Heat opens trip by blowing another big second-half lead in loss to Suns. Takeaways and details
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 115-112 loss to the Phoenix Suns (7-1) on Wednesday night at Footprint Center to begin a long six-game trip. The Heat (3-4) continues its trip on Friday against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena:
It appeared the Heat was on its way to beginning its challenging trip with a quality win. But another second-half collapse stopped that from happening.
The Heat pulled ahead by 15 points with 3:13 left in the third quarter. That’s when the Suns started to make their push, closing the period on a 15-3 run to cut the deficit to three entering the fourth quarter.
That set up a competitive back-and-forth fourth quarter, as the Heat and Suns traded punches throughout the period.
The Suns pulled ahead by four points on a Kevin Durant three-pointer with 7:04 to play. But the Heat then responded by taking back the lead, going up by two points on a Tyler Herro jumper with 4:53 left.
The Suns controlled the game from there, though, going on a 7-0 run to take a five-point lead with 2:53 remaining. Miami trailed the rest of the way.
The Heat cut the deficit to two points with 33.2 seconds to play, but couldn’t get the necessary defensive stop to put itself in position to force overtime or win the game.
Instead, Durant hit a 21-foot contested jumper over Heat forward Haywood Highsmith to extend the Suns’ lead to four with 16.8 seconds left.
Herro went on to make a layup to trim the deficit to two points with 10 seconds remaining, keeping the Heat’s hopes alive.
After intentionally fouling Suns guard Devin Booker to preserve the clock, Booker made just one of the two free throws to give the Suns a three-point advantage with 4.8 seconds on the clock.
But with one final chance to force overtime, the Heat never got a shot off on the final possession of the game.
After Jimmy Butler inbounded the ball to Terry Rozier, the Suns trapped Rozier to force him to throw a rushed pass that led Butler inside the three-point line. Needing a three to tie the score, Butler hesitated before pulling back, running behind the three-point line and passing the ball to Herro as the final buzzer sounded.
“I think the only play at that point would have been for [Butler] to shoot the three,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of coming up empty on that final possession. “There was a little bit of zig and zag and then we ended up running out of time. But we’ll be better with that.”
Butler took the blame, saying that “I should have just pulled back and shot it.”
“My turnover, I got to shoot that one,” Butler added.
Durant was excellent, leading the Suns with a game-high 32 points on 13-of-23 shooting from the field to go with eight rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block. Durant scored 11 points in the fourth quarter.
Booker finished with 22 points, four rebounds and nine assists for the Suns.
Suns center Jusuf Nurkic contributed 20 points, 18 rebounds and two blocks.
The Heat was led by Herro, who recorded a team-high 28 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 shooting on threes, three rebounds and six assists.
But the Heat’s leading duo of Bam Adebayo and Butler combined for just 27 points on 11-of-34 (32.4 percent) shooting from the field on Wednesday.
Butler closed the loss with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, seven rebounds, three assists and one steal.
It was an especially rough shooting night for Adebayo, who contributed 12 points on 5-of-21 shooting from the field. He did finish with 12 rebounds, six assists and five steals, though.
After Miami pulled ahead by 15 points late in the third quarter, the Suns outscored the Heat 46-28 the rest of the way to complete the comeback. While the Suns shot 7 of 13 (53.8 percent) on threes during that stretch, the Heat shot just 2 of 11 (18.2 percent) from three-point range during that game-deciding span.
“I think just getting stagnant on offense and we need to find different ways to generate just good looks,” Herro said when asked what went wrong during that late-game stretch. “And then they were able to get stops, which led to transition buckets, different things on the other end that caused problems for us.”
The Heat has now held double-digit second-half leads in three of its first four losses this season.
Instead of beginning the trip with a win, the Heat fell to 0-3 this season against teams that made the playoffs last season. The Heat’s only wins so far this season have all come against teams that didn’t quality for the playoffs last season — the Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards.
The Heat made a change to its starting lineup to begin Wednesday’s second half, and it led to positive results.
The Heat has opened the first seven games of the season with the starting lineup of Rozier, Herro, Butler, Nikola Jovic and Adebayo.
But the Heat made a change to begin Wednesday’s second half, starting the third quarter with Highsmith on the court in Jovic’s place.
“I wanted just to keep Bam on Nurkic, to keep him comfortable under the rim,” Spoelstra said of his decision to play Highsmith in Jovic’s place to open the second half. “And H had given us good minutes in that first half, and we were looking to do something just to change the energy of these third quarters. It had nothing to do with Niko. It was more about their lineup and how they can get you scrambling.”
Whether this will be the Heat’s new starting lineup moving forward remains to be seen. As Spoelstra alluded to, the switch might have just been based on the matchup, with Highsmith’s perimeter defense needed against a Suns team that features three potent scorers in Durant, Booker and Bradley Beal.
It’s worth noting, though, the results with Highsmith in that lineup were positive on Wednesday.
