Heat wastes another double-digit lead in overtime loss to Knicks: ‘It just stings.’ Takeaways
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 116-112 overtime loss to the New York Knicks (40-20) on Sunday night at Kaseya Center to begin a back-to-back set and fall to 2-1 on its four-game homestand. The Heat (28-31) will complete the back-to-back and close the homestand on Monday against the Washington Wizards (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun):
The Heat blew another double-digit lead, running into another frustrating loss amid its frustrating season.
The Heat led by 19 points with 7:10 left in the third quarter and still lost in overtime.
As a result, the Heat has now blown a double-digit lead in 15 losses this season. That’s the second-most such collapses in the NBA this season behind only the Utah Jazz.
“I don’t care about that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after Sunday’s defeat when asked about the Heat’s propensity this season to blow big leads. “You can’t expect to blow teams out. There were a couple swing moments in the fourth quarter where we could have extended the lead, but it didn’t happen. That’s NBA basketball.”
The Knicks completed the comeback behind a game-high 31 points from All-Star guard Jalen Brunson, who scored 26 of his points after halftime.
The Knicks didn’t take their first lead of the game until there was 2:59 remaining in the fourth quarter. Then the teams traded punches.
Tyler Herro hit a three-pointer and then a midrange jumper, going on a personal 5-0 run to put the Heat back ahead by four points with 1:17 to play in regulation and get the Knicks to call a timeout.
But the Knicks kept coming.
OG Anunoby and Brunson made consecutive layups for the Knicks to tie the score at 105 with 26.8 seconds remaining in regulation.
Neither team scored again in the fourth quarter, sending the game to overtime.
Unfortunately for the Heat, the Knicks’ second-half momentum continued in the extra period.
After the Heat pulled ahead 109-107 with 3:12 left in overtime, the Knicks finished the game on a 9-3 run on their way to the comeback victory.
“They’re a good team,” Spoelstra said of the Knicks. “They made runs, we made a run back and I thought we handled it well enough to get that four-point lead [with 1:17 left in the fourth quarter]. We just were not able to finish it off.”
The Heat was dominant at the start of the game, totaling 62 first-half points on 65 percent shooting from the field to enter halftime with a big 17-point advantage.
The Knicks then began to rally, closing the third quarter on a 21-8 run to cut a 19-point deficit to six points entering the fourth quarter.
The Heat responded by pushing its lead back up to 12 with 8:29 left in the fourth quarter. But the Knicks were still able to force overtime and eventually win.
How different was the first half from the second half?
After outscoring the Knicks 40-20 in the paint during the first half, the Heat was outscored 38-16 in the paint after halftime.
“I think we went away from some of the stuff we were doing in the first half to get into the paint,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said of that discrepancy. “It’s as simple as that.”
The Knicks also scored 71 points in the second half and overtime on 60.4 percent shooting from the field and 8-of-20 (40 percent) shooting from three-point range after scoring just 45 points on 36.2 percent shooting from the field and 6-of-23 (26.1 percent) shooting on threes in the first half.
In addition, the Knicks outscored the Heat 19-8 in second-chance points behind an 11-3 edge in offensive rebounds on Sunday.
The Heat wasted a 30-point effort from center Bam Adebayo, who shot an efficient 12 of 16 from the field and 6 of 8 from the foul line. It marked the Heat’s first loss in the four games that Adebayo has reached the 30-point mark this season.
Adebayo’s co-star, Herro, struggled to make shots. Herro finished with 22 points on 8-of-24 shooting from the field and 2-of-11 shooting on threes.
The Heat also lost Sunday despite shooting 53.6 percent from the field. Miami is now 9-3 this season when shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
The Heat also fell to 8-24 this season when allowing more than 110 points.
Even after the loss, the Heat remains in seventh place in the Eastern Conference because the Orlando Magic (29-33) also lost Sunday. The Heat is one-half game ahead of the eighth-place Magic, but dropped five games behind the sixth-place Detroit Pistons (34-27) for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference that doesn’t require having to go through play-in.
“It just stings when this is like our [15th] game being up double digits and losing,” Adebayo said. “So for us, it’s when are we going to hold the fort to have a 10-point lead, go to 20 and then win by 20?”
While the Knicks were essentially at full strength, the Heat was missing three rotation players on Sunday.
The Heat were without rotation regulars Jaime Jaquez Jr. (sprained right ankle), Nikola Jovic (broken right hand) and Andrew Wiggins (sprained right ankle) against the Knicks.
Sunday marked the first game that Jaquez has missed since turning his ankle early in the second half of Friday’s win over the Indiana Pacers. Jaquez left that game immediately after hurting his ankle and didn’t return, with X-rays returning negative.
