Heat drops consecutive games for first time in more than a month. Takeaways from loss to Thunder
Playing on the second night of a back-to-back against one of the NBA’s elite teams is often considered a scheduled loss.
The Heat was on its way to proving that notion wrong for one half ... and then the third quarter happened.
The Thunder (44-19) rallied from a 14-point deficit with a big third quarter and defeated the Heat, 107-100, on Friday night in Oklahoma City.
The Heat (35-28) went winless on its two-game trip after also falling to the Mavericks in Dallas on Thursday. It marks the first time the Heat has dropped two games in a row since the final week of January.
“This is competition and we’re going to work together until we get this breakthrough,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Friday’s defeat. “These are painful moments.”
After the Heat went ahead by 14 points with 9:31 left in the third quarter, the Thunder scored 17 unanswered points to flip the script and take a three-point lead less than five minutes later before entering the fourth quarter with a four-point advantage.
The Heat shot just 5 of 17 (29.4 percent) from the field and committed five turnovers in a damaging third period.
The Heat still didn’t go away, pulling within one point with 7:16 to play. But the Thunder responded with a 6-0 run to push its lead back up to seven with 5:01 remaining.
The Heat could never take back the lead in the fourth quarter after losing it in the third quarter, as Thunder All-Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander totaled 12 points in the final period to keep the Heat from rallying.
The closest the Heat got in the final three minutes was within four points of the Thunder.
Gilgeous-Alexander was dominant, finishing with a game-high 37 points on 13-of-25 shooting from the field and 9-of-11 shooting from the foul line to lead the Thunder to the victory.
The Thunder also made the most of extra opportunities, outscoring the Heat 23-5 in second-chance points with the help of nine offensive rebounds.
The Heat wasted a quality effort from its reserves, as Miami’s bench outscored Oklahoma City’s bench 45-28 in the loss.
Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 25 points off the bench. Guard Patty Mills contributed 13 points off the bench in his Heat debut.
The Heat now returns home to begin a short two-game homestand on Sunday against the Washington Wizards.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Thunder on Friday:
The Heat’s two best players were outplayed by the opponent’s best player for the second straight game.
One night after Mavericks star Luka Doncic outscored the Heat’s leading duo 35-28, Gilgeous-Alexander outscored Adebayo and Butler 37-25 on Friday.
After scoring just 14 points and committing six turnovers in Thursday’s loss to the Mavericks, Butler was better on Friday but could never take control of the game. He recorded 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from the foul line, 10 rebounds and eight assists against the Thunder while playing both ends of the back-to-back.
It marks just the fourth time this season that Butler has played in both games of a back-to-back set and the first time he has done it on the road. The first three back-to-backs Butler played in this season were home-and-home sets in Miami.
It was a very rough night for Adebayo, who finished Friday’s loss with a season-low five points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field. However, Adebayo did contribute 10 rebounds, four assists, one steal and two blocks.
It was also a very rough trip for Adebayo, who totaled just 19 points on 6-of-23 (26.1 percent) shooting from the field during the two road games. He shot just 1 of 11 (9.1 percent) on non-rim paint shots during the trip, as the Mavericks and Thunder both sent extra bodies at Adebayo and made things tough for him in the paint.
Second-chance points hurt the Heat for the second straight game.
After allowing the Mavericks to score 16 second-chance points on 10 offensive rebounds, the Heat was outscored 23-5 in second-chance points on Friday.
The Thunder only closed with a 9-7 edge in offensive rebounds, but took full advantage of those extra opportunities.
“It almost looked like a misprint,” Spoelstra said. “We basically had the same amount of offensive rebounds. We end up with less than 10 points off of those offensive rebounds, they had 23. I had to look at it three or four times, but my gut felt like it was 30 off those nine offensive rebounds.”
When it was over, the Heat was outscored 39-10 in second-chance points during the winless two-game trip.
The Heat has been one of the league’s top defensive rebounding teams this season, as it holds the NBA’s seventh-best defensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available defensive rebounds a team grabs) this season at 72.7 percent. But this area wasn’t a strength for the Heat during this trip.
“That is our hurdle for this moment in time,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve rebounded great for the majority of the season. For whatever reason, this little pocket right now, it’s been troubling for us.”
The Mavericks and Thunder also combined to come away with 14 loose balls to the Heat’s nine recovered loose balls during the last two games.
“I think if we get those rebounds and those loose balls, I do believe it’s a different outcome,” Butler said.
