Miami Heat drubbed by Brooklyn Nets as misery continues: Details and takeaways
Details and takeaways from the Heat’s embarrassing 110-95 home loss to Brooklyn, on a Saturday night in which Miami lost its season-high fourth game in a row and fell out of the top seed in the Eastern Conference:
▪ This time, the Heat didn’t wait until the fourth quarter to unravel.
In three previous losses this week to the short-handed 76ers, Warriors and Knicks, Miami was outscored 33-28, 37-24 and on Friday, 38-15 in the fourth.
On Saturday, the collapse came much earlier, this time in the form of a 40-21 Nets second-quarter blitz that left Brooklyn ahead 67-46 at the half. The lead quickly grew to 34, representing Miami’s largest deficit of the season.
The Heat had no answer for the first-half brilliance of Kevin Durant, who scored 19 en route to finishing with 23 points in 30 minutes.
Kyrie Irving - who entered averaging 38.8 points per game in six games in March - scored only 11 on 4-for-11 shooting but ignited the Nets’ second quarter run with a 10-point burst.
But this meltdown went well beyond the contributions of the Nets’ two superstars.
The Heat was stagnant offensively - committing multiple 24-second violations -and couldn’t shoot straight (3 for 17 on threes in the first half and 10 for 34 for the game). Miami closed at 44 percent from the field.
Turnovers made matters only worse; Miami committed 10 in the first half and 24 for the game. The Nets scored 40 points off turnovers, the most Miami has yielded in a game this season.
Also problematic: The Heat was a step slow defensively, allowing the Nets to shoot 58 percent in the first half and 47 percent for the game.
A Heat team that entered permitting just 40 points per game in the paint (best in the league) was outscored 36-20 in the paint in the first half alone and 46-34 for the night.
That was a byproduct of Durant getting wherever he pleased, Brooklyn dominating the Heat in transition, and centers Andre Drummond and Nic Claxton abusing the Heat in the basket area.
“Giving up 40 points in the second quarter wasn’t to our game defensively,” said coach Chris Quinn, who filled in for Erik Spoelstra.
“No excuses around here. We’re trying to figure out what’s working and what’s not working.”
In the process, the Heat (47-28) fell to second in the East, percentage points behind Philadelphia (46-27).
Milwaukee and Boston are just a half game behind Miami, which hosts Sacramento on Monday night.
“I couldn’t have foreseen it,” Kyle Lowry said of this four-game losing streak. “We’re not concerned in the sense of panicking but we have to fix some stuff. It’s not a game where you say flush it.”
Tyler Herro said “it’s disappointing at this point in the year. We want to be playing our best basketball at this point... We’ll figure it out before the playoffs.”
▪ Herro and Victor Oladipo returned, but without much success, particularly Oladipo.
Herro has endured his most difficult week in months, shooting 5 for 15 on Monday in Philadelphia, then sitting out two games with a sprained knee, and missing his first six shots in his return on Saturday.
Herro, the front-runner for the NBA’s Sixth Man award, finished 5 for 14 from the field -- and 0 for 5 on threes -- on a 13-point, five-turnover night.
This much has become clear this week: Herro seemingly needs to be great most every game for Miami to have a decent chance to win.
Oladipo, meanwhile, hasn’t been able to find an offensive rhythm since missing much of the season recovering from right knee surgery and skipping three of the past four games.
Saturday was another struggle; Oladipo committed turnovers in his first two minutes on the court - one careless and another when he threw a pass off Dwayne Dedmon’s foot.
His first shot was blocked by Claxton, and then he missed a jumper.
He drained a corner three-pointer in the final seconds of the third quarter and finished the night with nine points (3 for 9 shooting), six assists and five turnovers in a season-high 25 minutes.
Since shooting 4 for 7 in his first game of the season, Oladipo has shot 11 for 33 from the field, including 2 for 13 on threes.
After missing two games with back spasms, Oladipo returned to shoot 3 for 11 against Golden State, then skipped the Knicks game for knee maintenance.
One positive: He has shown an ability to get by defenders, at times, and draw fouls.
“I’m trying to get Vic in the swing of things and get him the ball in his spots so he’ll feel comfortable again,” Herro said.
With only seven games left, Oladipo is running out of time to make a real difference in postseason.
▪ The Heat’s stars need to be better, especially against a team with such star power as the Nets.
While Durant dominated, Butler missed seven of his nine shots on a seven-point night, with Miami outscored by 26 points in his 25 minutes on the court.
He banged knees with Durant in the third quarter and limped for a short time after that.
Bam Adebayo was outplayed by Drummond, who out-rebounded him 11 to 6.
In one sequence, Adebayo had the ball stripped by Irving, leading to a fastbreak dunk, then picked up a technical a minute later, and then committed another turnover.
Adebayo scored 14 points in 24 minutes, but only eight in the first half, when the game was essentially decided. He had four turnovers and two assists.
Kyle Lowry has picked up his scoring a bit recently - he chipped in 12 on Saturday - but managed just one assist, compared with four turnovers, including one errant pass that led to a Drummond steal and dunk.
The supporting cast wasn’t much better, at least until the fourth quarter, when the game was settled.
Duncan Robinson had yet another quiet night, going scoreless in 13 minutes while missing his only three shots.
Robinson has had too many of these types of games in the past couple of weeks, with three-point shooting games of 1-for-6, 2-for-9, 4-for-11 and 2-for-7.
▪ Chris Quinn, filling in for Erik Spoelstra, made difficult rotation decisions in his first game as an NBA head coach. But almost nothing went right.
Spoelstra missed the game - for only the third time in 14 seasons - because one of his two sons was undergoing a medical procedure.
With everyone available except Gabe Vincent, Quinn opted to play Dwayne Dedmon instead of Markeiff Morris, and didn’t use Max Strus in the first half.
Quinn went with a first half bench of Herro, Oladipo, Caleb Martin and Dedmon.
That group was blitzed in the second quarter; Miami was outscored by 25 during Herro’s 18 first half minutes. Oladipo was a minus 11 in eight first half minutes.
Before Saturday, Morris had played in each of his first six games back from a neck injury, but Quinn opted for Dedmon’s size against a big Nets frontcourt and also opted for Martin over Morris, who didn’t play at all.
“Markieff is a great leader in our locker room, but we’re trying to figure out the best thing going forward,” Quinn said.
Strus had played double figures in minutes in 13 of the Heat’s past 14 games, but didn’t enter until the Nets were ahead by 31 late in the third quarter. He scored 13 points in his 16 minutes.
▪ The Dragon returned, to loud applause.
The Heat honored Nets guard Goran Dragic with a video tribute during the first timeout, and Dragic received a loud ovation.
He scored six points and dished out four assists in 21 minutes in his first game in Miami since the Heat sent him to Toronto last July as part of the sign-and-trade for Lowry.
Dragic eventually received a buyout from Toronto, months after a mutual decision to leave the team, and signed with Brooklyn.
Miami never pursued Dragic because of the presence of Lowry and development of backup point guard Vincent, who was sidelined Saturday with a toe contusion.
“This was my home for seven years,” he said. “I owe them a lot.”
Dragic averaged 16.2 points in his seven seasons in Miami and led the Heat in scoring during the first three rounds of the Heat’s 2020 NBA Finals run inside the Orlando bubble. He was named an All Star once during his time with the Heat, in 2018.
“His time here in Miami was very special, so it’s fitting he would be shown that type of respect,” Nets coach Steve Nash said of the tribute.
This story was originally published March 26, 2022 at 10:58 PM.
