Heat drops to 0-2 on trip after ‘frustrating’ loss to Lakers. Takeaways and details
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 130-120 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers (5-2) on Sunday night at Crypto.com Arena to fall to 0-2 on its four-game trip. The Heat (3-3) continues the trip and completes its back-to-back in Los Angeles on Monday against the Clippers (10:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun):
The Heat reached the 120-point mark again, but it didn’t matter because the Heat’s defense couldn’t slow the Lakers’ Luka Doncic-led offense.
The Heat trailed from start to finish, as the Lakers began the game on a 12-2 run and played from ahead the rest of the way.
Los Angeles’ lead ballooned to as large as 18 points in the first half. The Lakers shot a scorching 61.7 percent from the field and 9 of 21 (42.9 percent) from three-point range in the first two quarters to enter halftime with 77 points and a 14-point lead.
“It was just hard to recognize us in that first half,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
But Sunday’s contest still came down to the final minutes, as the Heat started to get more defensive stops and make some threes to claw its way back into the game.
The Heat won the third quarter 35-25 behind 13-of-21 (61.9 percent) shooting from the field and 3 of 7 (42.9 percent) shooting from three-point range in the period to trim the deficit to four entering the fourth quarter.
The Heat then scored the first points of the fourth quarter on a tip-in dunk from Jaime Jaquez Jr. to cut the Lakers’ lead to two in the opening seconds of the period.
The Heat continued to hang around, pulling within four points with 5:36 left in the fourth quarter.
But the Heat then went cold, missing its next four field-goal attempts and two free throws to go scoreless over a three-minute stretch. That allowed the Lakers to go on an 8-0 run to finally pull away from the Heat for good, taking a 12-point lead before the Heat ended its late-game scoring drought with 2:36 to play.
“We needed probably what we did in the third quarter, beginning of the fourth,” Spoelstra said. “We needed that for 48 minutes to give ourselves a better chance.”
Prior to Sunday’s rough defensive effort, the Heat’s defense had been among the NBA’s best to begin the season. The Heat entered with the NBA’s third-best defensive rating for the season.
“It really boiled down to a lack of effort on plays that we’re accustomed to doing and making, and/or mindless plays,” Spoelstra said. “Either fouls or just things that we haven’t been doing. So you do have to credit them, but we’re much better defensively than we showed tonight. That’s probably what’s really frustrating.”
Lakers star Luka Doncic, who missed two games early this season with an injury, scored more than 40 points in each of his first three appearances this season.
Doncic didn’t score 40 points on Sunday, but he did record his first triple-double of the season with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists to control the game despite shooting just 1 of 11 on threes.
Doncic’s Lakers backcourt mate Austin Reaves totaled 26 points and 11 assists.
Jake LaRavia added 25 points, eight rebounds, three assists and four steals off the Lakers’ bench.
The Heat was led by another standout night from Jaquez, who finished the loss with a game-high and season-high 31 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field.
Heat center Bam Adebayo contributed 17 points, eight rebounds, five assists, three steals and one block.
The Heat reached the 120-point mark for the third time in six games this season, but still lost Sunday because it posted a season-worst single-game defensive rating of 121.5 points allowed per 100 possessions.
“That’s our identity,” Adebayo said of the Heat’s defense. “That’s what this franchise has really hung their hat on, defense. So even though our offense has changed and we’re scoring in the 120s, we still got to defend.”
Heat center Kel’el Ware continues to go through growing pains, as the ups and downs of his young NBA career continue with his benching on Sunday.
To start this trip, the 21-year-old was held scoreless and finished with a team-worst plus/minus of minus 20 in 21 minutes during Thursday’s loss to the Spurs in San Antonio. He also didn’t play in the fourth quarter of that contest because of those struggles.
In Sunday’s loss to the Lakers, Ware didn’t re-enter the game in the first half after playing the first 5:53 of the first quarter.
It was a tough opening stint for Ware, who was a minus 10 during his limited first-half minutes.
With the Lakers relentlessly attacking Ware’s pick-and-roll defense, Lakers center Jaxson Hayes exploded for nine points (one basket coming off a put-back tip-in) while Ware was on the court to begin the game.
Ware also didn’t begin the second half on the court, as Jaquez started Sunday’s third quarter in his place.
Instead, Ware waited until there was 1:09 left in the third quarter to re-enter the game off the Heat’s bench for his first playing time since he was subbed out midway through the first quarter. He ended the night with seven points and four rebounds in 11 minutes.
“We were just trying to get a handle on it,” Spoelstra said, downplaying his decision to bench Ware for much of Sunday’s game. “It’s very nuanced. When you have two dynamic pick-and-roll players [Doncic and Reaves] like they had. But I thought he bounced back in the third quarter and gave us some quality minutes.”
Ware, who is in his second NBA season, has started in five straight games after playing as a reserve in the season opener. But the Heat has not had much success in Ware’s minutes this season, as opponents entered Sunday outscoring the Heat by 9.5 points per 100 possessions with Ware on the court (the worst such mark among Heat rotation players) through the first five games.
