Heat blows another fourth-quarter lead, loses to Knicks
.JPG "Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler, center, fights for a rebound during the first half of the NBA basketball game against the New York Knicks, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020, in New York.")
The Knicks, who entered on a 22-win pace, are usually the ultimate panacea for opponents, but not for the Heat, which on Sunday found a way to squander a late lead for a second consecutive game.
Ahead 106-98 with 6:56 left and then up by seven with 4:04 to go, the Heat unraveled against one of the league’s worst teams, falling 124-121 in Miami’s worst loss of the season.
Against a dreadful team missing its best player this season (Marcus Morris), the Heat was too permissive defensively, especially around the basket, allowing the Knicks to shoot 52 percent from the field.
New York, down by 10 points after three, scored 40 points in the final quarter, handing the Heat a second consecutive loss for the first time this season.
Miami frittered away a late nine-point lead in Sunday’s loss at Brooklyn, making this a lost weekend in The Big Apple.
“We just were not able to protect the rim and they were very persistent with it and that is something that has been troubling us of late,” Erik Spoelstra said. “We need to get back to Miami and get back to work and find solutions. Our defense is clearly much better than what we’ve shown the last two games.”
Julius Randle’s three gave the Knicks their first lead of the second half at 116-114 with 2:16 to go. James Johnson put the Heat back ahead with a three, but the Knicks went back ahead for good with 1:38 left.
New York fouled Jimmy Butler on a three, and he made the first two free throws but missed the third, leaving the Heat down 122-121 with 21 seconds left.
After the Knicks’ RJ Barrett made one of two free throws, Butler missed a driving layup. Miami retained possession, but Butler’s pass to Bam Adebayo, under the basket, bounced off Adebayo’s stomach with 2.7 seconds left and Barrett again made one of two free throws to account for the final score.
“You can always second guess, because it didn’t go how you want it, but I saw Jimmy with two feet in the paint with a collapsing defense,” Spoelstra said. “We’ll take our chances on that. We’re not going to design something that’s going to be more creative or better than that.”
Time expired just before Adebayo hit a turnaround three that would have tied the game.
The Heat entered fifth in the league in shooting at 47.6 percent (and second in three-point shooting at 37.6) and blitzed a Knicks team that has been porous defensively in recent games, closing at 53.8 percent from the field and 40 percent on threes (14 for 35).
Butler led the way with 25 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, and he got plenty of help, from Adebayo (15 points), Kendrick Nunn (20), James Johnson (19) and Tyler Herro (15).
But Miami’s defense was far too lax, and the Heat - which led 60-55 at the half and 94-84 after three- returns home at 27-12.
Five takeaways from Miami’s loss at Madison Square Garden:
▪ The defense is at its low point of the season.
During most years, it would be unfathomable for the Heat to shoot better than 50 percent in consecutive games against sub-.500 opponents and lose both. But that’s what happened against the Nets and Knicks this weekend.
“We had a good defensive game maybe twice to three, maybe four times, really, really good defensively,” Butler said afterward. “Every other time we just outscored opponents. If we’re not making shots, it’s not looking good.”
Several players said this simply comes down to staying in front of the player you’re defending.
“If somebody is beat, this is the best league in the world, you’ve got to be there,” Butler said. “But a lot of the times, you have to man up and stay in front of the ball. A lot more effort, a lot more want to has to go into it. You’ve got to take it personal when somebody scores on you. We’ve got to play hard. When the ball is in the air or on the floor, we have to be the ones to get it.”
The first unit has struggled defensively in recent games. Against the Nets on Friday, Brooklyn bolted to a 15-5 lead. On Sunday, the Knicks raced to a 20-15 lead, doing particular damage in the basket area. Miami’s starters outscored the Knicks by two during their third quarter minutes on the court together.
The question, if the Heat begins to lose more often, is whether Spoelstra might opt to replace Meyers Leonard with James Johnson in the starting five, to give the Heat more of a defensive disposition.
Spoelstra values Leonard with the starting group because he can space the floor with his three-point game and gives Miami size.
And for the entire season, the Heat’s starting group of Butler, Adebayo, Leonard, Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn has been very good, entering Sunday having outscored opponents by 104 points in 387 minutes while shooting 50.2 percent from the field and 42.9 percent on threes and holding opponents to 43.4 percent shooting.
But over the past five games entering Sunday, opposing teams have shot 47 percent against that Heat starting group, and that’s simply not good enough defensively.
▪ Teams are abusing the Heat in the basket area.
The Heat entered allowing the highest shooting percentage in the league on shots less than five feet from the basket (64.7) and allowing the third highest percentage in the restricted area (66.2).
Those numbers worsened Sunday as New York repeatedly tormented the Heat in the paint with uncontested forays to the basket, put backs and dunks or layups off sharp passes.
New York had 30 makes at the rim, per nba.com’s Cooper Mourhead. That followed a game in which Miami gave up as many baskets in the restricted area (25) as it had in a game in the past five seasons, per NBA.com.
One problem is that two of the Heat’s power rotation players are allowing inflated shooting percentages. Opponents are shooting 49.1 percent against Leonard, putting Leonard in the bottom dozen in the league among starting power rotation players in that category. Opponents are shooting 49.4 percent against Olynyk, who’s now out of the rotation.
Though Derrick Jones Jr. is undersized as a power forward, opponents are shooting only 38.4 percent against him.
▪ Defense is one reason why Johnson’s return to the rotation isn’t surprising, and he’s making the most of it.
For the second game in a row, Erik Spoelstra opted for Johnson as his fourth reserve off the bench, ahead of Olynyk and Chris Silva. And Johnson immediately contributed six points and two rebounds in his first three minutes and hit a three to close the third quarter, as time expired. Then he converted a three-point play on a nifty drive to the basket in the fourth.
He 6 of 7 from the field and finished with four rebounds and a block to go with the 19 points..
Johnson’s defensive bent and versatility have made him an appealing rotation option at this point. Opponents are shooting 47.4 percent against Johnson in limited work this season but shot just 40.9 percent against him last season.
▪ Butler and Adebayo are in the midst of their best shooting stretches of the season.
Butler, who had been shooting in the 42 percent range for much of the season (well below his career mark) is 32 for 51 over his past four games after shooting 8 for 15 on Sunday. He’s now at 44 percent for the season.
During this stretch, Butler is doing damage from the midrange, on drives to the basket, in transition and on the free throw line, where he’s 31 for 35 over his past four games. But he missed a key one late Sunday.
But he’s not doing it at all from three-point range, taking only four threes in the past four games and missing all of them.
For the season, Butler is shooting 26.4 percent on threes (24 for 91).
Adebayo, meanwhile, has now scored 75 over his past four while shooting 32 for 41.
▪ The rookies were a big help.
Nunn scored nine of his 20 in the third quarter, helping thwart several pushes by the Knicks.
And Herro scored eight points in a two minute stretch early in the fourth to temporarily slow a Knicks rally.
Thanks to Nunn and Herro, Heat rookies are averaging 31.3 points per game this season, most in the league.
This story was originally published January 12, 2020 at 6:07 PM.
