Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 117-108 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers (21-17) on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena to close its six-game trip. The Heat (20-19) now returns to Miami to begin a three-game homestand on Friday against the Denver Nuggets:
The Heat wasted another big performance from Tyler Herro and another double-digit lead in Los Angeles, finishing its Jimmy Butler-less West Coast trip with a 3-3 record.
The Heat used hot shooting to control Wednesday’s first half, scoring 66 points while shooting 58.3 percent from the field and 10 of 18 (55.6 percent) from three-point range in the first two quarters to pull ahead by as many as 14 points and enter halftime with a 12-point lead.
Herro was the catalyst behind that early success, totaling 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field, 5-of-5 shooting on threes and 3-of-3 shooting from the foul line for his highest scoring first half of the season and the second-highest scoring first half of his NBA career.
But things turned for Miami in the third quarter, as the Lakers took advantage of the Heat’s sloppy play to win the period 29-19 and cut the Heat’s 12-point halftime lead to two entering the fourth quarter. The Heat committed seven turnovers in the third quarter.
The Lakers took that momentum into the fourth quarter, as the Heat’s sloppy play continued.
The Lakers began the final period on a 9-2 run to take a five-point lead just two minutes into the fourth quarter.
The Lakers went on to pull ahead by as many as nine points down the stretch while the Heat committed another four turnovers in the fourth quarter.
In the end, the Lakers took 17 more field-goal attempts than the Heat because of Miami’s turnover problems to negate the Heat’s efficient 53.4 percent shooting from the field and 16-of-36 (44.4 percent) shooting from three-point range in the game. Los Angeles finished with a lopsided 23-7 edge in points off turnovers.
While the Heat committed 20 turnovers, the Lakers committed only seven turnovers.
“I think some of these were our doing, and it was costly,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the turnovers. “This was going to be a possession game. That was really the difference. This game should have been the low 100s for both teams. But they got some easy ones off these turnovers and that got them in a little bit more of a rhythm to be able to be more efficient against our zone.”
The Lakers also won behind a 60-36 edge in the paint.
“We just got to learn ways to win, including myself,” Herro said.
The Heat wilted in the final half of its long West Coast trip, as Los Angeles outscored Miami 63-42 in Wednesday’s second half to turn a 12-point halftime deficit into a nine-point win.
Herro finished the loss with 34 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field, 7-of-12 shooting on threes and 3-of-3 shooting from the foul line, four rebounds and three assists, but he contributed to the Heat’s sloppy play with a game-high seven turnovers.
“Just trying to take what the defense gives me,’ Herro said after scoring more than 30 points for the third straight game. “Open shots, they overreact to different things and just take advantage of what they give me.”
But no other Heat player finished with more than 12 points on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, three Lakers players finished with more than 20 points.
Anthony Davis recorded 22 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks.
LeBron James added 22 points, five rebounds, nine assists and two steals.
Rui Hachimura contributed 23 points and eight rebounds.
The Heat blew double-digit leads in all three of its losses during the six-game trip.
The Heat is now 8-9 in games without Butler this season and went 3-4 during Butler’s seven-game suspension.
“I can step back, I can see that we made a lot of strides,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s 3-3 trip without Butler. “Guys have stepped up and played well over the course of this road trip. We had an opportunity to have a winning record and we just couldn’t get it done tonight. But we’ll get out of here, get ready for an important game on Friday at home.”
Adebayo returned after missing his first game of the season, but he put together a quiet performance against the Lakers.
Adebayo was held out of Monday’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers because of a lower back contusion.
It turned out to be a one-game absence, as Adebayo returned to finish Wednesday’s defeat with 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field, four rebounds, five assists and one steal in 31 minutes.
“A lot of treatment,” Adebayo said of returning from the back contusion after only missing one game.
Adebayo was back in his usual starting center spot, too. The Heat used a starting lineup of Terry Rozier, Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo on Wednesday for the fifth time in the last six games.
Adebayo has now played in 38 of the Heat’s first 39 games this season. Herro is the only Heat player who has appeared in each of the Heat’s first 39 games.