Ware was again a net-negative on Sunday, finishing as a minus 6 in his limited playing time.
Jaquez continues to be a revelation off the Heat’s bench in his third NBA season.
Back in his hometown in Los Angeles for this two-game set, Jaquez continued his strong start to the season on Sunday with 31 points, eight rebounds and four assists in 35 minutes.
“I think that’s part of my role on this team, coming off as that sixth man is to infuse life and energy,” Jaquez said. “Give the team a spark, whatever they need.”
Jaquez, 24, has now scored more than 15 points in four of the Heat’s first six games this season after scoring more than 15 points in just five of his 66 appearances last season during his rough sophomore NBA campaign.
Jaquez is thriving as part of the Heat’s new up-tempo offense built around paint attacks and spacing, as he has relentlessly put pressure on the rim through the first two weeks of this season.
Including Sunday’s performance, 41 of Jaquez’s 54 made field goals this season have come from inside the paint. He went 11 of 16 on paint shots against the Lakers.
“He brought a force tonight for sure,” Spoelstra said of Jaquez.
Even in Sunday’s loss to the Lakers, the Heat’s bench continues to be a bright spot.
Miami’s bench entered Sunday averaging the third-most points in the league this season at 48.6 per game. On Sunday, the Heat’s reserves outscored the Lakers’ bench 56-34.
The Heat went with its usual four-man bench rotation of Jaquez, Nikola Jovic, Simone Fontecchio and Dru Smith on Sunday.
The Heat’s revamped offense is a popular topic around the league.
Lakers coach JJ Redick was asked two questions about the Heat’s new-look offense during his pregame media session Sunday night.
“It’s really about, first of all, establishing the pace. They’re No. 1 in the NBA in pace. They play super fast,” Redick said a few hours prior to tipoff on Sunday. “And then that sort of swing, swing, drive over and over again until they get the advantage. ... They do a great job of just attacking. And that low man, whoever just cut, sits there and he kind of just reads where he’s supposed to go.”
So far, this season’s offense has represented a drastic shift from recent Heat offenses.
Not only has the Heat been one of the five slowest-paced teams in the NBA in each of the past six regular seasons, but Miami has also never finished the regular season as a top-15 team in pace through Spoelstra’s first 17 seasons as the Heat’s head coach. The Heat has also finished with one of the NBA’s 10 worst offensive ratings in each of the last three seasons.
But the Heat entered Sunday with the NBA’s ninth-best offensive rating, and averaging the second-most points per game (125.4) in the NBA while playing at the league’s fastest pace (107.3 possessions per 48 minutes) through the first few weeks of this season.
Along with the high-scoring performances and fast-paced style, the Heat is also using significantly fewer screens and handoffs this season.
After using 68.9 screens per 100 possessions (ninth-most in the NBA) and 22.3 handoffs per 100 possessions (16th-most in the NBA) last season, the Heat entered Sunday using just 19.2 screens per 100 possessions (fewest in the NBA) and 5.5 handoffs per 100 possessions (fewest in the NBA), according to Genius Sports.
“Spo is one of the greatest coaches in NBA history, and he’s always been willing to adapt and learn and tweak and change,” Redick continued. “I think it’s a credit to him, but it’s also a credit to their players to be able to give up sort of the comfort zone of pick-and-roll and sets and all that.”
Powell’s status remains up in the air for Monday’s matchup against his former team.
With Powell missing his third straight game on Sunday because of a right groin strain, guard Pelle Larsson started in his place for the third straight game alongside the Heat’s four other usual starters — Davion Mitchell, Andrew Wiggins, Adebayo and Ware.
Larsson closed Sunday’s loss with 17 points, five rebounds and six assists in 26 minutes.
Powell was listed as questionable for Sunday’s contest before being ruled out a few hours before tipoff. It remains to be seen whether Powell will be able to play against his former team on Monday for the first time since the Clippers traded him to the Heat in early July as part of a three-team trade.
Powell has been vocal about the fact that he’s unhappy with how his Clippers tenure ended. Powell was in extension talks with the Clippers before his sudden trade to the Heat this past offseason.
“I don’t have an update,” Spoelstra said when asked about Powell’s status following Saturday’s practice in Los Angeles. “But yeah, he’s doing a lot more work in practice.”
Along with missing Powell, the Heat was also without Vlad Goldin (G League), Tyler Herro (left ankle surgery), Kasparas Jakucionis (right groin strain) and Terry Rozier (not with team) on Sunday.
The Lakers didn’t have Deandre Ayton (back spasms), LeBron James (sciatica), Maxi Kleber (abdominal muscle strain), Adou Thiero (left knee surgery recovery) and Gabe Vincent (left ankle sprain) against the Heat.
This story was originally published November 3, 2025 at 12:09 AM.