“He’s in good spirits,” Spoelstra said of Jaquez’s ankle injury before Sunday’s game. “This one looked really bad on video. But he’s sprained his ankle so many times. He’s walking around OK. We’ll just have to see how he responds.”
Sunday marked the second straight game that Wiggins has missed with his sprained ankle after turning it early in Wednesday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks. Wiggins was able to play on the ankle and finish Wednesday’s contest, but he has now missed two straight games because of the injury.
“He wants to be out there,” Spoelstra said of Wiggins. “He loves the competitive feel of these last couple games. But we have to be smart about it. He’s been very diligent with his work and we’ll get him back soon.”
Whether Jaquez and/or Wiggins can return to play Monday against the Wizards on the back-end of the back-to-back remains to be seen.
Sunday marked the fourth straight game that Jovic has missed with his broken hand. He’s set to be re-evaluated in three weeks.
The Heat was also without Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League) Dru Smith (Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) against the Knicks.
Meanwhile, the Knicks had their full rotation available on Sunday.
Those injury issues forced the Heat to use its 16th different starting lineup of the season.
The Heat opened Sunday’s game with a lineup of Davion Mitchell, Herro, Alec Burks, Adebayo and Kel’el Ware. This was the first time that this group has started a game together and it was also only Burks’ second start of the season.
Burks, who started in place of the injured Wiggins on Sunday, closed his second start of the season with 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range, three rebounds and three assists in 25 minutes. His first start with the Heat came in a Feb. 10 loss to the Boston Celtics.
“He’s a pro’s pro,” Spoelstra said of Burks. “He’s done it in so many places. That’s why we went after him. He can play this role. It’s not easy and much of this league, people are talking about, you want to have good vets. But there aren’t a lot of vets that really want to accept these kinds of roles. That’s just the reality. And he is not only able to accept, but he thrives in that role. He’s really important for us.”
The Heat used Haywood Highsmith, Duncan Robinson, Terry Rozier and Kyle Anderson off the bench to complete its nine-man rotation on Sunday. Highsmith played 37 minutes, Robinson played 32 minutes, Rozier played 16 minutes and Anderson played six minutes.
Ware has responded well since being benched to begin Friday’s second half ... but then he was benched for Sunday’s fourth quarter.
After a shaky first-half performance in Friday’s game against the Pacers, Ware began the second half on the bench.
However, Ware still played and was productive in Friday’s second half — even playing the final 4:50 of the game despite not starting the second half. He bounced back from a slow start to that game, recording four points and eight rebounds while posting a team-best plus/minus of plus 13 in 14 second-half minutes.
Ware was back in the starting lineup to begin Sunday’s game, making his 18th straight start.
Ware took that momentum from Friday’s second half and continued to impress on Sunday, finishing with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field, eight rebounds and six blocks in 29 minutes. The six blocks are a new career-high for Ware.
The Heat’s 20-year-old rookie was a force at the start Sunday, totaling eight points on four dunks, three rebounds and three blocks in the first quarter. The three blocks in the opening period tied Ware’s career-high for a game.
But after playing 26 minutes and posting a plus/minus of plus 2 through the first three quarters on Sunday, he spent the entire fourth quarter on the bench except for entering to play the final 3.5 seconds of regulation for a defensive possession.
“We were trying to match a little bit of the perimeter stuff,” Spoelstra said of his decision to leave Ware on the bench for most of the fourth quarter. “We had a lead, I didn’t want the threes to get to us. It wasn’t necessarily anything that he was doing.”
Ware then played the first 3:06 of overtime before heading back to the bench for the rest of the game.
Even in the loss, Mitchell continued to impress as a Heat newcomer.
Mitchell finished Sunday’s defeat with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting from behind the arc, four rebounds, five assists and two steals in 37 minutes. He also played solid defense on Brunson in the first half, but was among those who struggled to slow Brunson in the second half.
Mitchell made his first three-point attempt on Sunday to hit his eighth straight three-point shot — a streak that began in Wednesday’s win over the Hawks.
That string of eight consecutive three-point makes is the longest such streak of Mitchell’s NBA career without a miss. His streak ended at eight after missing his second three-point attempt of Sunday’s game.
Mitchell closed Sunday’s loss with a plus/minus of plus 4. The Heat has now outscored opponents by 21 points with Mitchell on the court over the last three games.
Through his first nine games (all starts) with the Heat since the trade, Mitchell has averaged 10.1 points, two rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 53.8 percent from the field and 15 of 32 (46.9 percent) on threes.
This story was originally published March 2, 2025 at 8:54 PM.