The only players unavailable for the Heat on Wednesday were Butler, Josh Richardson (right heel inflammation) and Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery).
The Lakers were without Dorian Finney-Smith, Jalen Hood-Schifino, Bronny James, Jarred Vanderbilt and Christian Wood.
The Heat continues to explore the youthful frontcourt duo of Nikola Jovic and Kel’el Ware.
Jovic and Ware collaborated to provide quality minutes off the Heat’s bench early in Wednesday’s game, as Miami outscored Los Angeles by 14 points during their 8:42 of court time together in the first half.
Jovic assisted on three of Ware’s four made field goals during this first-half stretch. Ware assisted on both of Jovic’s makes in the first half.
Like the rest of the Heat’s roster, though, Jovic and Ware weren’t as effective in Wednesday’s second half. The Heat was outscored by 13 points in their eight minutes together during the final two quarters.
Jovic closed the loss with 12 points, four rebounds and eight assists in 32 minutes off the bench.
Ware finished with eight points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 18 minutes off the bench.
During the trip, the Heat outscored opponents by 3.5 points per 100 possessions during the 100 minutes that Jovic and Ware played together during the six-game trip.
Rozier’s offensive struggles continued for the Heat.
Rozier finished with fewer than 10 points in just five of the 61 games that he played in last season.
But after Rozier scored six points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field and 0-of-3 shooting from three-point range in Wednesday’s loss, he has already been held to single-digit points in 13 of the 35 games he has played in so far this season.
Rozier is averaging just 11.8 points per game on 40.1 percent shooting from the field and 28.6 percent shooting from three-point range this season.
That’s the fewest points Rozier has averaged and the worst he has shot from the field in a season since 2018-19 when he was with the Boston Celtics. The last time he shot under 30 percent from behind the arc in a season came when he made 22.2 percent of his threes as a rookie in 2015-16 with the Celtics.
Rozier has shot just 7 of 53 (13.2 percent) from behind the arc over his last 10 games.
The Heat traded Kyle Lowry’s sizable $29.7 million expiring contract and a first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets to land Rozier midway through last season. He has one more season left on his contract, as $24.9 million of his $26.6 million salary for next season is guaranteed.
The Heat now returns to Miami for what should be an interesting few days.
After spending much of the last two weeks on the West Coast while Butler remained in Miami to serve his team-issued seven-game suspension, the Heat has been able to get away from the noise and drama.
But the Heat will step right back into the Butler saga when it returns to Miami.
With Wednesday’s loss marking the final game of Butler’s suspension, he’s eligible to return when the Heat hosts the Nuggets on Friday.
While the Heat continues to listen to trade offers for Butler, there has been little progress in the Heat’s trade talks.
The expectation is Butler will be told to rejoin the Heat and be available to play in games if he’s still on the roster at the end of his suspension. As of now, the Heat is not interested in having Butler remain away from the team while paying him the remainder of his $48.8 million salary for this season after his suspension is over.
If Butler is asked to rejoin the team and be in uniform at the end of his suspension, the expectation is that Butler will oblige and be available to play in order to avoid losing more of his salary. Butler’s current seven-game suspension will cost Butler a total of about $2.4 million in salary, although the National Basketball Players Association intends to file a grievance to dispute the suspension in hopes of recouping some of that money.
While the Heat has been on the West Coast, Butler has been able to use the Heat’s facilities at Kaseya Center to stay in basketball shape even while suspended. Heat assistant coach Octavio De La Grana, player development coach Remy Ndiaye and assistant athletic trainer Armando Rivas did not travel with the team in order to be available to work with Butler in Miami during his suspension.
Butler, 35, is averaging 17.6 points on 10.5 field-goal attempts, 5.5 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 55.2 percent from the field this season.
Former Heat forward and captain Udonis Haslem was hesitant to comment on the Butler situation during his Wednesday appearance on ESPN’s NBA Today because of his current role as the Heat’s vice president of basketball development.
But Haslem did say this during his NBA Today appearance: “There’s one thing that we do say. You’re either in or you’re out, and there’s no in between. That’s what I’m going to say and I’m going to leave it at that.”
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