Heat opens trip by wasting 17-point fourth-quarter lead in double OT loss to Kings. Takeaways
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 123-118 double-overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings (18-19) on Monday night at Golden 1 Center to begin a back-to-back set and open a long six-game West Coast trip. The Heat (17-17), which has now lost three straight games, will complete the back-to-back on Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco (10 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun):
The Heat appeared to be in position to begin the trip with a quality win. But a fourth-quarter meltdown turned into a brutal double-overtime loss.
Even with Heat star Jimmy Butler serving the second game of his seven-game suspension, the Heat’s defense was suffocating through three quarters. The Heat entered the fourth quarter with a 10-point advantage, limiting the Kings to just 68 points on 38 percent shooting from the field and 6-of-23 (26.1 percent) shooting from three-point range through the first three quarters.
The Heat then extended its lead to 17 points multiple times in the fourth quarter, the last time coming with 8:07 to play in regulation.
“We did so many great things to get up 17,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
But the Kings closed the fourth quarter on a 24-7 run to force overtime. The Heat scored only seven points on 3-of-13 (23.1 percent) shooting from the field and 1-of-8 (12.5 percent) shooting on threes over the final 8:07 of regulation.
“We kind of fueled them going the other way with some quick shots,” Spoelstra continued. “You don’t want to play prevent offense. I’m going to have to look at it. I felt we could have been a little more intentional offensively. Then defensively, there’s some good things. But whether man or zone, we just could not come up with the rebounds to stem the momentum or to win the game.”
The wild swings continued in the first overtime, as the Heat led by four with 1:45 left.
But after Sacramento cut the deficit to just one, Kings guard Keon Ellis got Heat center Bam Adebayo to bite on a pump fake and drew a foul on Adebayo with 0.9 seconds remaining in the first overtime. Ellis made one of the two free throws to tie the score at 112 and send the game to a second overtime.
The Kings finally completed their impressive comeback in the second overtime, outscoring the Heat 11-6 in the period on their way to the five-point win after trailing by 17 points in the fourth quarter.
After the Heat cut the deficit one point with 1:32 left in the second overtime, Kings forward DeMar DeRozan scored the game’s final four points to seal the win.
The Heat shot just 2 of 11 (18.2 percent) from the field and 1 of 6 (16.7 percent) on threes in the second overtime, as the fatigue of a long and competitive game appeared to catch up to Miami.
The Kings, which were playing on the second night of a back-to-back after defeating the Warriors in San Francisco on Sunday, looked like the fresher team down the stretch Monday.
DeRozan led the Kings to the comeback win with a game-high 30 points on 12-of-26 shooting from the field. The veteran scored nine of the Kings’ 11 points in the second overtime as part of his clutch performance.
Kings center Domantas Sabonis finished with a triple-double stat line of 21 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists. Malik Monk added 23 points for Sacramento.
The Kings also benefited from 18 offensive rebounds that turned into 23 second-chance points.
“Offensive rebounding,” Adebayo said when asked what hurt the Heat late in the contest. “I feel like that was the side effect in the game. If we cut off half of their offensive rebounds, second-chance points, we win the game by double digits.”
After the Heat pulled ahead by 17 points with 8:07 left in the fourth quarter, it totaled only 23 points on 8-of-32 (25 percent) shooting from the field and 3-of-17 (17.6 percent) shooting on threes the rest of the way.
“They definitely ramped up the pressure on defense, making things tough on us and taking us out of our offense,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “I feel like they did a good job.”
Meanwhile, the Kings totaled 45 points on 16-of-30 (53.3 percent) from the field and 6-of-13 (46.2 percent) on threes after falling behind by 17 points with 8:07 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Herro scored a team-high 26 points on 11-of-25 shooting from the field and 4-of-10 shooting on threes for the Heat. But he only recorded five points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting on threes after the third quarter.
Also for the Heat, second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. picked up the first triple-double of his NBA career with 16 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and five steals. But he was left lamenting two free throws he missed with the Heat ahead by one point and 3.4 seconds left in the first overtime, as Ellis then went on to hit a game-tying free throw to send the game to a second overtime.
“The game should have been over on those free throws that I had,” Jaquez said. “But unfortunately, they didn’t go in.”
The Heat finished Monday’s loss with a poor offensive rating of just 101.7 points scored per 100 possessions. Miami is now 2-5 this season when scoring fewer than 102 points per 100 possessions.
