Jaquez, Adebayo, Herro help lead Heat to second win in row on road trip: Takeaways, details
Takeaways from the Heat’s 97-92 win against the Utah Jazz on Thursday night at Delta Center:
▪ The Heat shook off a poor start, got clutch work late from Bam Adebayo, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyler Herro and avoided the ignominious feat of losing to one of the league’s worst teams for the second time in six days.
Miami (19-17) is now 2-1 on this Western swing, with consecutive wins at Golden State and Utah, after a double-overtime loss in Sacramento. And after being routed by Utah 136-100 in the first game of Jimmy Butler’s suspension, Miami has played well since.
“Our energy, collective spirit, how we came out tonight was completely different than how we came out in Miami against Utah,” Herro said. “We can win games in the mud or we can win high-scoring games, but our identity is really more on the defensive end and being gritty.”
That was needed on a night that the Heat shot 39.6 percent and Utah shot 39.8 percent.
Utah pummeled the Heat, 10-2, on the boards at the outset, jumping to a 14-7 lead. At that point, it looked like this could be another demolition on the glass like Saturday night, when the Jazz annihilated Miami, 57-32, on the boards.
But from that point on, Miami overcame Utah’s giant front line (featuring 7-1 Walker Kessler and 7-0 Lauri Markkanen) and outrebounded the Jazz before Kessler tipped in a rebound to tie the game at 86 with 3:31 left. (The teams ended up with 49 rebounds apiece.)
From there, Adebayo hit a turnaround jumper, a possession created by a Jaquez offensive rebound, to put the Heat up two.
After a foiled Jazz possession, Adebayo hit another jumper, off a Jaquez pass, giving the Heat a four-point lead at the two-minute mark.
Isaiah Collier hit a basket, but Jaquez created contact and got to the line with 1:19 left. At least he was supposed to get to the line, but Utah challenged the call, which enraged Heat coach Erik Spoelstra because Jaquez already had been given the ball to shoot the free throw. The foul was overturned on replay, but the Heat won a subsequent jump ball and Jaquez nailed a three with 1:03 left to put the Heat up five.
Jaquez — who missed two key late free throws in Sacramento earlier this week — calmly hit two free throws with 11 seconds left to put the Heat up five and account for the final margin.
“I haven’t been sleeping really well,” Jaquez said. “Those two free throws [in Sacramento] have been keeping me up. Tonight I’ll get a good night’s rest. We sealed a victory off those two free throws.”
Herro led Miami with 23 points on 7 for 17 shooting, with six rebounds, five assists, a steal and a block. Adebayo chipped in 15 points, 7 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks and was a huge factor at both ends late.
And Jaquez Jr. was again very good: 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting, seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
While the Heat remained without the suspended Jimmy Butler, Utah played without Brice Sensabaugh (who scored a career-high 34 against the Heat in Miami) and rotation players Jordan Clarkson, John Collins and Keyonte George.
This was a game not even a mother would love. At one point, the Heat was shooting 8 for 30 and the Jazz 9 for 31.
▪ Scoring against Utah’s skyscraper front-line was again a vexing and difficult challenge early for Adebayo, but he was very big late.
After shooting 0 for 6 in Saturday’s blowout loss to Utah, Adebayo opened 0 for 5 on Thursday before hitting a put back midway through the second quarter.
But Adebayo found something of a rhythm in the second half, able to create space against Kessler rather than leaning into him.
“Coming in at halftime, seeing how they were playing me and made the adjustments in the second half,” Adebayo said.
The 6-9 Adebayo hit two nifty stepback jumpers against the 7-1 Kessler early in the third quarter. After a couple misses in the basket area, he hit a corner three. And then he hit the two big jumpers with the game on the line late.
Adebayo entered shooting 45.6 percent, well below his career 54 percent mark. He closed 6 of 13 from the field, making 6 of his last 8.
“I’m not stressed about that,” Spoelstra said. “He’s been such a rock for our team while we’ve been doing a bunch of different things. He [has] the same approach every day. Not many players can do that if you’re missing shots. He checks all the other boxes, coaching guys, and being there when we really needed him. You have great confidence you can get stops when you know he’s back there. We have quite a few coverages and he does them all at an elite level.”
▪ The Heat’s starting guards continued their wildly divergent seasons.
Herro set a franchise record by hitting at least one three-pointer for the 70th consecutive game. That broke Duncan Robinson’s record of 69.
Terry Rozier, meanwhile, remained in a deep freeze with his shot, aside from one three-pointer early in the fourth. Starting for the fifth time in seven games after a month coming off the bench, Rozier opened 0 for 3 on threes and 0 for 5 overall before hitting a layup midway through the third.
He finished the night with nine points, while shooting 4 for 13 overall and 1 for 8 on threes.
Rozier is now 4 for his last 32 — and 11 for his last 62 — on threes and his percentage for the season has dipped below 30 — a humbling turn of events for a 36.4 percent career three-point shooter. During the past two weeks, he has endured nights of 6 for 19, 6 for 15 and 4 for 12.
▪ This was another interesting night from the kids; they earned gold stars one minute and spilled their milk the next.
With the Heat ahead 73-72 early in the fourth, Kel’el Ware dunked on a rebound and Nikola Jovic hit a soft jumper. But Jovic then missed a driving shot and got back late on defense after complaining that he was fouled.
Ware then committed a flagrant foul, leading to a four-point play on a Patty Mills three, and then saw Drew Eubanks soar above him for a dunk.
But that’s what you get with youth. And there clearly has been more good than bad with those two in the past week.
Jaquez, meantime, continues to play his best basketball of the season.
He didn’t miss any of three shots from the field in a first half featuring seven points, two steals and four assists, including one to Ware for a dunk. His second half featured two big threes.
This was Jaquez’s third consecutive productive game on the trip, following a 16-point, 10-assist, 5-steal game in Sacramento and an 18-point game in Golden State.
Though Ware was bullied in the paint by Kessler a few times, he also had some very good moments, including two blocks and a nifty move in the deep post for a layup en route to finishing with eight points (4-for-5 shooting) and seven rebounds and a steal in 19 minutes.
Nikola Jovic, coming off a 19-point game in the win at Golden State, hit two threes to key a second-quarter rally and had 11 points (4-for-13 shooting), six rebounds and five assists.
▪ A week of uncertainty awaits beyond Saturday’s game in Portland.
The Heat is awaiting word from the NBA about whether the ongoing wildfire crisis in Southern California will force the postponement or relocation of Miami’s games in Los Angeles against the Clippers on Monday and Lakers on Wednesday. Miami plays in Portland on Saturday night.
On Thursday evening, the NFL announced that Monday night’s Minnesota-Rams playoff game will be moved from Inglewood, in the Los Angeles area, to Glendale, Arizona.
Meanwhile, the clock continues to tick toward Butler’s return to the team next Friday. The Heat expects him to rejoin the team for the Jan. 17 game against Denver if Miami doesn’t trade him before then. As of Thursday afternoon, the Heat had yet to be presented with an offer it considered appealing.
This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 11:23 PM.