Behind Jaquez and Mills, the Heat’s bench was a bright spot on Friday.
The Heat’s bench outscored the Thunder’s reserves 45-28, as Jaquez and Mills combined for 38 of the Heat’s 45 bench points.
Jaquez came out with an attacking mindset to score 17 first-half points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from the foul line. The rookie also shot 5 of 5 at the rim in the first half.
Jaquez finished the loss with a team-high 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field, including a perfect 7 of 7 at the rim. He also added three rebounds, three assists and three steals in 31 minutes.
“Like I’ve said a million times, just having a team that trusts and a coaching staff that trusts me and puts me in those positions, it’s a great feeling,” Jaquez said.
The 25-point display marks Jaquez’s third-highest scoring performance this season.
“It says a lot about his mental toughness to be able to have that kind of performance on the second night of a back-to-back,” Spoelstra said of Jaquez.
As for Mills, Friday marked his first minutes in a Heat uniform.
After receiving a DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) in his first game with the Heat on Thursday against the Mavericks, Mills was part of the rotation in Oklahoma City.
With three usual Heat rotation players out in Tyler Herro (right foot medial tendinitis), Kevin Love (right heel bruise) and Josh Richardson (season-ending right shoulder surgery), the 35-year-old Mills entered the game with 1:41 left in the first quarter to make his Heat debut.
The veteran guard came out hot, totaling 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field and 3-of-3 shooting on threes in his first seven minutes of playing time with the Heat.
Mills closed the loss with 13 points in 16 minutes.
“You can see why he’s been able to do what he does,” Spoelstra said of Mills. “He’s ignitable, he’s smart, he’s been in a lot of very good systems so he knows how to fit even though he hasn’t had a practice. 15 years in, it’s all the same kind of stuff. He can play his game, he helps our best players.”
Mills became available after being waived by the Atlanta Hawks on Feb. 29, in time to preserve his postseason eligibility with another team. He signed a minimum contract for the rest of the season to join the Heat earlier this week.
“Anytime you get to have a chance to get on the floor is always good,” Mills said after his Heat debut. “It’s a disappointing loss. We gave ourselves chances there, but we weren’t able to come up with the 50-50 balls, which is what we spoke about before the game. But yeah, just great to stretch it out, get on the floor and be with this team.”
Jaquez and Mills were part of a four-man bench rotation that also included Caleb Martin and Haywood Highsmith.
The starting lineups on Friday told the story of both teams’ seasons.
The Heat used the same starting lineup for the sixth straight game. With Herro still out because of a foot injury, the Heat opened Friday’s game with a lineup of Terry Rozier, Duncan Robinson, Butler, Nikola Jovic and Adebayo.
It’s not often the Heat has been able to start the same starting lineup for six straight games. In fact, these six consecutive starts are this group’s only six starts together this season.
Miami has used 31 different starting units this season, which is the fourth-most in the NBA.
Meanwhile, the Thunder began Friday’s game with its usual starting lineup of Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Luguentz Dort, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. In contrast to the Heat’s state of flux, Friday marked the 53rd game this five-man unit has started together this season.
The Heat now returns home to begin a soft spot in its schedule.
After dropping both games on this trip against two quality opponents — the Mavericks and Thunder — the Heat returns to Miami to begin a quick two-game homestand on Sunday against the struggling Wizards.
Sunday’s matchup against the Wizards marks the start of a four-game stretch that includes three games against a couple of the league’s worst teams. The other two such games during this span come against the Pistons in Detroit on March 15 and 17.
The Wizards entered Friday with the NBA’s worst record at 9-53 and the Pistons hold the NBA’s second-worst record at 10-52.
The only game against a winning team during this stretch will be a tough one, as the Heat hosts the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday in a rematch of last season’s NBA Finals. The Nuggets hold a 43-20 record and defeated the Heat 103-97 in Denver on Feb. 29.
With Friday’s loss, the Heat fell to 14-20 this season in games against teams currently with a winning record.
The Heat is a dominant 21-8 this season in games against teams currently with a losing record.
While not hyped matchups, the Heat’s upcoming games against the Wizards and Pistons are important. As part of a tight playoff race and again in play-in tournament territory, the Heat can’t afford to drop games against inferior opponents with just five weeks left in the regular season.
The Heat ended Friday in sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
This story was originally published March 8, 2024 at 10:30 PM.
