Heat unravels again in third quarter, rallies, then loses to Kings on late shot by Sabonis
Five takeaways from the Heat’s 111-110 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Monday at Kaseya Center:
▪ Like a recurring nightmare, the Heat was again thoroughly dismantled in a dismal third quarter. Miami overcame that, but lost on a last-second shot by Domantas Sabonis.
The Kings won it, handing Miami their third loss in four home games, when Sabonis rose above three Heat players, grabbed a De’Aaron Fox missed jumper and hit a 9-foot game-winning jumper with 0.7 seconds left.
After a timeout, Terry Rozier threw up an airball on a 29-foot three as the clock expired.
And so Miami fell to 0-3 at home against 2023-24 playoff teams and to 3-3 overall. What’s more, the Heat is just 23-22 at home since the start of last season.
Down 61-48 at the half, the Kings blitzed the Heat, 37-17, in the third, capitalizing on a 16-point eruption from Fox and errant Heat shooting.
Miami shot 6 for 20 overall and 1 for 8 on threes in the third, falling behind 85-78 entering the fourth.
The Heat erased all of that deficit, surging ahead on a Rozier three to go up 99-96 with just under four minutes left.
Jimmy Butler – who shot 3 for 9 in the first three quarters – was very good in the fourth, scoring the Heat’s first 10 points of the quarter, then breaking a 99-99 tie with a pull-up jumper with just over three minutes left.
A Butler three put the Heat ahead four with 1:44 left, and Rozier then hit another three that put the Heat up five with 1:11 remaining.
But DeMar DeRozan hit a three and drew a foul from Herro, converting a four point play to leave the Heat up 108-107 with 1:11 to go.
After Herro missed a jumper, he blocked a DeRozan jumper with 37 seconds left. Herro was fouled by DeRozan after the play and hit two free throws to push the Heat’s lead to 110-107 with 38 seconds left.
After a Malik Monk dunk with 32 seconds to go, Butler missed a difficult turnaround jumper with 10 seconds to go. Then Sabonis won it, somehow rebounding the Fox miss with three Heat players around him.
On the final play, rookie Pelle Larrson played stout defense on Fox and Butler came over to help, disrupting the 10-foot shot that bounced off the rim with three seconds left.
“Pelle got in front of him, and Jimmy made a great rotation,” Spoelstra said. On the rebound, “Terry jumped as high as he possibly could. Sabonis had a shove, which you are not going to call at that point. We couldn’t come up with the rebound. All it would have taken was a tip to secure the win. It’s unfortunate. Tough loss because we showed resolve.”
Spoelstra bypassed inserting Haywood Highsmith on that play, noting that he hadn’t played since earlier in the game and adding that Larsson did a good job defending Fox on his missed jumper.
Butler lamented: “We shouldn’t be in that situation” to lose on a shot in the final second.
“We rebound in the end and the game is over,” Herro said.
Sabonis finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds. Fox scored 28, while DeRozan scored 26.
Butler closed with 27 on 9 for 19 shooting, including 15 points in the fourth quarter, and chipped in six assists.
Herro added 27 on 9 for 18 shooting, with six rebounds and three assists. Adebayo had 16 points (7 for 15 shooting) and 9 rebounds.
Miami nearly overcame another brutal third quarter.
Somehow, the Heat has been outscored 137-71 in the third quarter at home this season, in losses to Orlando and New York, a win against Detroit and Monday’s heartbreaker against the Kings.
Trying to stop the stampede, Spoelstra lifted Nikola Jovic and Rozier midway through the third, inserting Josh Richardson and Larsson. But that couldn’t derail the Kings’ run, with Sacramento then turning a four-point deficit into a seven-point lead after three.
“Every quarter we won except the third,” Herro said. “There’s not much to talk about at this point except the third quarters. We’ve got to figure it out.”
The Heat continued to be foiled by missed free throws; Miami made 21 of 30.
The Heat begins a six-game road trip on Wednesday in Phoenix.
▪ Herro continued to sizzle offensively and made a big play defensively late.
After scoring 14 points in the first quarter of Miami’s last home game against the Knicks, Herro erupted for 13 in the first quarter against Sacramento, hitting his first four shots.
