Bam Adebayo and Heat bounce back with road win over Pacers. Takeaways and postgame reaction
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 124-111 win over the Indiana Pacers (5-7) on Friday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to improve to 1-1 in the group stage of the NBA’s second-annual in-season tournament and 2-3 on its six-game trip. The Heat (5-6) closes the trip on Sunday with another matchup against the Pacers:
It has been a slow start to the season for the Heat and Bam Adebayo. But both bounced back Friday on the way to a much-needed win.
After reaching the 10-game mark with an underwhelming 4-6 record, the Heat needed Friday’s positive result to keep its hopes alive of avoiding a losing six-game trip.
The Heat especially needed Friday’s win after Tuesday’s crushing two-point overtime loss to the Detroit Pistons, when Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called a timeout that the Heat didn’t have with 1.1 seconds left in the overtime period. Spoelstra’s mistake proved costly, resulting in a technical foul that led to Detroit’s game-winning points.
“It really weighs on you when you lose games like that, especially the way we lost,” Adebayo said. “I know it weighed on us, but I know it definitely weighed on our coach a lot. But after that, we had a great day of practice and had a great shootaround today and brought that energy into the game.”
Adebayo also needed Friday’s game, as he entered the contest averaging just 15.3 points per game on 40.7 percent shooting from the field through the Heat’s first 10 games this season after shooting better than 50 percent from the field in each of the first seven seasons of his NBA career.
But Adebayo turned in one of the best statistical performances of his NBA career on the way to leading the Heat to an important win on Friday.
After scoring just three points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field in the first half, Adebayo exploded for 27 points in the second half to help the Heat pull away for the double-digit win.
Adebayo finished the victory with 30 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 8-of-9 shooting from the foul line, 11 rebounds, seven assists and five steals.
“He got going there, got some free throws, he was able to knock down some threes,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo’s strong second half. “We were all really thrilled for him because he did it the right way. You just focus on making those winning plays and the ball finds karma.”
Not only did it mark the 24th game in Adebayo’s NBA career that he has hit the 30-point mark in, but he also became the first Heat player in franchise history to record at least 30 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and five steals in a regular-season game.
Adebayo was the driving force behind the Heat’s second-half surge, as Miami opened the second half on a big 28-12 run to turn a six-point halftime advantage into a 22-point lead with 4:45 left in the third quarter.
The Pacers made a run to cut the deficit to 10 just a few minutes later. But Miami managed to put an end to Indiana’s run, entering the fourth quarter with a 13-point lead.
The Heat controlled the contest from there, pushing its lead back up to 21 points midway through the fourth quarter to put the game away.
Tyler Herro contributed 20 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field and 2-of-9 shooting on threes, three rebounds and five assists for the Heat.
Haywood Highsmith added 14 points on perfect 6-of-6 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 shooting on threes along with his usual excellent defense.
Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton recorded 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 shooting on threes, two rebounds and eight assists. He scored just two points in the second half.
This two-game set against the Pacers represents the first of three occurrences that the Heat will play the same opponent in consecutive games this season.
“You just try to stack as many good days, build your habits, build the process and we had a very good 24 hours,” Spoelstra said following Friday’s victory. “It led to a win and now we have to go back to our caves, rest up and get ready for another great game on Sunday.”
Along with Adebayo, veteran Kevin Love was another catalyst behind the Heat’s third quarter eruption.
After going scoreless in Friday’s first half, Love caught fire to total 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range in the first 4:58 of the third quarter. He scored the Heat’s first 13 points of the period.
Love’s 15-point third quarter matched his highest-scoring quarter since joining the Heat in the middle of the 2022-23 season. Since signing with the Heat, Love also scored 15 points in the first quarter of a Jan. 5, 2024 loss to the Phoenix Suns.
Love, 36, finished Friday’s win with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes, seven rebounds, two assists and four steals in 12 minutes. All 15 of Love’s points came during the Heat’s third-quarter run.
“I just really appreciate Kevin,” Spoelstra said. “I appreciate that he’s able to morph into different roles. Guys like him have that cachet that on any given night they can be that for short bursts. What he did in basically 12 minutes and change is pretty amazing. But it’s because he’s about the right things.”
With Butler still on the trip, the hope is he’ll be able to make his return for the Heat on Sunday against the Pacers.