Third quarters have been problematic for the Heat, as Miami entered Wednesday with the NBA’s worst third-quarter net rating this season.
But with Highsmith opening the second half in Jovic’s place, the Heat began the third quarter on a 16-12 run to push its three-point halftime lead up to a seven-point advantage before making its first substitution of the period.
The Heat even closed Wednesday’s game with the lineup of Rozier, Herro, Butler, Highsmith and Adebayo on the court.
When the night was done, the Heat outscored the Suns by three points in the 17 minutes this group played together on Wednesday.
Highsmith closed the loss with 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting on threes, seven rebounds and two steals in 31 minutes.
“I just wanted to go out there, bring some energy, bring some effort and really try to inspire in that second half,” Highsmith said.
Jovic did not play in the second half. In fact, Jovic didn’t re-enter the game after playing the first 5:16 of the opening period.
With Heat backup center Kevin Love still not ready to make his season debut, rookie center Kel’el Ware filled that spot in the rotation to log the first meaningful minutes of his NBA career.
This represented a shift in the Heat’s approach from the first two weeks of the regular season, as veteran Thomas Bryant played as the backup center in each of the first six games. Meanwhile, Ware’s only two appearances during the Heat’s first six games came late in lopsided results.
But Ware, 20, played ahead of Bryant against the Suns for the first extended regular-season playing time of his NBA career.
Ware, who the Heat selected with the 15th overall in this year’s draft, finished Wednesday’s loss with seven points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field and 1-of-1 shooting on threes, three rebounds, two steals and one block in 14 minutes off the bench.
“He’s been really progressing quickly behind the scenes,” Spoelstra said of Ware. “He kept himself ready. I thought his minutes were very good. I thought they were encouraging.”
Ware’s best sequence of the night came during his first stint of the game, when he completed a dunk on one end and then blocked a layup attempt from Suns guard Tyus Jones just a few seconds later.
But there were also some rookie moments for Ware, as he had a layup blocked by Mason Plumlee on his first shot attempt of the game and then was called for a traveling violation a few minutes later.
Ware brings upside as a 7-footer with a 7-foot-5 wingspan who has the ability to serve as a rim protector on the defensive end and dynamic roller on the offensive end. Ware also has the potential to hit three-pointers if defenses don’t guard him on the perimeter.
When Love returns, he’ll likely slide back into the Heat’s backup center role. That means both Ware and Bryant could both fall out of the rotation.
Love is already back with the team after missing the first five games of the season because of personal reasons, but Wednesday marked the second straight game that he sat out while working his way back into game shape. Love traveled to Phoenix and is expected to make his season debut at some point during the trip.
The Heat’s second-round pick from this year’s draft logged extended minutes off the bench for the third straight game.
Guard Pelle Larsson received the first extended regular-season playing time of his NBA career when he played 13:38 off the bench in Saturday’s win over the Washington Wizards in Mexico City and followed that up by playing 25:22 in Monday’s loss to the Sacramento Kings at Kaseya Center.
Larsson, who the Heat selected with the 44th overall pick in the second round of this year’s draft, finished Wednesday’s loss with six points on 2-of-5 shooting from the field, 0-of-3 shooting on threes and 2-of-3 shooting from the foul line and three assists in 21 minutes off the bench.
The Heat’s ever-evolving bench rotation included Haywood Highsmith, Duncan Robinson, Alec Burks, Ware and Larsson against the Suns.
The only available Heat players who did not play in Wednesday’s game were Dru Smith, Josh Richardson and Bryant.
Along with missing Love, the Heat was also without Jaime Jaquez Jr. against the Suns. Jaquez, who missed his second straight game because of a stomach ailment, did not travel with the team to Phoenix but is expected to re-join the team at some point during the six-game trip.
The Heat also was without Josh Christopher and Keshad Johnson, who are both in the G League as part of their two-way contracts.
It doesn’t get easier for the Heat in the coming days.
Wednesday’s loss to the Suns marked the start of a six-game trip that includes five games (at Nuggets on Friday, at Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday and at Indiana Pacers on Nov. 15 and 17) against opponents that made the playoffs last season. The only game during the trip against a team that didn’t make the playoffs last season comes Tuesday against the Detroit Pistons.
The Heat hasn’t had much success in some of those places either.
For Friday’s road game against the Nuggets, the Heat has lost nine of its last 11 games in Denver.
For Sunday’s road game against the Timberwolves, the Heat has dropped six straight games in Minneapolis.
Then when the Heat finally returns home after the long trip, it begins a three-game homestand that includes three games against opponents that made the playoffs last season (vs. Philadelphia 76ers on Nov. 18, vs. Dallas Mavericks on Nov. 24 and vs. Milwaukee Bucks on Nov. 26).
“It’s a great team they have,” Herro said of the Suns. “We were right there and just got to continue to get better.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2024 at 11:33 PM.
