Heat ends pre-All Star break schedule with loss in Utah. Details, reaction and takeaways
This pre-All Star break portion of the Heat season - which was, by all realistic expectations, a smashing success - could have ended with a flourish on Wednesday, with Miami taking a five-point halftime lead against a Jazz team that entered 19-5 at home.
But in a battle of teams that both entered as fourth seeds and with identical 35-18 records, the Heat ultimately succumbed, 116-101, undone by Donovan Mitchell’s excellence, inadequate rebounding, a half-dozen killer Jazz threes and a difficult shooting night for two Heat starters.
The Heat again went small in its starting lineup, with Derrick Jones Jr. at power forward. And Jones managed just two rebounds in 24 minutes.
With Rudy Gobert collecting 30 rebounds, the Jazz pounded the Heat on the boards 53-37. Utah outscored the Heat 18-3 on second chance points and went 20 of 23 from the line, compared with 12 of 16 for the Heat.
Jimmy Butler played well (25 points, 8 rebounds), and Bam Adebayo - despite a tough matchup with Gobert - filled the box score with nine points, 11 rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocks.
Duncan Robinson concluded a breakout first half of the season with six three-pointers and 18 points, but Kendrick Nunn had a fifth consecutive poor shooting game, closing 5 for 16 on a 12-point night. Nunn went 22 for 83 on the road trip.
And so Miami goes to the break in fourth in the East at 35-19 after losing four of five on this road trip, with the Heat without Butler for two of those four losses and without injured Tyler Herro and Meyers Leonard for all five games of the trip.
“I feel like all of us are beat up; we need a break,” said Adebayo, who will join Butler in Sunday’s All-Star Game in Chicago. “Not see a basketball for a couple days and get your body right.”
And Goran Dragic was blunt about Wednesday’s loss: “We had open shots and didn’t make them. We didn’t defend either. This road trip was not good for us.”
Despite the 1-4 record on the road trip, there was big picture appreciation for where the Heat stands.
“I‘m excited for where our team is,” Butler said. “We’re only going to get better. Everybody cares. Everyone wants to win. That’s the mentality you have to have in order to do something special. I’m happy with this group.
“We’re not a bad team but we’re not where we want to be at just yet. That’s OK. Moving forward we just continue to get better and figure out a way to win games, especially on the road [where Miami is 13-16]. It will happen.”
Spoelstra said: “We’re excited about our team. Nobody wants to go 1-4 on the road trip,but it doesn’t take the eternal optimist to see there are good things going on in this locker-room. We’ll get this thing right and get our game together for this final push. It should be exciting. It’s really competitive in the Eastern Conference.”
Five takeaways from Wednesday’s game at Vivint Smart Home Arena:
▪ Duncan Robinson continues his three-point avalanche. But for the fourth time on this road trip, a flurry of opponent three-pointers proved very damaging.
The road trip began with the Clippers sinking 24 threes against the Heat, the most ever by a Heat opponent. Then Sacramento and Portland nailed 19 each in wins.
On Wednesday, Utah opened 8 for 28 on threes, but Jordan Clarkson then hit two big ones early in the fourth to extend a five-point Jazz lead to 11. And then Donovan Mitchell (26 points) hit two big ones. And then Bogan Bogdanovic nailed two critical threes.
“It wasn’t threes during the course of the game; it was those ones in the last six minutes that really created that separation,” Spoelstra said.
For the night, Utah shot 14 for 36 on threes (39 percent), and six came in the final nine minutes.
“People [have been] lighting us up,” Spoelstra said before the game. “I think everybody’s trying to figure this out as part of the NBA. Everybody’s shooting more threes and you’re trying to figure out which ones you want to take away and we’re in that process right now. We want to build a top defense so you have to be able to defend the rim. That’s still the most important thing, to paint the rim. And then to get out to the three-point line, without fouling, and that’s where we have to show some improvement.”
