Takeaways: Heat spoils Butler’s return, crushing Warriors behind defense and historic shooting
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 112-86 win over the Golden State Warriors (41-31) on Tuesday night at Kaseya Center to improve to 2-2 on its five-game homestand. The Heat (31-41) closes this stretch at home on Thursday against the Atlanta Hawks:
All eyes were on Jimmy Butler ahead of his return game, but the Heat’s defense and three-point shooting stole the show. The Heat dominated Butler and the Warriors on the way to a blowout win.
After snapping a long 10-game losing skid with a victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, the Heat won a second straight game on Tuesday.
With 11-time All-Star guard Stephen Curry missing his second straight game because of a left pelvic contusion, the Heat’s defense suffocated a Warriors offense missing its top scorer.
With Butler held to 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field, 0-of-2 shooting on threes and 1-of-1 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds and two assists in his first game against his former team since the Heat traded him to the Warriors on Feb. 6, Golden State scored just 86 points on 39.8 percent shooting from the field and 9 of 38 (23.7 percent) shooting on threes.
Golden State never led in the game.
“The energy in the building was great. If you’re a competitor, you love this kind of environment,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked if Butler’s return added extra motivation Tuesday. “But we didn’t do any kind of extra motivational speech leading up to this. It was more about us just staying the course with our process. I didn’t go person to person to ask them. We want to kind of just keep it steady right now more than anything. But defensively, that was probably one of our more consistent efforts all the way through.”
Heat captain and center Bam Adebayo added: “Two games ago, we lost 10 straight. And to have that breakthrough, that’s the energy that you need. It’s not against anybody. At this point, we’re just scrapping for wins. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against.”
Even as the Heat downplayed the significance of the night, the game certainly appeared personal for the Heat after Butler’s contentious exit from Miami.
With the Heat shooting a scorching 8 of 11 (72.7 percent) from three-point range and limiting the Warriors to 35 percent shooting from the first half and 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) shooting on threes in the first half, Miami entered halftime ahead 57-40. Butler was held to just two points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field in the first two quarters.
The Heat pushed its lead up to 20 early in the second half, but the Warriors responded with a 23-11 run to cut the deficit to eight with 57.8 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Heat salvaged the period, though, scoring the final five points of the third quarter to enter the fourth quarter ahead by 13.
The Heat then opened the fourth quarter on a 23-8 run to extend its lead 28 with 3:13 to play and put the game away.
The Heat shot a historically great 17 of 25 (68 percent) from three-point range in the victory, outscoring the Warriors 51-27 from behind the arc.
It marked the Heat’s best single-game three-point shooting percentage in franchise history when taking at least 25 threes. It also marked just the eighth time in NBA history (including the playoffs) that a team has shot 68 percent or better from deep when putting up at least 25 three-point attempts in a game.
Adebayo finished with a team-high 27 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 7-of-9 shooting from the foul line to go with eight rebounds, one assist and one steal in 34 minutes. Adebayo also opened the game as the primary defender on Butler, setting the tone early with 13 points, four rebounds, one steal and one block in the first quarter.
“He made some inspiring plays right out of the gate and that just kind of energized everybody else and inspired the next guy to make a play,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo’s effort.
Tyler Herro added 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting on threes, three rebounds and seven assists.
The Warriors fell to 16-4 when Butler has been available since the trade was finalized on Feb. 6, while the Heat improved its underwhelming post-trade record to 6-17.
Even after Tuesday’s win, the Heat is in a precarious position as the 10th-place team in the Eastern Conference with just 11 regular-season games left to play.
The 10th-place Heat is one game behind the ninth-place Chicago Bulls and 3.5 games behind the eighth-place Orlando Magic. If the Heat finishes in 10th place, it would need to win two straight road games in the play-in tournament just to qualify for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed.
“When you’re going through something really challenging and tough collectively and not just totally fall apart, I do believe that there’s an opportunity for exponential growth from the tough times,” Spoelstra said of responding to a 10-game skid by winning the last two games. “And hopefully we’re getting there.”
Butler’s return drew a mixed reaction from the Kaseya Center crowd.
The Heat welcomed back Butler with a 35-second tribute video that played while the Warriors’ starting lineup was being introduced just before tipoff. The video included some of Butler’s most memorable moments in a Heat uniform.
Immediately after the video, Heat public address announcer Michael Baiamonte announced Butler’s name in the same booming voice that he used to announce it when Butler was with the Heat.
The moment was met by some loud boos and some loud cheers from Heat fans in the wake of Butler’s ugly breakup with the Heat. Despite some boos, Butler waved at the Miami crowd to acknowledge the honor.