He went to the half with 16 and hit two key baskets in the fourth, drawing a foul on one of them. And then he made the defensive stop when the Kings tried to isolate DeRozan against him in the final minute.
Herro and Rozier have each scored in double figures in the first six games of the season - something accomplished by only one other Heat starting backcourt (Tim Hardaway and Dan Majerle in 1996-97).
Rozier took only three shots through 44 minutes, before hitting two big threes, the first of which put the Heat ahead 99-96. He finished with 10 points and four assists.
▪ It’s early, but Larsson is looking like a steal at No. 44 in the draft.
The Arizona rookie, who was actually drafted by Houston on the Heat’s behalf, did a little (or a lot) of everything during 11 first half minutes, then played with four starters in the game’s deciding moments.
His 12-point first half stint also included an alley oop for an Adebayo dunk, pesky defense on Fox, three three-pointers, two rebounds, a steal and a whirlwind of motion. Miami outscored the Kings by 13 in his 12 first half minutes.
Larsson shot 4 for 5 in his first first-half NBA minutes in Saturday’s win against Washington in Mexico City. He began Monday’s game hitting 4 of his first 5 but missed his only shot in the second half.
Larsson, nor any of his teammates, could stop the Kings’ third quarter stampede. Larsson missed his only shot in his 5:34 of the third quarter, during which Miami was outscored by 11.
He re-entered in the fourth and was smacked in the face by Fox’s shoulder on a shot attempt, drawing blood on the top of his nose. Larrson stayed in the game and made one of two free throws, tying the game at 96 with just over four minutes left. Then he played tight defense on Fox’s miss in the final seconds.
Larrson finished with 13 points (4 for 6 shooting), two rebounds and two assists in 25 minutes.
“He is a two way player,” Spoelstra said. “Even though he’s a rookie by NBA standards, he has a great deal of competitive experience. He’s savvy, has the toughness we like, can guard multiple positions.”
▪ The Heat went 11 deep in the first quarter alone even while missing two rotation players for the first time this season.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. missed the game with a stomach illness.
And though Kevin Love returned to the team after missing five games due to personal reasons, he was ruled out so that he can work on conditioning as part of the NBA’s return to play protocol.
Haywood Highsmith and Larsson got the initial call off the Heat’s bench, with Highsmith immediately taking the defensive assignment on DeRozan.
Alec Burks and Thomas Bryant followed soon after.
Richardson and Duncan Robinson entered next, and Robinson shook out of an early 5 for 22 shooting slump by nailing all three of his three three-pointers and closing with nine points in 13 minutes.
Playing six off the bench in the first quarter is, well, unusual. But Jovic picked up two early fouls, and Spoelstra is still getting a feel for what he has.
Larsson has made the case for minutes even when Jaquez and Robinson are both available.
Bryant remained the backup center, a role he has handled generally effectively this season.
▪ The Heat continues to lead the league in early-season halftime celebrations.
After dedicating the court in team president Pat Riley’s honor on opening night and celebrating the unveiling of Dwyane Wade’s statue at halftime of its second home game, the Heat on Monday raised a banner to the rafters to honor Adebayo’s gold medal for Team USA at the Paris Olympics.
Adebayo’s mother and Spoelstra stood alongside him for the halftime presentation.
Also at halftime Monday, a video tribute acknowledged the Olympic bronze medal that Nikola Jokic won with the Serbian national team.
Adebayo is now the first Heat player with two gold medal banners. Alonzo Mourning (2000), Tim Hardaway (2000), Wade (2008) and LeBron James (2012) also have jerseys in the rafters to recognize their gold medal Olympic feats.
“A couple days ago, I was looking through some of the pictures of the trip,” said Spoelstra, who was on Steve Kerr’s Team USA coaching staff this summer in Paris. “It was such an intense, gratifying core memory. It was so much fun. I’m really happy for Bam. He’s stacking up a lot of winning at a young age- two gold medals, two trips to the Finals. It says so much about him, how he can impact winning.
“Same goes for Niko. At a young age, playing with those expectations. It helps fast track. Accountability to winning and not just being given minutes.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2024 at 10:42 PM.
