Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 120-113 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks (32-24) on Sunday night at Fiserv Forum to fall to 1-1 on its three-game trip. The Heat (26-29) is right back it Monday to close its trip against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun) on the second night of a back-to-back set before returning to Miami:
Another Heat game, another blown double-digit lead. The Heat’s season-long fatal flaw of wasting big leads proved to again be a problem Sunday.
The Heat led for most of the night, pulling ahead by as many as 14 points in the first half before entering halftime with a 10-point advantage.
The Heat even managed to enter the fourth quarter with an eight-point lead.
But the Heat couldn’t hold off the Bucks in the fourth quarter, as Milwaukee opened the period on a 15-2 run to take its first lead since the first quarter and pull ahead by five points with nine minutes to play.
Behind 12 fourth-quarter points from Tyler Herro, the Heat pushed back to tie the score multiple times down the stretch.
But after Herro hit a three-pointer to tie the score at 109 with 3:19 to play, the Bucks made the game-deciding run by scoring seven unanswered points to pull ahead by seven with 2:03 remaining and put the Heat away.
“Their second unit at the top of the quarter, they just really took the momentum,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I had to call two timeouts. [Kevin Porter Jr.] gave them some relief points and that just kind of shifted the momentum. And then from there, it seemed like we couldn’t get a stop for a while.”
It was another fourth-quarter meltdown for the Heat, which was outscored by the Bucks 35-20 in the final period.
Miami shot just 9 of 24 (37.5 percent) from the field and 1 of 8 (12.5 percent) from three-point range in the fourth quarter after shooting 50 percent from the field through the first three quarters.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee shot a scorching 60.9 percent from the field and 4 of 9 (44.4 percent) from behind the arc in the fourth quarter.
The Heat has now been outscored by 15 or more points in the fourth quarter of three of its last six games. Miami entered the fourth quarter with a lead in each of those three games, but ended up losing because of its late-game issues.
Spoelstra still left Sunday’s loss encouraged by some of what he saw in the fourth quarter, especially from an offensive execution standpoint.
“We’re making some progress and we just have to stay with it,” Spoelstra said. “We have to show collective grit and resolve. The head coach can see that there’s some good trends happening. This is not a matter of the ball didn’t go where it needed to go. I thought we were executing with some purpose in the fourth quarter. We missed some open shots, some timely ones.”
Herro was excellent for the Heat on Sunday with 40 points on 12-of-27 shooting from the field, 3-of-12 shooting on threes and 13-of-14 shooting from the foul line, seven rebounds and 11 assists. But Herro’s third 40-point performance of the season was not enough to lift the Heat to the victory.
Heat three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo finished with 24 points and seven rebounds in the defeat. But he scored just four points in the fourth quarter.
Andrew Wiggins contributed 20 points on 7-of-20 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting on threes, six rebounds and four assists.
Damian Lillard led the Bucks with 28 points on 5-of-12 shooting from three-point range and eight assists.
Giannis Antetokounmpo added 23 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists for the Bucks.
The Heat has now blown a double-digit lead in 14 losses this season. That’s the second-most such collapses in the NBA this season behind only the Utah Jazz.
The Heat, which has lost five of its last six games, ended Sunday in eighth place in the Eastern Conference and firmly in play-in tournament territory.
“Obviously, no one wants to lose and that’s where we’re at right now,” Herro said. “We’re just continuing to try to find consistency at this point of the season, where we can just try to stack these wins right now.”
As if another fourth-quarter collapse wasn’t rough enough, there was more bad news for the Heat on Sunday: Nikola Jovic left the game early and did not return because of an injury that could keep him out for a while.
After Jovic logged 15 first-half minutes on Sunday, a halftime X-ray on his right hand revealed a fractured second metacarpal.
Considering Jovic’s shooting hand is fractured, the expectation is he’ll likely be sidelined for an extended stretch. But the Heat has not yet issued a timetable for Jovic’s recovery, with much of it depending on whether surgery will be needed.