The boos continued into the game, as boos rained down nearly every time Butler touched the ball.
“I got a lot of love for this city and the fan base here,” Butler said after Tuesday’s game. “The video was nice. I won’t say there were a lot of emotions, though. I think I went into this thing level headed. We wanted to win the game and it didn’t go the way we planned.”
While there were questions whether Butler would get a tribute video from the Heat because of the unfortunate ending to his time with the organization, the Heat followed its usual rule for such situations.
The Heat reserves tribute videos for players who won an NBA championship or made an All-Star Game while with the team. Butler qualifies because he was selected as an NBA All-Star two times during his time with the Heat.
Following Tuesday’s game, Butler walked over to greet a few friends by the court before heading back to the Warriors locker room without exchanging any handshakes or words with his former Heat teammates and coaches.
When asked if he spoke with Butler before or after Tuesday’s contest, Herro just said: “No, no, no.”
The Heat traded the disgruntled Butler to the Warriors in early February. Miami acquired Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and a top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick from Golden State, and Davion Mitchell from the Toronto Raptors in the deal.
The trade put an end to a damaging few weeks for the team-player relationship between the Heat and Butler. There was a trade request from Butler, three suspensions without pay issued by the Heat and an airing of grievances against each other along the way before the trade.
Butler, who was traded by the Heat in the middle of his sixth season with the franchise, established himself as one of the greatest players in Heat history before feuding with the team on his way out. While Butler has still never won an NBA championship, he helped lead the Heat to three Eastern Conference finals appearances and two NBA Finals appearances during his five full seasons with the team.
“That chapter has ended and a new one has begun,” Butler said. “But what I will say and like I always say, I’m very appreciative for my time here and the bonds that I’ve built here.”
There was good news and bad news on the injury front for the Heat on Tuesday.
Heat three-point shooting forward Duncan Robinson missed Tuesday’s game because of lower back pain. It marks the first game Robinson has missed because of the back injury and just the fourth game he has missed this season.
But what’s concerning about Robinson’s ailment is the fact that a back injury also limited him toward the end of last season, missing nine of the Heat’s final 14 regular-season games last season because of what the team listed as left facet syndrome.
When asked if there’s any concern that Robinson could be dealing with a similar back issue late this season, Spoelstra said Tuesday: “He feels better today. I’m not going to go there mentally and I’m sure he doesn’t want to.”
On a positive note, Heat forward Nikola Jovic’s broken right hand was re-evaluated and he has been cleared to begin court work. But with Jovic missing his 17th straight game Tuesday, there’s still no timetable for his return.
Along with missing Jovic and Robinson against the Warriors, the Heat was also without Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League), Dru Smith (Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) against the Warriors.
The only Warriors player unavailable for Tuesday’s game was Curry.
Without Robinson, the Heat went with another new starting lineup.
The Heat opened Tuesday’s game with a lineup of Herro, Alec Burks, Wiggins, Kel’el Ware and Adebayo. With this marking the first time that this group has started a game, the Heat has now used 24 different starting lineups this season.
The Heat continues to rotate through different starting groups because of injuries and recent poor play, using seven different starting lineups in the last eight games.
When available, the three constants in the starting group have been Herro, Wiggins and Adebayo. On Tuesday, Burks and Ware started alongside the Heat’s leading trio and played well.
Burks finished with 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 5-of-7 shooting on threes.
Ware totaled 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds and one block.
While Butler’s return received almost all of the attention Tuesday, it was also a meaningful game for Wiggins and Kyle Anderson.
Wiggins and Anderson began the season with the Warriors before being dealt to the Heat as part of the Butler trade.
This was Anderson’s first season with the Warriors, but Wiggins spent parts of six seasons with Golden State before being dealt to Miami.
Along with playing a big role in the Warriors’ 2022 NBA championship, Wiggins also made the only NBA All-Star Game appearance of his career up to this point during his time with the Warriors in 2022.
Wiggins finished his first game against his former team with 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes, five rebounds, five assists, two steals and three blocks.
“I spent a lot of years there,” Wiggins said following the victory. “It’s a great organization. I loved it there. So it felt good and it felt even better to get the win.”
Anderson also got an opportunity to play against his former team after recently falling out of the Heat’s rotation.
Anderson, who didn’t play in the previous three games despite being available, closed Tuesday’s win with seven points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals in 20 minutes.
Anderson was part of a three-man bench rotation that also included Haywood Highsmith and Davion Mitchell before the Heat emptied its bench late in the lopsided win.
This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 10:03 PM.