While the Heat was without Butler, the Kings were without their leading scorer on Monday. Kings guard De’Aaron Fox, who is averaging a team-high 26.7 points per game this season, missed his second straight game because of a right glute contusion.
“I feel for the locker room,” Spoelstra said. “We really poured everything into this game. We did enough to put ourselves in a position to win. I can’t even explain. But we’re going to continue to work and find a breakthrough.”
Adebayo, a three-time All-Star, continues to struggle to make shots.
In Saturday’s blowout home loss to the Utah Jazz, Adebayo scored just four points on 0-of-6 shooting from the field in 26 minutes. It marked the first game in Adebayo’s NBA career that he finished without a field-goal make while playing at least 25 minutes.
Adebayo also started Monday’s game slow, missing his first three field-goal attempts. He made his first field goal of the contest on a layup with 5:14 left in the second quarter.
Adebayo went on to make two more field goals over the next two minutes to enter halftime with nine points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line.
Adebayo finished the loss with 18 points on 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting (20 percent) on threes, 12 rebounds, two assists and four steals.
Adebayo has shot better than 50 percent from the field in each of the first seven seasons of his NBA career prior to this season. But he’s shooting just 45 percent from the field this season.
Back in Miami, the suspended Butler went through a workout at Kaseya Center.
Butler posted photos and videos on his Instagram account on Monday night of a workout conducted in the Heat’s weight room at Kaseya Center. Heat assistant coach Octavio De La Grana, player development coach Remy Ndiaye and assistant athletic trainer Armando Rivas did not travel with the team to the West Coast in order to be available to work with Butler in Miami during his suspension.
The Heat continues to listen to trade offers for Butler, but his Heat tenure isn’t officially over yet.
According to a source close to the situation, Butler will be expected to rejoin the Heat and play in games if he’s still on the roster at the end of his team-issued seven-game suspension. As of now, the Heat is not interested in having Butler remain away from the team while paying him the remainder of his $48.8 million salary for this season after his suspension is over.
With Butler’s suspension running through the Heat’s six-game West Coast trip, he’s eligible to return to game action when the Heat returns to Miami to host the Denver Nuggets on Jan. 17.
This situation took an ugly turn last week when Butler made clear during a Thursday press conference that he’s no longer happy playing for the Heat and insinuated that he’s open to a trade. The Heat then suspended Butler for seven games on Friday “for multiple instances of conduct detrimental to the team over the course of the season and particularly the last several weeks” and announced that it will listen to trade offers for Butler.
The Heat has had discussions with several teams in recent days regarding a potential Butler trade, according to a league source, but nothing has surfaced enticing enough for Miami to make a deal yet.
Butler, 35, is averaging 17.6 points on 10.5 field-goal attempts, 5.5 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 55.2 percent from the field this season.
The Heat is 5-7 this season in games without Butler.
Through the first two games of Butler’s suspension, the Heat has used two different starting lineups.
For the first game of Butler’s suspension, the Heat opened Saturday’s loss to the Jazz with a lineup of Terry Rozier, Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic and Adebayo.
For Monday’s game in Sacramento, the Heat started Jaquez in Jovic’s place to go with a starting lineup of Rozier, Herro, Jaquez, Highsmith and Adebayo. It marked the seventh different starting group that the Heat has used through the first 34 games this season.
In Butler’s absence, Spoelstra has said the starting unit remains fluid as he searches for the right lineup combinations.
Jaquez made his fifth start of the season and first start since Dec. 28.
The Heat doesn’t have much time to recover from this painful and tiring double-overtime loss.
With Monday’s loss ending around 1 a.m. on the East Coast, the Heat is right back at it in less than 24 hours after taking a short bus ride to San Francisco. The Heat completes the back-to-back set on Tuesday night against the Warriors.
Herro (49 minutes), Jaquez (46 minutes) and Highsmith (46 minutes) all set new career-highs for minutes played on Monday.
Adebayo (45 minutes) and Rozier (41 minutes) also played over 40 minutes in the double-overtime loss.
The Warriors were idle on Monday after falling to the Kings on Sunday.
The Heat is 4-3 this season on the second night of back-to-backs.
“This was a win that we definitely needed,” Jaquez said. “With that being said, this was a quick turnaround. We got another one [Tuesday]. So, we’re going to take this and roll with it. I thought we did a lot of great things. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the win.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 1:06 AM.
