Heat falls to Pacers to wrap up 2-4 trip. Takeaways from loss and details on a new Heat injury
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 119-110 loss to the Indiana Pacers (6-7) on Sunday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to close its six-game trip at 2-4. The Heat (5-7) now returns to Miami to begin a three-game homestand on Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network — Sun) to complete its first back-to-back set of the season:
The Heat made a lot of threes, but could not make enough twos. As a result, what could have been a solid .500 trip for the Heat ended as a losing trip.
The Heat, which entered the game with the NBA’s fourth-best team three-point shooting percentage at 38.5 percent, again made a high percentage of its threes on Sunday. Miami finished 19 of 44 (43.2 percent) from three-point range.
But the Heat, which entered with the NBA’s third-worst two-point shooting percentage at 50 percent, again made a low percentage of its twos on Sunday. Miami closed 17 of 46 (37 percent) on twos, including just 14 of 37 (37.8 percent) from inside the paint.
As a result, the Pacers dominated the Heat 62-28 in paint points to negate Miami’s 57-39 edge from three-point range.
“For the most part, they were able to control the big muscle areas of the game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Attacking us in the paint, whether it was drives, cuts, post ups, offensive rebounds. That set the tenor of the game.”
After the loss, Spoelstra said he believes the Heat’s struggles around the rim affected the team’s defense.
“Those sometimes can be deflating plays if you miss layups and it ends up being a four or five-point swing, but those things happen,” Spoelstra emphasized. “If you’re generating them, I’m good with it. But if we miss them, we can’t lag back and then it turn into an open shot going the other way. We’ll definitely chart that. Any missed layup, what was our field goal percentage allowed on that very next possession.”
The Heat never held a lead Sunday, but used its hot three-point shooting to hang around.
The Pacers appeared to be in full control, pulling ahead by 16 points with 3:17 left in the third quarter.
But the Heat then made a late push, going on a 35-19 run behind a barrage of three-pointers to tie the game at 97 with 5:37 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Heat couldn’t complete the comeback, though, as Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton hit back-to-back threes to put the Pacers back ahead by six points a minute later.
The Pacers led the rest of the way to earn the bounce-back win after losing to the Heat by 13 points on Friday in the teams’ first of two consecutive matchups at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“When you leave it to that, where everything has to go perfect down the stretch, that’s sometimes what you’re susceptible to,” Spoelstra said of the Pacers’ strong finish to the game.
Pacers center Myles Turner was the catalyst, finishing with a season-high and game-high 34 points. He also contributed nine rebounds and two blocks.
Heat guard Tyler Herro scored a team-high 28 points on 7-of-11 shooting from three-point range. He scored 19 points on 5-of-6 shooting from deep in the fourth quarter to try to spark a comeback that never materialized.
Bam Adebayo added 24 points, eight rebounds and two assists for the Heat.
Duncan Robinson recorded 20 points on 5-of-7 shooting from deep off the Heat’s bench.
Does Spoelstra feel like the Heat made progress during the six-game trip? Or is the 2-4 record on the trip too disappointing to take any positives from the 12-day stretch away from home?
“Yes to both, for sure,” Spoelstra said. “We feel like we’re making some strides of figuring out what our identity is to win basketball games. But it’s also OK to be disappointed with the end result of this road trip, what the record was on it. Both things can be true.”
Herro believes the Heat needs to feel a sense of urgency after its 5-7 start to the season.
“It’s early in the season, but another 10 games and it’s almost the mid-midpoint,” Herro said. “So at some point, we have to turn it on and start taking this more seriously. I think we’re still building our identity and we’ll be alright.”
While Butler missed his fourth straight game on Sunday, there’s optimism that his return is imminent.
With Sunday’s loss, the Heat fell to 2-2 since Butler went out after spraining his right ankle during the Heat’s Nov. 8 loss to the Nuggets in Denver.
But the expectation is that Butler will make his return on Monday when Heat hosts the 76ers on the second night of the back-to-back set.
“He’s definitely making progress, for sure,” Spoelstra said before Sunday’s game when asked for an update on Butler.
Like Friday, Butler again went through a pregame workout on the Gainbridge Fieldhouse court with Heat coaches on Sunday before changing into street clothes and watching the game from the team’s bench.
Giving Butler another day to rest the ankle was viewed as the prudent approach, as opposed to having him play both ends of the back-to-back set.
Butler, 35, has now missed four of the Heat’s first 12 games this season.
Along with missing Butler, the Heat remained without Josh Christopher (G League) and Keshad Johnson (G League) on Sunday.
The Pacers were without two key rotation players — Andrew Nembhard (knee) and Aaron Nesmith (ankle).
Unfortunately for the Heat, it’s now dealing with a new injury.
Heat second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. exited Sunday’s game with 29.2 seconds left in the third quarter after spraining his right ankle and did not return. X-rays on the ankle returned negative.
Jaquez sprained his ankle after missing a six-foot jumper. He backpedaled following the shot attempt before stepping on Pacers guard T. J. McConnell’s foot and turning his ankle.
Jaquez recorded two points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field and 0-of-2 shooting on threes, three rebounds and four assists in 15 minutes off the bench before exiting Sunday’s game.
“That’s one of the craziest ones,” Spoelstra said of Jaquez’s injury. “He just happened to be backpedaling back and stepped on McConnell’s foot. He says he’s fine. There’s no way to know with sprained ankles. We’ll find out when we get back to Miami.”
Jaquez entered Sunday averaging 9.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 44.8 percent from the field and 43.8 percent from three-point range this season. He already missed three games earlier this season because of a stomach illness.
With the Heat back in action on Monday against the 76ers, Jaquez will likely miss at least that game.
“It didn’t feel great,” Jaquez said of his sprained ankle. “It’s one of those things, man, you just get unlucky sometimes. But I’ve been in this situation before. Sprains are nothing new to me. Hopefully rehab it and then get back as soon as possible.”
Jaquez expects to “have a better understanding [Monday] of where I’m at” after flying back to Miami.
“A lot of times it hurts a lot in the moment and it dies down a little bit, and then the next morning it swells up and you start feeling the pain,” Jaquez said. “So I’ll have a better grasp tomorrow. I’ll just get on this flight and go from there.”
The Heat’s two picks from this year’s draft found themselves out of the rotation on Sunday.
With Butler again out, the Heat went with the starting lineup of Terry Rozier, Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Kevin Love and Adebayo for the fourth straight game.
The Heat then went with a bench rotation of Jaquez, Robinson, Nikola Jovic and Josh Richardson on Sunday.
That left the Heat’s two 2024 draft picks, first-round selection Kel’el Ware and second-round selection Pelle Larsson, out of the rotation against the Pacers.
Before not appearing in Sunday’s loss, Ware played in five straight games off the Heat’s bench.
Meanwhile, Sunday marked the second straight game that Larsson was not used. He played in six straight games off the Heat’s bench before falling out of the rotation for the last two games.
The other available Heat players who did not enter Sunday’s game were Thomas Bryant, Dru Smith and Alec Burks.
Next up for the Heat is an oddly quiet stretch in its schedule.
After returning home to face the 76ers on Monday to complete the back-to-back, the Heat is then idle until taking on the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday at Kaseya Center.
Yes, the Heat has five full days off between games with no travel. This will give the Heat time to rest and also get a few practices in.
That time off will be needed for the heat, as Sunday marked the end of a brutal eight-game stretch that included seven games on the road. Now, eight of the Heat’s next 11 games come in Miami.
This story was originally published November 17, 2024 at 7:34 PM.
