Takeaways from loss to Giannis-less Bucks, as Butler says Heat ‘very far’ from where it needs to be
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 106-103 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks (9-9) on Tuesday night at Kaseya Center to fall to 1-2 in the group stage of the NBA’s second-annual in-season tournament and close its three-game homestand at 2-1. The Heat (7-8) now hits the road to complete its back-to-back set on Wednesday against the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun):
The Bucks didn’t have their best player available on Tuesday, but they had eight-time All-Star guard Damian Lillard available. That was enough to defeat the Heat.
With Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo a late scratch because of left knee effusion, Lillard put on an incredible shooting display.
Lillard, who requested a trade to the Heat during the 2023 offseason before eventually being traded to the Bucks, was sensational.
Lillard led the way for Milwaukee, finishing with 37 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field, 8-of-13 shooting from three-point range and 9-of-9 shooting from the foul line, three rebounds, 12 assists, one steal and one block. He scored 35 of his 37 points in the first three quarters.
“It was like he was out there working out,” Heat guard Terry Rozier said when asked about Lillard’s big night. “It’s crazy. He’s probably like one of the top two, top three best shooters in the league. So when a guy like that sees shots go in, it’s like he’s really shooting in an ocean.”
The Bucks built their biggest lead of the game early in the second half, pulling ahead by 22 points with 8:56 left in the third quarter after starting 16 of 25 (64 percent) from behind the arc.
But the Bucks’ shooting finally went cold and the Heat clawed its way back, closing the third quarter on a 26-9 run to cut the deficit to five at the end of the period behind nine third-quarter points from Jimmy Butler.
The Heat continued its comeback in the fourth quarter, tying the game at 96 on a Butler layup with 4:02 to play.
But the Heat could never take the lead, as the Bucks went on an 8-4 run with the help of two important threes from AJ Green to regain a four-point advantage with 2:24 remaining.
The game still came down to the final seconds, though, Rozier hit a clutch three for the Heat to trim the deficit to one with 30.5 seconds to play.
The Heat then got a defensive stop, forcing the Bucks into a 24-second shot clock violation to give itself a chance to escape with the win.
That defensive stop gave the Heat possession of the ball, trailing by one point with five seconds left in the fourth quarter.
But after forcing overtime on a perfectly executed side out-of-bounds play in the final seconds of regulation in Sunday’s overtime win over the Dallas Mavericks, the Heat came up empty in a similar situation on Tuesday.
Duncan Robinson found Tyler Herro with the inbounds pass, but Herro missed a relatively open three-pointer. Bucks forward Taurean Prince grabbed the defensive rebound and was immediately fouled by the Heat, making both free throws to extend Milwaukee’s lead to three points with 1.2 seconds remaining.
With one final opportunity to avoid a loss, the Heat called timeout to draw up a play. But Miami again came up empty, as Rozier missed a three at the final buzzer to clinch the win for the Bucks.
The Heat never held a lead in Tuesday’s game, as it was outscored by the Bucks 60-30 from three-point range in the loss. This big advantage from behind the arc came despite Milwaukee missing 13 of its final 17 three-point shots attempts of the game.
The Heat’s defense actually came alive late in the game after the Bucks exploded for 65 first-half points. Milwaukee scored just 41 points on 34.3 percent shooting from the field in the second half and still won Tuesday.
“I didn’t see a lot in the first quarter,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Heat’s defense in the loss. “Then we had to do so many efforts in that second half. But that’s who we have to be if we want to get to where we want to go. Is this going to be easy? No. Is it easy guarding guys like [Lillard]? No. We were flying around in that second half making some things happen, and they still scored some. But that’s who we are when we’re at our best. I just want to see that 48 minutes a game.”
Butler scored a team-high 23 points for the Heat on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 11-of-13 shooting from the foul line to go with four rebounds and five assists.
Also for the Heat, Herro contributed 18 points, five rebounds and five assists. Bam Adebayo added 16 points, five rebounds and five assists.
With the Heat allowing 120.5 points per 100 possessions on Tuesday, it fell to 0-8 this season when allowing more than 115 points per 100 possessions in a game.
When asked following Tuesday’s defeat how far the Heat is from where it needs to be as a team, Butler replied: “Very far.”
Even with Rozier returning from injury, the Heat stuck with the starting lineup it used while he was out.
The Heat used a starting group of Herro, Robinson, Butler, Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo on Tuesday for the third straight game, with Robinson starting instead of Rozier.
This came after Rozier started his first 12 appearances of the season before missing the last two games because of discomfort in his right foot.
