Heat teams always can do that. Right now, it’s kind of dependent on whether we’re playing great offensively, whether we’re making shots, whether we’re playing in the right rhythm and flow then we’ll defend at a really high level.”
While missing some of its top perimeter defenders because of injuries, the Heat never could find an answer to slow the Thunder’s offense.
Oklahoma City shot 59.3 percent from the field and 14 of 33 (42.4 percent) from three-point range, while also totaling 60 paint points.
“We didn’t take away the relief baskets throughout the course of the game, whether it was transition, cuts, glitches that led to wide open shots,” Spoelstra said.
The result was the Heat’s third-worst single-game defensive rating of the season, allowing the Thunder to score 128 points per 100 possessions on Wednesday. The Heat, which has finished with a top-10 defensive rating in seven of the last eight seasons, now owns the 14th-ranked defensive rating this season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with a game-high 28 points on 11-of-17 shooting from the field, 2-of-5 shooting on threes and 4-of-5 shooting from the foul line to go with eight assists. Jalen Williams contributed 19 points, nine rebounds and 12 assists for the Thunder.
Adebayo finished with a team-high 25 points for the Heat, while also recording 11 rebounds and six assists.
The Heat continued to play without a chunk of its rotation.
The Heat did not have rotation regulars Jimmy Butler (right toe MP joint sprain), Kyle Lowry (sprained left hand) and Caleb Martin (right ankle sprain) against the Thunder.
It marked the fifth straight that Butler has missed, the seventh straight game that Martin has missed and the first game that Lowry has missed since hurting his hand in Monday’s win over the Houston Rockets.
The good news for the Heat is none of the injuries appear to be long-term concerns, with Butler, Lowry and Martin all considered day-to-day.
The bad news for the Heat is injuries have been a season-long issue, entering Wednesday with the fourth-most missed games in the league this season due to injury at 120 games, according to Spotrac’s tracker.
The Heat was also without Dru Smith (season-ending knee surgery), and Cole Swider (G League) against the Thunder.
Even in a loss, the Heat’s depth again made an appearance.
Six Heat players finished with double-digit points despite three rotation regulars being out.
Along with Adebayo’s big night, Heat forward Haywood Highsmith set new career-highs in points (19) and three-pointers made (5) while tying a career-high with seven made field goals on Wednesday.
“I was just in a good rhythm today,” Highsmith said. “My teammates were finding me. They were collapsing the defense, I had some open shots. I was just ready to shoot and knocking them down.”
Jaquez finished with 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, 3-of-5 shooting on threes and 6-of-9 shooting from the foul line.
Nikola Jovic tied a season-high with 15 points, while also grabbing five rebounds and dishing out four assists.
Herro contributed 17 points, but shot just 7-of-21 from the field and 1 of 5 from three-point range.
Kevin Love added 12 points, five rebounds and two assists off the bench.
The only two players from the Heat’s eight-man rotation on Wednesday who didn’t score double-digit points were Josh Richardson and Duncan Robinson. Richardson finished with eight points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field and Robinson finished with three points on 1-of-7 shooting from three-point range.
The absences of Butler, Lowry and Martin led the Heat to use another new starting lineup, as the Thunder used its preferred starting group.
The Heat opened Wednesday’s game with a lineup of Herro, Jaquez, Highsmith, Jovic and Adebayo.
It marked the Heat’s 20th different starting lineup of the season in the first 37 games.
Not only did it mark a new starting lineup for the Heat, but this group had also logged just one minute together this season before beginning Wednesday’s game together.
“We’ve had a lot of different starting lineups, so I’m trying to keep as much consistency as possible,” Spoelstra said.
On the other side, the Thunder have only used five different starting lineups this season.
The Thunder began Wednesday’s game with a lineup of Gilgeous-Alexander, Giddey, Luguentz Dort, Williams and Chet Holmgren. It marked the 30th game that this group has started this season.
That left the Thunder with a big advantage in this area, improving to 22-8 this season when this lineup starts.
As part of the Heat-Thunder matchup, two of the NBA’s top rookies faced off.
It marked the first time Jaquez, who has earned the the first two Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month awards this season, and Holmgren, who has earned the first two Western Conference Rookie of the Month awards this season, have faced off in the NBA.
Jaquez scored 21 points on nine field-goal attempts and Holmgren closed with 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field, nine rebounds and three blocks.
While Holmgren and San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama are considered the early front-runners for this season’s NBA Rookie of the Year award, Jaquez has also established himself as one of the league’s best rookies.
Wembanyama (first overall) and Jaquez (18th overall) were taken in this past summer’s draft, but Holmgren is considered a rookie despite being selected with the second overall pick in the 2022 draft. That’s because Holmgren missed all of last season with a foot injury.
This story was originally published January 10, 2024 at 10:05 PM.