For now, Jovic will travel with the Heat to Atlanta for Monday’s game before returning to Miami to be evaluated by a specialist on Tuesday.
“I feel for Niko,” Spoelstra said. “I know how much he has put into this.”
Jovic recorded seven points and two rebounds before exiting Sunday’s game at halftime.
With Jovic’s availability now in doubt for the coming days and weeks, the Heat is left with a void in its rotation.
After opening his third NBA season as a Heat starter, the 21-year-old Jovic has since established himself as an important part of the Heat’s bench rotation. Despite not playing in the second half, Sunday marked the 31st straight game that Jovic has logged double-digit minutes in.
Jovic entered Sunday averaging 10.8 points, four rebounds and 2.9 assists per game while shooting 45.3 percent from the field and 37 percent from three-point range this season. He has only missed three games this season due to an injury, and those absences came because of a sprained left ankle.
“He’s a big swing player for us in terms of when he plays well, it really moves the needle for us,” Spoelstra said before Sunday’s game regarding Jovic’s importance to the rotation. “If he doesn’t, we lack in some things that he can provide.”
Adebayo continues to leave his mark on the Heat’s record book.
With his sixth rebound against the Bucks, Adebayo passed Alonzo Mourning to take sole possession of second place on the Heat’s all-time rebounding list with 4,809 rebounds. Udonis Haslem (5,791) has grabbed the most rebounds in Heat history.
“UD knows I’m chasing the record,” Adebayo said with a grin. “We ain’t got to say anything about it.”
This comes a few days after Adebayo recorded the 221st double-double of his NBA career in Friday’s win over the Toronto Raptors to tie Rony Seikaly’s record for the most double-double performances in Heat history.
At Adebayo’s current pace, he and Dwyane Wade could end up as No. 1 and No. 2 as the Heat’s all-time career leaders in categories like two-point field goals made, free throws made, assists, steals and points, among others. Adebayo also appears to be on his way to overtaking Haslem as the Heat’s all-time leading rebounder within the next two seasons.
The Heat’s rotation again didn’t include Jaime Jaquez Jr. or Haywood Highsmith.
For the second straight game, the Heat opened Sunday’s contest with its new post-trade preferred starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Herro, Wiggins, Adebayo and Kel’el Ware.
And for the second straight game, most of the Heat’s bench minutes went to the trio of Jovic, Duncan Robinson and Terry Rozier. But with Jovic unavailable after halftime because of his injury, Kyle Anderson played off the bench in the second half to complete Miami’s nine-man rotation on Sunday.
That left Jaquez, Highsmith, Alec Burks and Pelle Larsson out of the Heat’s rotation on Sunday despite all of them being available to play.
Jaquez has been a regular in Miami’s rotation since being drafted by the Heat in 2023, but he has now received three DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) in the last four games. Those are the first three DNP-CDs of Jaquez’s NBA career.
Highsmith, who was a regular in the Heat’s rotation a few weeks ago, has received four DNP-CDs in the last five games.
“I don’t want to jump into any massive conclusions right now,” Spoelstra said before Sunday’s game when asked about trying to find some consistency with the team’s rotation. “It’s all hands on deck. We have a lot of work to do. If I can provide some clarity for the rotation, I will. But I’m not going to hesitate to go deeper into the rotation. The strength of our roster, depth is a massive strength that we have.”
The Heat’s season-long struggles against quality teams continue.
With Sunday’s loss, the Heat fell to 8-20 this season in games against teams currently with a winning record.
The Heat’s last win against a team that currently holds a winning record came all the way back on Jan. 7 against the Golden State Warriors. The Heat has now dropped nine straight games against teams with winning records.
The good news for the Heat is its next two games come against a sub-.500 squad, with back-to-back matchups against the Hawks on deck. The Heat takes on the Hawks in Atlanta on Monday before the two teams face off again on Wednesday in Miami.
“Just optically, there’s some things that look better right now,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s play after Sunday’s defeat. “But we’re going to have to stay with it. We’re going to have to dig deep and fight through this frustration right now to get a breakthrough on the road, and find a way to get it done in the moments of truth.”
