Takeaways: Heat unveils trade additions, but still can’t keep up with Celtics and drops below .500
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 103-85 loss to the Boston Celtics (38-16) on Monday night at Kaseya Center during its quick one-game stay at home. The Heat (25-26) now heads back on the road to begin a two-game trip on Wednesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder:
The Heat’s three new players all made their debuts on Monday. But one thing remains true about the new-look Heat: the offense is still a problem.
Even with the Heat’s three newcomers Kyle Anderson, Davion Mitchell and Andrew Wiggins all available and playing Monday after last week’s Jimmy Butler trade, generating efficient offense continues to be an issue.
Those struggles were exacerbated by Tyler Herro’s absence, as the Heat’s leading scorer missed his second game of the season on Monday because of a stomach illness.
In its 18-point loss to the Celtics, the Heat totaled a season-low 85 points on 33.7 percent shooting from the field and 11-of-45 (24.4 percent) shooting from three-point range. Miami has now dropped five straight regular-season games to Boston.
The Heat’s two lowest scoring games of the season have come in the last two games, as it finished with just 86 points in Friday’s road loss to the Brooklyn Nets. The Heat has also posted its two worst single-game offensive ratings of the season in the last two games.
After pulling ahead by 11 points with 3:14 left in the first quarter on Monday, the Heat went the next 6:39 without scoring a point. The Heat didn’t score again until there was 8:35 remaining in the second quarter.
During that scoreless drought, the Celtics scored 18 unanswered points to turn an 11-point deficit into a seven-point lead.
The Celtics led the rest of the way, growing their lead to as large as 24 points on their way to the blowout victory.
“What I felt like was our resolve and focus lost steam when we started to get disjointed offensively,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That happens with teams. It happens with young teams, it happens with some inexperienced teams. That’s also a big thing that we’ll overcome.”
Monday marked the 57th game in franchise history (including the playoffs) that the Heat has shot worse than 34 percent from the field in. It’s certainly not a formula for success, as Miami fell to 2-55 in those games.
In their Heat debuts ...
Wiggins totaled 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting from the field, 2-of-8 shooting on threes and 3-of-3 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block in 30 minutes.
Mitchell recorded four points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field and 0-of-4 shooting on threes, three rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes.
Anderson was scoreless and missed all five of his shot attempts in his 10 minutes off the Heat’s bench.
Heat center Bam Adebayo finished Monday’s defeat with a team-high 22 points on 6-of-17 shooting from the field, 1-of-5 shooting on threes and 9-of-10 shooting from the foul line, 12 rebounds and four assists.
Alec Burks was the Heat’s second-leading scorer with 13 points.
Meanwhile, five Celtics players finished with double-digit points. Jayson Tatum led the way with a game-high 33 points.
“Against a team like Boston, you have to execute with intention and purpose,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s offensive issues. “Otherwise they can flatten you out with their switches or with just their size at the rim. So you’re consistently going to have to make decisions. The decisions end up being a little bit clearer if your spacing is better. But that doesn’t solve everything. It still ends up being decision making when you have the ball in your hands and that’s what we’ll get better at.”
Following Monday’s defeat, the Heat now holds the 22nd-ranked offensive rating for the season and the 26th-ranked offensive rating since the start of January. At this pace, the Heat would finish with a bottom-10 offensive rating for the third straight season.
“We’re going to have to work on it,” Spoelstra said, “spacing and decision making.”
While the Heat’s depth was bolstered by its new additions, both the Heat and Celtics were missing key players on Monday.
The Heat was without two rotation players, including one starter.
Herro, who has started for the Heat in each of his 49 appearances this season, was held out because of a stomach illness. It marked just the second game he has missed this season.
Jaime Jaquez Jr., who has become a fixture in the Heat’s bench rotation, was also sidelined because of a stomach illness. It marked the sixth game he has missed this season.
Herro woke up Monday feeling sick and missed the Heat’s morning shootaround before being ruled out for the game.
Jaquez started feeling sick Sunday and tried to go through Monday’s morning shootaround. But he was unable to get through the session before he was ruled out.
The Heat was also without Josh Christopher (G League) Keshad Johnson (G League), Dru Smith (Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) for Monday’s game against the Celtics.
Meanwhile, the Celtics were without two starters. Both Jaylen Brown (right knee swelling) and Jrue Holiday (right shoulder impingement) missed Monday’s game.
The Celtics were also missing Torrey Craig (return to competition reconditioning), JD Davison (G League), Drew Peterson (G League) and Anton Watson (G League) against the Heat.
Between the newcomers and Herro’s absence, it was no surprise that the Heat started Monday’s game with a lineup that had never played together before.
The Heat opened the contest with a lineup of Mitchell, Alec Burks, Wiggins, Adebayo and Kel’el Ware.
Not only did it mark Burks’ first start of the season, but Mitchell and Wiggins were also immediately inserted into the starting unit in their first game with the Heat following last week’s trade.
The defensive potential of the Mitchell-Wiggins-Adebayo-Ware quartet was on display at the start, as the Heat built an 18-11 lead before making its first substitution of the night with 5:19 left in the first quarter. The Celtics shot just 3 of 14 (21.4 percent) from the field and 1 of 10 (10 percent) from three-point range during that stretch with the Heat’s five starters on the court.
“I think that it’s going to be really hard to score on us,” Mitchell said.
But the second half didn’t go as well, as the Heat’s starting lineup was outscored 18-11 to begin the third quarter before Miami turned to its bench.
In the end, the Heat’s starting group played the Celtics to a 29-29 tie in 13 minutes together on Monday. Unfortunately for Miami, it was outscored by 18 points during the rest of the game.
“There are more positives than negatives in this game,” Adebayo said. “Obviously, we lost. But when you got two new guys in the starting lineup trying to figure out our system and trying to figure out what they can be at this point, they’re going to get comfortable and we’re going to figure it out.”
Terry Rozier’s struggles continued for the Heat.
Rozier entered Monday averaging 12.4 points per game on 40.9 percent shooting from the field and 30.7 percent shooting from behind the arc in his 10th NBA season. That would be the fewest points he has averaged and the worst field-goal percentage he has recorded in a season since his fourth NBA season in 2018-19, with Rozier’s three-point percentage currently his worst for a season since his rookie year in 2015-16.
On top of that, the Heat has been outscored by 4.2 points per 100 possessions with Rozier on the court this season. The only Heat rotation player with a worse individual net rating is Jaquez.
Rozier’s rough season continued Monday, finishing the Heat’s loss with nine points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting on threes, three rebounds, one assist and one steal in 25 minutes. The Heat was outscored by a team-worst 23 points with Rozier on the court.
Rozier was part of a five-man Heat bench rotation on Monday that also included Nikola Jovic, Duncan Robinson, Anderson and Pelle Larsson.
Next up for the Heat is more time on the road.
Monday’s loss marked the Heat’s only home game between Jan. 30 and Feb. 25. This stretch has the Heat playing nine road games and just one home game.
The Heat began this challenging segment of its schedule with a 2-2 trip before falling to the Celtics on Monday.
Now at 2-3 through the first five games of this stretch, the Heat embarks on a quick two-game trip this week (Wednesday at Thunder and Thursday at Dallas Mavericks) and then enters the All-Star break.
The Heat then closes this stretch by returning from the break to a three-game trip (Feb. 21 at Toronto Raptors, Feb. 23 at Milwaukee Bucks and Feb. 24 at Hawks).
Then the schedule turns for the Heat, with 18 of its final 26 regular-season games coming at home.
This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 9:43 PM.
