Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 125-120 win over the Indiana Pacers (33-25) on Friday night at Kaseya Center to improve to 2-0 on its four-game homestand. The Heat (28-30) continues the homestand on Sunday against the New York Knicks:
The Heat outlasted the Pacers to win its second straight game behind another excellent offensive display.
Both teams made a lot of shots in the wild high-scoring affair that included 14 lead changes and 10 ties. But in the end, the Heat made a few more shots to escape with the win.
The Heat pulled ahead by 12 points with 9:19 left in the fourth quarter, but the Pacers rallied behind an 18-4 run to take a two-point lead with 5:50 to play.
The two teams continued to trade punches down the stretch with three lead changes and three ties over the final 5:29 of the game.
But Heat finally delivered the knockout blow in the final seconds.
As Tyler Herro dribbled the ball on the right wing with less than a minute to play, a second Pacers defender moved his way. That’s when Herro took advantage of the extra attention by finding Davion Mitchell for an open three-pointer on the left wing.
“Tyler had the trust play in the moment of truth just to get off it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “... Coaches love to see those kind of trust plays.”
Mitchell hit the open three to break a 120-120 tie and give the Heat a three-point lead with 43.8 seconds left.
“I just took the open shot, honestly,” Mitchell said. “I kind of knew they were going to leave me open, the way Tyler was going. And I just stepped into rhythm and it was just an easy shot from there.”
The Heat then got the defensive stop it needed, as Bam Adebayo picked off a Tyrest Haliburton pass with 27.1 seconds remaining.
On the next possession, Herro was fouled and made both free throws to put the Heat ahead by five points with 6.5 seconds left and put the Pacers away.
The Heat won behind an excellent offensive performance for the second straight games, following up its 131-point display in Wednesday’s victory over the Atlanta Hawks with 125 points on 57.1 percent shooting from the field and 17-of-32 (53.1 percent) shooting from three-point range on Friday.
That was enough to overcome the Pacers’ offensive explosion, as Indiana lost despite shooting 53.4 percent from the field and 21 of 39 (53.8 percent) from behind the arc. Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with a game-high 36 points on 8-of-11 shooting from three-point range.
How good has this two-game stretch been for the Heat’s offense? Miami did something it has never done before in franchise history, shooting at least 50 percent from three-point range on more than 30 three-point attempts in back-to-back games.
The Heat posted its second-best single-game offensive rating of the season (139.4 points scored per 100 possessions) in Wednesday’s win over the Hawks and recorded its third-best single-game offensive rating of the season (134.4 points scored per 100 possessions) in Friday’s victory over the Pacers.
“We want to continue to build on this,” Spoelstra said. “The more guys that can feel confident in their role, have clarity in that and can be live threats out there, the better it is for us.”
Six Heat players finished with double-digit points on Friday.
Herro led the Heat with a team-high 29 points on 11-of-25 shooting from the field, 3-of-10 shooting on threes and 4-of-5 shooting from the foul line, three rebounds and seven assists.
Duncan Robinson contributed 20 points on 4-of-6 shooting from deep. He scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter.
Adebayo added 18 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
Alec Burks finished with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes in 21 minutes off the bench.
Mitchell ended the night with 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 shooting on threes, three rebounds, eight assists, one steal and one block in 37 minutes. He also spent most of the game defending Haliburton.
With Friday’s victory, the Heat has won consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 25 and 27.
It was also a productive night for the Heat in the standings, moving from eighth to seventh place in the Eastern Conference. The seventh-place Heat is now one-half game ahead of the eighth-place Orlando Magic (29-32) and two games ahead of the ninth-place Atlanta Hawks (27-33)
With the Detroit Pistons falling to the Denver Nuggets on Friday, the Heat also pulled within four games of the sixth-place Pistons (33-27) for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference that doesn’t require having to go through play-in.
“At this point, we’re trying to just win by any means necessary,” Herro said. “Whatever that takes, we’re going to do.”
With Heat starting forward Andrew Wiggins out because of a sprained ankle, Heat second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. made his 12th start of the season. But he wasn’t able to finish the game after turning his ankle.