Even though Miami leads the league in field-goal percentage defense (33.6), they were hurt badly by opponent threes in their four losses on this trip.
As for Robinson, his six threes gave him 191 for the season, fourth in the league. He also extended his franchise record of consecutive games with multiple three pointers to 24. He now has 23 over his last four games.
But foul trouble continues to flummox Robinson at times. He left for awhile after picking up his fourth foul just 3:49 into the third quarter. But then he hit two threes early in the fourth to keep the Heat close. All 13 of his field goal attempts were threes.
▪ Butler, after missing two games with a shoulder injury earlier on this trip, has picked up where he left off, resuming his most efficient offensive stretch of the season.
After spending part of the season shooting under 42 percent - well below his 45.4 career average - Butler has now risen above that career average with a terrific seven-game stretch.
He entered Wednesday having shot 56.1 percent over his previous six games (46 for 82) and that efficiency continued against Utah, with Butler repeatedly driving to the basket for scores. During this stretch, he has scoring outputs of 20, 21, 24, 38 and 25 on Wednesday.
He shot 10 for 21 against the Jazz.
Butler has attempted 11 three-pointers during this seven game stretch, making two of them. He was 0 for 3 on threes against Utah.
▪ Jae Crowder remains the revelation of last week’s Heat trade.
Crowder entered with 39 points, 19 rebounds, and five steals in his first two games for the Heat and was just as effective in his third game, with 15 points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal.
He shot 3 for 4 on threes, making him 13 for his first 17 on threes with Miami after shooting 29 percent on threes for Memphis last season.
During his pre-game press conference, Jazz coach Quin Snyder saluted Crowder for his year and a half with Utah: “He gave us so much. I’m grateful to Jae for his contributions here. He took our team when we first got him to another level, for a lot of reasons, his aggressiveness offensively, his toughness defensively, his competitiveness.
“He’s a great teammate, maybe the best compliment I can give him. He knows how to win. There is nothing he’s not willing to do. He will guard anybody. He’s capable of adjusting [to wherever] he is and not sacrificing his core stuff as a player that makes him so good.”
Meanwhile, Andre Iguodala hit his first three three-pointers as a member of the Heat, closing with nine points, five rebounds and two assists.
▪ The undersized Heat lineup was at an enormous deficit on the boards.
The Heat started a frontline of players 6-6 (Jones), 6-7 ( Butler) and 6-9 (Adebayo). Utah countered with a starting frontcourt that stood 6-8 (Bogdanovic), 6-7 (Joe Ingles) and 7-1 (Gobert).
So it wasn’t surprising that Utah’s starting frontcourt outrebounded Miami’s 32-21.
Spoelstra said Monday that he opted for Jones over Kelly Olynyk in the starting lineup because “with the speed and quickness we’ve been facing with a lot of teams, it felt like we could defend with a little more efficiency.”
But this wasn’t a good matchup for Jones, who didn’t attempt a shot in his 24 minutes.
▪ For the second time this season, Adebayo struggled initially against Gobert’s size. And while Adebayo found a way to contribute, Gobert had the more impactful night.
In a 107-104 Heat win against the Jazz on Dec. 22 in Miami, Adebayo shook off a 2 for 10 start to close with 18 points (including eight in the fourth quarter), 12 rebounds, six assists, three steals and three blocks.
On Wednesday, after opening 0 for 2, Adebayo scored on a hook and then dunked on Gobert early in the third quarter. Then, when Gobert gave him some space, Adebayo nailed a jumper over him. Adebayo closed 4 for 10 from the field.
With the Heat using an undersized starting lineup, it was Adebayo who often drew the defensive assignment on Gobert - an assignment Leonard often handled the first time these teams played.
And Gobert was very good, finishing with 16 points, 20 rebounds and two blocks.
“Gobert is unique; he’s deserving every year to be mentioned in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation,” Spoelstra said.
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 11:23 PM.