Butler, 35, missed his third straight game on Friday after spraining his right ankle in last week’s loss to the Denver Nuggets in the second game of the Heat’s six-game trip. He has now missed three of the Heat’s first 11 games this season.
But there was an encouraging sign prior to Friday’s game, as Butler was on the court putting up shots with Heat coaches. He spent about 20 minutes going through the workout.
When asked if Butler could make his return on Sunday, Spoelstra didn’t want to give a definitive answer.
“I do not have an update,” Spoelstra said before Friday’s game. “But he’s putting in a lot of work. That part, his head coach likes to see.”
The goal has been for Butler to make his return in one of the Heat’s two games against the Pacers this weekend, according to league sources. With Butler missing Friday’s matchup against the Pacers, that hope is he’ll be able to return for Sunday’s game.
If Butler plays Sunday, the next question will be whether he plays Monday when the Heat returns home to face the Philadelphia 76ers on the second night of a back-to-back set. Butler played in both games of six of the Heat’s 13 back-to-backs last season.
Along with missing Butler, the Heat remained without Josh Christopher (G League) and Keshad Johnson (G League) on Friday.
The Pacers were without two key rotation players — Andrew Nembhard (knee) and Aaron Nesmith (ankle).
The Heat has used the same starting lineup since Butler went out, but the bench rotation continues to change.
The Heat went with a starting lineup of Terry Rozier, Herro, Highsmith, Love and Adebayo on Friday for the third straight game. When Butler returns, that will change because he’ll be re-inserted into the starting group.
The Heat then used Jaime Jaquez Jr., Duncan Robinson, Kel’el Ware, Josh Richardson and Nikola Jovic to complete its 10-man rotation against the Pacers.
The only available Heat players who did not enter Friday’s game were Pelle Larsson, Thomas Bryant, Dru Smith and Alec Burks.
Before not playing Friday, Larsson had played in six straight games and logged double-digit minutes in five of those games.
It’s worth noting that Jovic played his first game in a custom-fit protective mask on Friday after exiting Tuesday’s loss to the Pistons early with a broken nose. Jovic finished his first game in a mask with 11 points, six rebounds, one assist and one steal in 30 minutes off the bench.
Butler, who wasn’t in uniform, supported Jovic by jokingly wearing another one of the Heat’s protective face masks while sitting on the bench for Friday’s game.
“He’s just trying to be like me,” Jovic said with a smile when asked about Butler’s support. “It’s hard having all these fans around me. He’s just trying to be cool. Not much more than that.”
The Heat is still alive in the NBA’s in-season tournament.
A loss on Friday would have essentially ended the Heat’s hopes of advancing past the group stage of the NBA Cup.
But Friday’s win kept the Heat in the race, improving to 1-1 during the four-game group stage of the tourney.
The Heat’s two remaining group-play games come in Miami on Nov. 26 against the Milwaukee Bucks and Nov. 29 against the Toronto Raptors.
Through Friday’s games, the Pistons lead the Heat’s group at 2-0 in group play. The Bucks are in second place at 1-0, the Heat is in third place at 1-1, the Pacers are in fourth place at 0-1 and the Raptors are in last place at 0-2.
The winner of each of the NBA’s six five-team groups and two wild cards (the team from each conference with the best record in group play that finished second in its group) will advance to the knockout quarterfinal round.
If two or more teams are tied within a group, the tie among the teams will be broken according to the following tiebreakers (in sequential order): head-to-head record in group play, point differential in group play, total points scored in group play, regular-season record from last regular season and random drawing. Overtime scoring will not count towards the point differential and total points tiebreakers.
If two or more teams are tied for the wild card in a conference, the tie among the teams will be broken following the same tiebreaker protocol, with the exception of the head-to-head record in group play. Ties within groups will be broken before the calculation of wild card tiebreakers.
The knockout rounds will consist of single-elimination games for the eight teams that advance from group play, starting with the quarterfinals on Dec. 10 and 11 played in NBA markets.
The four teams that win quarterfinal games advance to the neutral-site semifinals on Dec. 14 and then two teams will play in the championship game on Dec. 17. The semifinals and championship game of the in-season tournament will be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with the Los Angeles Lakers winning last season’s inaugural NBA Cup.
What’s at stake? The NBA Cup and bonus money for the quarterfinalists, semifinalists, runner-up and champion, with players on the championship team getting $500,000 each last season.
This story was originally published November 15, 2024 at 9:24 PM.