Jaquez was playing well before he sprained his right ankle, recording 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field, 1-of-1 shooting on threes and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line in 14 minutes before leaving the game with 10:34 left in the third quarter. He did not return.
After turning his ankle, Jaquez went down to the court and immediately grabbed it in pain. He hobbled off the court with the assistance of his teammates and headed straight to the locker room before the Heat ruled him out for the rest of the contest shortly after.
The Heat announced that X-rays on Jaquez’s injured ankle returned negative.
Despite exiting early, Jaquez still logged double-digit minutes on Friday for the first time since the Heat’s Feb. 13 loss to the Dallas Mavericks after recently falling out of the rotation amid his uneven sophomore NBA season. He received the first three DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) of his NBA career over the six games leading up to Friday’s start.
With Jaquez starting in place of the injured Wiggins, the Heat opened Friday’s game with a lineup of Mitchell, Herro, Jaquez, Adebayo and Kel’el Ware. It marked the Heat’s 15th different starting lineup of the season.
But Ware did not begin Friday’s second half on the court. Instead, Ware was moved to a bench role in the middle of the game.
After the Heat was outscored by six points in Ware’s 14 first-half minutes, Spoelstra made a change to start the second half with Burks in Ware’s place.
Instead, Ware played as a reserve in the second half. He entered for his first action of the third quarter with 5:18 left in the third quarter.
Ware also went on to play the final 4:50 of the game despite not starting the second half.
After Ware generated negative results in the first half, the Heat outscored the Pacers by 13 points with Ware on the court in the second half.
Ware closed Friday’s win with eight points and 12 rebounds in 28 minutes.
“In the second half, I thought Kel’el really responded well,” Spoelstra said. “He played some really impactful minutes and did some good things on both ends of the court.”
The next question is whether Ware’s mid-game move to the bench Friday was based on the matchup or more of a long-term change. The Heat’s 20-year-old rookie center has started in 17 straight games.
After receiving his first two DNP-CDs of the season, Heat guard Terry Rozier played for the first time in three games.
Rozier, who has struggled to make shots this season, entered Friday’s game with 12.8 seconds left in the first quarter.
After not playing in the previous two games, Rozier finished the victory with four points on 2-of-5 shooting from the field, one rebound and three assists in 11 minutes off the bench.
“Just stay ready,” Rozier said Friday of pushing through his two straight DNP-CDs. “Just being a professional. It’s part of the game. Nobody wants to get DNPs. But you’re just leaning on your teammates, still trying to find joy in it all and that’s what I do.”
With Jaquez promoted to the starting lineup in place of the injured Wiggins, Rozier was part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Haywood Highsmith, Robinson, Burks and Kyle Anderson.
Behind 20 points from Robinson and 13 points from Burks, the Heat’s bench outscored the Pacers’ reserves 49-27.
That left Pelle Larsson and Kevin Love out of the Heat’s rotation on Friday despite both players being available to play.
The only players the Heat was without against the Pacers were Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League), Nikola Jovic (broken right hand), Dru Smith (Achilles surgery), Isaiah Stevens (G League) and Wiggins (sprained right ankle). Miami then lost Jaquez to a sprained ankle early in the second half.
The Pacers were without RayJ Dennis (G League), Enrique Freeman (G League), Isaiah Jackson (Achilles tear), Quenton Jackson (G League) and Bennedict Mathurin (sprained wrist).
The Heat earned its first win over a team currently with a winning record in nearly two months.
With Friday’s victory, the Heat improved to 9-20 this season against teams currently with a winning record.
Before Friday, the Heat’s last such victory came on Jan. 7 against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco.
The Heat needs to keep earning quality wins to not fall in the East standings, as Friday marked the start of a 13-game span that includes 10 games against teams currently with winning records.
“When you go out here and get wins like this and you start stacking them, you’re like: ‘Dang, we can beat certain teams, we can beat some of the teams higher in the standings than us,’” Adebayo said after Friday’s win over the Pacers. “You start to get faith, you start to grow and that’s when everybody gets involved and that’s when everybody starts to get that belief.”