Tuesday marked just the second game that Rozier has played as a reserve since he was traded to the Heat midway through last season. The only other game Rozier played off the bench since that trade was in his Heat debut on Jan. 24.
In fact, Tuesday represented just the second game that Rozier has played off the bench since the start of the 2019-20 season. He started in each of the 298 regular-season games that he played for the Charlotte Hornets before being dealt to Miami.
“He’s in this role for now,” Spoelstra said of Rozier. “But he’ll do whatever we need. Everybody has got the right intentions to try to get this thing where we want it to go.”
The Rozier-less Heat starting lineup struggled for the second straight game.
After this group was outscored by eight points in nine minutes together during Monday’s overtime win over the Mavericks, the Herro-Robinson-Butler-Highsmith-Adebayo unit began Tuesday’s contest by being outscored 21-11 over the first 6:05 of the opening quarter before the Heat made its first substitution of the night.
Miami’s starters were then outscored 11-3 over the first 3:05 of the third quarter before the Heat turned to its bench for the first time in the second half.
The Heat’s starting lineup ended Tuesday’s loss with a plus/minus of minus 19 in nine minutes together.
Rozier played well in his first game off the bench.
Rozier’s early-season struggles are part of the reason that he was moved to a reserve role. He entered Tuesday’s game averaging 12.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game while shooting 38 percent from the field and 33.3 percent on threes in his first 12 appearances of the season.
But Rozier found an offensive rhythm in his first game as a reserve, finishing Tuesday’s loss with 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes in 21 minutes. He totaled 13 points in the fourth quarter.
“He’s competitor and he’s an X factor player,” Spoelstra said of Rozier. “We saw that in the fourth quarter. He’s a dynamic offensive talent.”
Rozier entered Tuesday’s game for his first stint of the night with 4:36 left in the first quarter. He recorded four points on 2-of-4 shooting from the field and one rebound while playing 8:42 before heading back to the bench with 7:54 remaining in the second quarter.
Rozier didn’t re-enter the game until the start of the fourth quarter and went on to play that entire period.
The Heat’s ever-evolving bench rotation on Tuesday included Kevin Love, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Pelle Larsson, Alec Burks, Kel’el Ware and Rozier.
The only available Heat players who did not enter Tuesday’s game were Nikola Jovic, Thomas Bryant, Keshad Johnson and Josh Richardson.
The Heat had 15 of its 17 players available against the Bucks, with Dru Smith (right knee bone bruise and Josh Christopher (G League) the only players out.
With Adebayo — the Heat’s starting center — battling foul trouble throughout the game and Kevin Love — the Heat’s backup center — missing the second half because of back spasms, Heat rookie center Kel’el Ware got some playing time.
After not playing in Tuesday’s first half, Ware entered for his first action of the night with 7:06 left in the third quarter once Adebayo was called for his fourth foul of the game.
Ware went on to play a 9:25 stint after logging just one minute in the previous three games. That was Ware’s only playing time Tuesday.
Ware totaled two points, three rebounds and one assist in his nine minutes off the bench on Tuesday. The Heat outscored the Bucks by 11 points with Ware on the court.
“That wasn’t easy, coming in there in the second half,” Spoelstra said of Ware’s second-half stint. “And he had some really good moments and then he had some moments where he can improve. But he will because he’s committed to that process.”
Love recorded two points, four rebounds and one steal in seven first-half minutes off the bench before being ruled out for the second half because of back spasms. With the Heat playing again Wednesday in Charlotte to complete the back-to-back, the 36-year-old Love’s status is now in question for that game.
Tuesday’s loss means the Heat likely won’t advance to the knockout rounds of the NBA’s in-season tournament.
A win on Tuesday would have kept the Heat’s hopes of advancing past the group stage of the NBA Cup alive.
Instead, the loss to the Bucks dropped the Heat to 1-2 during the four-game group stage of the tourney.
The Heat’s final group-play game comes on Friday against the Toronto Raptors in Miami.
Through Tuesday’s games, the Bucks lead the Heat’s group at 3-0 in group play. The Detroit Pistons are in second place at 2-0.
The Heat stands in third place and the best it can finish is in second place in its group, but it will need a win on Friday against the Raptors and plenty of help elsewhere to advance to the quarterfinal round of the tournament.
The Indiana Pacers and Raptors are the bottom two teams in the five-team group at 0-2.
“It’s disappointing,” Spoelstra said of essentially being eliminated from NBA Cup contention. “...We wanted to be there in Vegas.”
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.
This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 10:09 PM.
