Frigid first-half shooting too much to overcome
Five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Mavericks on Friday at American Airlines Center. Jimmy Butler returned from injury, but the Heat offense struggled.
The Heat’s 2021 is off to a very inefficient start.
Miami (2-3) opened the year with an ugly 93-83 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Friday at American Airlines Center.
Miami’s offense, which was a top-10 unit last season, struggled in the defeat. The
Heat scored 83 points on 37.2 percent shooting from the field and 7-of-33 shooting on threes.
Without its usually efficient offense, the Heat couldn’t keep up with the Mavericks. Dallas (2-3) led by as many as 24 points points, and outscored Miami 36-21 from three-point range.
The Heat managed to cut the Mavericks’ lead to nine points with 1:10 to play behind a strong fourth quarter, but it was too late to complete the comeback.
But there was one bit of good news for the
Heat on Friday: All-Star wing Jimmy Butler returned after missing the previous two games because of a sprained right ankle.
The Heat now returns to Miami for a quick two-game homestand that begins Monday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It has been an inconsistent start to the season for the Heat, which has not been able to string together multiple wins yet.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Mavericks:
The Heat’s shooting was very off. How bad was it?
The Heat entered halftime down by 15 points after a very inefficient first-half offensive performance. Miami scored 31 points on 9-of-36 (25 percent) shooting from the field and 0-of-14 on threes.
It marked the Heat’s lowest scoring half since totaling 31 points in the first half of a loss to the Boston Celtics on Nov. 28, 2016.
In addition, the Heat’s 0-of-14 start from three-point range is tied for the worst threepoint shooting start to a game in franchise history since the stat began being tracking in the 1996-97 season, according to Fox Sports Sun.
It got better for the Heat in the second half, as Miami scored 52 points on 47.6 percent shooting from the field and 7-of-19 shooting on threes in the final two quarters.
Even sharpshooter Duncan Robinson had a rough night, as he scored five points on 1-of-8 shooting on threes.
Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo did manage to put together a solid stat line, though, with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting, 11 rebounds two assists and four steals.
Butler’s return was not sharp in his return from injury.
Butler contributed to the Heat’s shooting struggles, finishing with two points on 0of-6 shooting from the field and 2 of 3 from the foul line. He also recorded three re
bounds and two assists in 27 minutes.
It marked just the second complete game Butler has played in this season after being held out of the second half of Miami’s second game and then missing the next two because of his ankle injury.
With Butler back and coach Erik Spoelstra still working to find the right rotation combinations, the Heat used its fifth different starting lineup in the fifth game of the season.
Miami started Tyler Herro, Butler, Robinson, Andre Iguodala and Adebayo against the Mavericks. It’s the first time in franchise history that the Heat has used five different starting lineups in a season’s first five games.
Herro, Butler, Robinson and Adebayo opened the season as starters, but Iguodala is the notable addition. It marked the second consecutive game the 36-year-old has started, and it’s also Iguodala’s first two starts with the Heat since he was traded to Miami last February.
Iguodala’s spot, the “power forward” role, in the starting lineup is the one that has changed the most to begin the season. Moe Harkless, Meyers Leonard and now Iguodala have all started in that spot in the first five games.
It will be interesting to see if Iguodala can stick as a starter, with the Heat hoping to get the 3-and-D skills that Jae Crowder was able to provide from that starting frontcourt spot alongside Adebayo.
On Friday, Iguodala finished with three points on 1-of-3 shooting on threes and two rebounds in 13 minutes. The 2015 NBA Finals MVP also spent a chunk of his time on the court defending Mavericks star Luka Doncic.
The Heat threw different looks at Doncic throughout the game, but Doncic still found a way to be effective.
Iguodala started on Doncic, and Butler, Bradley and Harkless also spent time as his primary defender. The 21-year-old Slovenian star finished with 27 points on 9-of-22 shooting, 15 rebounds and seven assists.
Doncic is off to a slow start this season, by his standards. He entered Friday averaging 23.8 points on 43.8 percent shooting from the field and just 2-of-21 shooting on threes, 5.8 rebounds and 6.3 assists in the season’s first four games.
Two former Heat players also contributed to the Mavericks’ win.
Josh Richardson, who spent the first four seasons of his NBA career with the Heat and is now a Mavericks starter, finished with 11 points, three rebounds and three assists. James Johnson, who the Heat traded last season, finished with eight points and three rebounds in 12 minutes off Dallas’ bench.
The Heat’s game in Dallas marked the team’s first road trip outside of Florida since March, and a lot has changed since then.
To be exact, the Heat’s previous trip that took it outside of Florida was for a March 6 game against the New Orleans Pelicans and a March 8 game against the Washington Wizards.
Then the 2019-20 season was suspended on March 11 amid the COVID-19 pandemic before play resumed about four months later in the NBA’s Walt Disney World bubble in Lake Buena Vista.
Then the Heat’s one preseason road game this season was also played in Florida against the Toronto Raptors, which have been temporarily relocated to Tampa because of COVID-19-related travel restrictions in Canada. Miami’s lone regular-season road game prior to Friday was the opener against the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center.
Road trips are now governed by the NBA’s new COVID-19 health and safety protocols. One of the many guidelines in place requires every member of a team’s traveling party to wear a mask at all times for the duration of the flight/ bus ride and outside their individual hotel rooms unless they’re eating or drinking something.