Heat overcomes poor start, outlasts San Antonio Spurs. Details and takeaways
Takeaways from the Heat’s 133-129 victory against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night at FTX Arena:
▪ The Heat broke open a tight game with a dominant fourth quarter start, then held off two furious Spurs rallies to win for the eighth time in nine games.
On a night that Bam Adebayo scored a season-high 36 points, it was appropriate that he put the Heat ahead for good with a jumper a millisecond before the third quarter buzzer.
That 99-97 lead grew quickly to 121-105, with Adebayo scoring 13 more points during that 22-8 binge, a run that featured two consecutive threes from Tyler Herro.
Adebayo scored 16 in the fourth quarter, falling five points short of his career high scoring total in a game.
“I had to do my part - free throws and layups,” Adebayo said.
Erik Spoelstra called Adebayo “a future Hall of Fame center making point guard reads.”
Herro scored 27, shooting 11 for 19 from the field and 4 for 9 on threes.
Jimmy Butler scored 27, even without playing the fourth quarter.
Spoelstra said Butler sat out the fourth quarter partly because he was a “little sore” and partly because the coach wanted to ride the lineup that started the fourth with a flurry.
And Kyle Lowry was a maestro, delivering 10 assists compared with only two turnovers on a 13-point night.
What’s more, Lowry hit a big three with 1:37 left after the Spurs had cut the lead to 126-122.
Adebayo then hit a driving layup to put the Heat ahead by nine, before the Spurs closed to within 131-129.
But Gabe Vincent then nailed two free throws with 6.3 seconds left to put Miami ahead 133-129. Vincent, who scored 12, is now 17 for 17 on fourth quarter free throws.
Miami overcame an early 28-12 deficit, surging ahead just before halftime and then seemingly taking control in the fourth before staving off a late Spurs rally.
The Heat moved to 40-21 and has the best record in the East. Chicago, which entered the night tied with Miami, lost to Memphis.
▪ Adebayo shook off a slow start to produce his best offensive night of the season.
Adebayo missed all three of his shots in a scoreless first quarter but delivered three three-point plays in a 10-point second quarter and ignited Miami’s defense with two blocks, including a swat of a Zach Collins driving layup – a defensive stop that triggered a Butler basket shortly before halftime.
Then he scored 10 more points in the third quarter, including that jumper just before the third-quarter buzzer to put the Heat ahead 99-97 after three.
And Adebayo, who made polished moves in the paint all night, posted up for a layup in the fourth, then hit a layup off a Lowry assist and then drove for a dunk.
When his night was done, he had made 14 of 21 shots from the field and 8 of 12 from the line, to go with seven rebounds, three blocks and four assists.
Adebayo said “it feels great when you come into the league as a defender and versatile big man [and turn] into someone who can actually take over a game and be a closer for your team.”
Adebayo fell short of his career high point total of 41, achieved against Brooklyn last season.
“Bam is really coming into his own as an impact winning player and coming into his own as a great player in this league,” Spoelstra said. “He has to constantly make reads during the course of a game, when to facilitate, when to be aggressive, when to look for scoring opportunities, when to get other people open.
“He’s making exponential growth and strides as the season goes on. His decision making was terrific.”
The Spurs played without Jakob Poeltl, their leading rebounder and shot-blocker. And San Antonio’s centers - Collins, Jock Landale, Devontae Cacok - had no answers for Adebayo’s foot speed and quickness.
And with Dwayne Dedmon chipping in 10 points, the Heat got 46 points from its centers on Saturday.
▪ Butler has started the post-All Star break schedule in vintage form offensively, drawing fouls and displaying the usual array of polished moves in the post.
The Heat’s only All Star this season ended the pre-break schedule in a 17-for-43 shooting slump, including 5 for 24 in a double overtime win in Charlotte.
But Butler has been at peak efficiency the past two nights, including 9 for 20 in a 23-point game against the Knicks and 7 for 11 on Saturday.
Spoelstra asked Butler how he was feeling in the fourth, and Butler conceded he was so-so.
“He has just as much faith in those guys as I do,” Butler said of a blend of starters and backups that finished out the game. “I know what they’re capable of. Spo made a great call. I’m a little sore and whatnot. I’ll be fine.”
Butler kept the Heat afloat with 13 points in that dreadful first quarter, then scored five in the second and nine in the third. Spoelstra allowed him to rest in the fourth, riding with the lineup that began the quarter on a run.
Butler even hit a three-pointer on Saturday; he entered 15 for 78 (19.2 percent) on threes this season, and Miami came into the night 10-0 in games when he didn’t shoot a three.
Butler did much of his damage from the free throw line, sinking 12 in 15 attempts. He entered fifth in the league in free throw attempts per game at 7.9.
“Jimmy was just relentless on his drives and attacks,” Spoelstra said. “You can’t really teach that. He was so assertive. That really helped us stay afloat and get back into the game. When he’s that assertive and our spacing is right, he’s almost an impossible guy to keep out of the paint.”
▪ Though Butler and Adebayo played well, the Heat’s starting lineup - as a group - was uncharacteristically ineffective.
That unit of Butler, Adebayo, Lowry, Duncan Robinson and PJ Tucker entered having outscored teams by 93 points in 317 minutes, sixth-best in the league.
That quintet also entered as the second-best defensive lineup in the league this season, allowing 94.1 points per 100 possessions.
So it was shocking to see that group shredded defensively and fall behind 21-7 before Spoelstra made his first substitutions.
The Spurs scored their first 18 points in the paint, with Heat players giving up multiple blow-bys and failing to rotate.
“How they play is super unique,” Spoelstra said. “They really attack you off the dribble; they never stop. Constantly cutting and a unique style of play that you don’t see night in and night out. We didn’t handle it well in the first quarter.
“As the game went on, we started to get a little better at it. They had 30 in the paint on us in the first quarter. That was crazy. We’re one of the better teams protecting the paint. They had us on our heels at several points during the game. It was challenging to contain the dribble and contain those cuts.”
A combination of Heat starters (primarily Butler and Adebayo) and backups stiffened defensively and led the Heat back from a 16-point deficit to a three-point halftime lead, but the starters then lost the lead briefly in the third quarter.
On Friday against the Knicks, the Heat fell behind 10-0 early. So the slow starts are something worth monitoring.
▪ The Heat reversed a pattern of losing on the second night of back-to-back sets.
Miami entered 7-3 on the first night of such sets but 2-7 on the second night.
And the start couldn’t have been worse, with the Spurs jumping ahead to a 28-12 lead and becoming only the third team to score 40 points in a quarter against the Heat this season.
The second half of a back-to-back set, with a home game following a road game, is never easy. But the circumstances favored the Heat on Saturday, with the Spurs short-handed and coming off a 157-153 double overtime win in Washington on Friday.
And the Spurs played without Dejounte Murray, who leads the team in scoring and assists, as well as leading rebounder Poeltl. Starting small forward Keldon Johnson also missed the game.
The Heat, which won in New York against the Knicks on Friday, had everyone available except Victor Oladipo and Markieff Morris.
With a win, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich could have tied Don Nelson’s all-time record for most regular season wins by a coach. Popovich’s 1334 wins are two ahead of Lenny Wilkins.
Spoelstra stands 24th on the all-time wins list with 646.
The schedule becomes more difficult now, with games Monday against the Bulls (who are one game behind the Heat for the top seed in the conference), Wednesday at the defending champion Bucks, Thursday at Brooklyn (still without Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons) and Saturday against Joel Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers, who are integrating James Harden.
“They want to see where we stack up,” Spoelstra said of his group. “It’s not the end-all, be-all.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 10:32 PM.
