Heat routs Lakers behind one of top offensive performances in team history. Takeaways and details
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s dominant 134-93 win over the Los Angeles Lakers (12-10) on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center to open a four-game homestand, snap a two-game skid and reach the 20-game mark at 10-10. The Heat continues the homestand on Saturday against the Phoenix Suns:
The Heat’s offense hasn’t been great this season, but it put together one of the best offensive performances in franchise history against a struggling Lakers defense.
The Lakers entered Wednesday’s game with the NBA’s seventh-worst defensive rating this season.
The Heat’s offense has also been far from elite, entering Wednesday with the league’s 11th-worst offensive rating this season.
But the Heat’s offense looked elite against the Lakers’ weak defense, totaling 134 points on 57.8 percent shooting from the field and 24-of-47 (51.1 percent) shooting from three-point range on its way to the rout.
By the end of the night, the Heat set a new franchise record for most assists in a game with 42 and tied the franchise record for most three-pointers in a game with 24. In addition, the 41-point win is the third-most lopsided victory in franchise history.
The Heat also tied a franchise record with 10 players hitting at least one three-pointer on Wednesday. As a result, the Heat finished with a huge 72-15 edge from three-point range over the Lakers.
“The best way to get out of some kind of thing is you think about your teammate and then you try to make the game easier for somebody,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Get somebody an open shot, set a screen, make a-one-more hockey assist pass and then that changes the karma of the game. The guys really kind of bought into that and found some joy in that. Then the ball started to go down and then it just fed into playing the right way.”
The Heat posted a season-best offensive rating of 139.6 points scored per 100 possessions in Wednesday’s victory. That’s Miami’s highest single-game offensive rating since scoring 142.6 points per 100 possessions in a win over the Charlotte Hornets on April 5, 2022.
The Lakers’ final lead of the game came at 6-3 in the opening minutes of the first quarter, as the Heat was in full control for essentially the entire contest.
The Heat entered halftime with a 17-point lead and then Tyler Herro exploded for 21 points in the third quarter, as Miami’s lead grew to as large as 33 points in the period.
“I feel like we were all on the same page,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “We were all in sync. It was one of those games where I feel like we played a great 48 minutes of Heat basketball. That’s what we need to continue to do.”
Herro was the catalyst behind the Heat’s third-quarter surge, tying his career high for the most points he has scored in a single quarter.
Herro caught fire, making his first seven three-point attempts of the third quarter. He finished the period 7 of 8 from three-point range after shooting 2 of 8 from behind the arc in the first half.
“I shot the same shots that I shot in the first half, and ended up making them,” Herro said. “They were good looks in the first half. I shot eight threes [in the first half] and I just kept shooting my shot, trusted the work and they ended up falling.”
With his seven threes in the third quarter, Herro matched the Heat record for the most made threes by a player in a single quarter. Duncan Robinson is the only other Heat player in franchise history who has made seven three-pointers in a quarter.
“He’s one of the best shooters on the planet and he’s ignitable,” Spoelstra said of Herro.
Herro closed the win with 31 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field and 9-of-16 shooting from three-point range, five rebounds, four assists and one steal in 27 minutes. He finished one three-pointer shy of tying his career-high for threes made in a game.
Heat star Jimmy Butler returned from injury, and he looked healthy and fresh.
After missing Monday’s loss to the Boston Celtics because of right knee soreness, Butler returned from the one-game absence to help lead the Heat to Wednesday’s victory.
Butler closed the Heat’s win over the Lakers with 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field and 1-of-1 shooting on threes, nine rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block in 29 minutes. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter of the blowout win.
“He passed all the protocols, he wants to be out there, we want to get him out there and the trainers felt that he made enough progress the last two days,” Spoelstra said of getting Butler back on Wednesday. “While we were still in Boston, he was around the clock in the training room doing as much treatment as he possibly could.”
The Heat is now 7-3 this season when Butler scores at least 17 points in a game.
With Butler again available, the Heat went back to its new normal starting lineup.
The Heat opened Wednesday’s game with a starting lineup of Herro, Robinson, Butler, Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo.
It marked the seventh time in the last eight games that the Heat has used this starting group. The only time that the Heat didn’t use this starting lineup during this stretch came when Butler was out in Monday’s loss to the Celtics.
This starting unit entered its seventh start of the season on Wednesday outscoring teams by 0.9 points per 100 possessions in 73 minutes together.
The results were more positive against the Lakers, as the lineup opened Wednesday’s game on a 23-11 run before the Heat turned to its bench for the first time with 4:48 left in the first quarter.
The Heat’s starting group ended the win with a plus/minus of plus 18 in 18 minutes together.
The Heat then went with a four-man bench rotation of Terry Rozier, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kevin Love and Pelle Larsson against the Lakers before emptying its bench in the fourth quarter of the rout.
The Heat had 15 of its 17 players available on Wednesday. The two unavailable Heat players were Josh Christopher and Kel’el Ware, who are both with the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the G League.
Adebayo has been stuck in a season-long shooting slump, but Wednesday’s performance was a step in the right direction.
Through the Heat’s first 19 games this season, Adebayo averaged just 15.6 points per game while shooting 41.9 percent from the field. He also entered Wednesday with the league’s second second-worst true shooting percentage (a shooting percentage that also factors in the value of three-point field goals and free throws) among the 96 players with at least 200 field-goal attempts this season.
Considering that Adebayo averaged 19.3 points per game last season and has shot better than 50 percent from the field in each of the first seven seasons of his NBA career prior to this season, this has been an uncharacteristic start for Adebayo.
But Adebayo turned in an efficient shooting performance in the Heat’s 20th game of the season on Wednesday, finishing with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds, seven assists, one steal and one block in 25 minutes.
Adebayo did all of his scoring in the first two quarters, totaling 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field in the first half.
Adebayo only played 8:01 in the second half, with the Heat cruising to the blowout win.
“The basketball just went in,” Adebayo said after making most of his shots on Wednesday. “I don’t really overthink it. It is what it is. I go out there and I play as hard as possible. If shots don’t fall, I’m still going to impact winning.”
LeBron James’ bad luck in Miami continued.
With Wednesday’s result, James now holds a 2-8 record in games that he has played in against the Heat in Miami since he left the organization in 2014.
But those struggles aren’t because of poor individual play from James, who entered Wednesday’s loss averaging 29.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game while shooting 54 percent from the field in his first nine games in Miami since leaving the Heat.
James, who turns 40 on Dec. 30, closed Wednesday’s game with another impressive stat line that included 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field, five rebounds, eight assists and one steal in 29 minutes.
Spoelstra, who was James’ head coach during his four-year tenure with the Heat from 2010-14, praised his former player’s longevity before Wednesday’s game. James is in the middle of his 22nd NBA season.
“At his size and if he just wants to slow the game down and just play off of his brain and IQ,” Spoelstra said of James, “he can do that for another decade. I doubt he’ll find interest in that, but he could.”
James’ Lakers co-star Anthony Davis was limited to a season-low eight points on 3-of-14 shooting from the field Wednesday.
This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 9:49 PM.
