Heat offer up latest argument for worst loss of season

Based on last season’s run to the NBA Finals, this was shocking.

Based on how the Miami Heat have played this season, not so much.

Having already lost to the league’s second-worst team, when they fell at home to the Detroit Pistons, the Heat this time took it a step further, losing 103-100 Wednesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena to the league-worst Washington Wizards.

As in a Wizards team playing on the second night of a back-to-back set.

As in a Wizards team lacking guard Russell Westbrook, who was given the night off for rest.

As in a Wizards team among the NBA’s worst of all time on defense.

The Heat game of choice this season hasn’t been debating potential playoff seeding; it has been debating the worst loss.

The 47-point home loss to the Milwaukee Bucks?

That home loss two weeks ago to the previously league-worst Pistons.

The blown 10-point lead in the final minutes Monday to the visiting Charlotte Hornets?

Or this, when the Heat stood as close to complete health as they have this season, at home now for a full week, up 13 in the third quarter?

“Look,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, “everybody’s disappointed, everybody’s uncomfortable. And we, staff and players alike, we want to be better than what we’ve shown.”

It ended on a wayward Tyler Herro 3-point attempt with 1.3 seconds left that could have tied it, but there was a sinking feeling throughout the fourth quarter.

“We dug ourselves this hole and we have to get ourselves out,” Herro said. “There can’t be any excuses at this point, or we’ll just keep losing.”

So make it 10 losses in the last 13 games, this one coming with the Heat limited to 35 second-half points, and now a 7-14 record.

“We’ve had some offensive ruts this year,” guard Duncan Robinson said. “It’s pretty uncharacteristic.

“We’ve got to start playing for each other more. That’s not to say one person is sticking the ball or anything like that. It’s everyone.”

Jimmy Butler closed with 19 points, eight rebounds and nine assists for the Heat, with Herro scoring 20 and Bam Adebayo contributing a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double.

Bradley Beal paced the Wizards with 32 points, which, for him this season, actually was a below-average night.

“We just have to be better,” Spoelstra said. “It’s as simple as that.” Butler agreed: “Nothing’s really ever is as bad as it seems,” he said.

Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday’s game:

1. Closing time: The Heat closed within 96-95 with 4:11 to play on an Adebayo dunk that completed a 6-0 run.

But after Kelly Olynyk fell chasing a rebound, Beal was able to swoop in for a layup that put Washington up 98-95.

Olynyk then atoned with a 3-pointer that tied it 98-98 with 3:18 left.

A pair of Davis Bertans free throws off an Adebayo rebounding foul followed, for a 100-98 Wizards lead.

Then, after a fractured Heat possession that ended with a Butler 3-point heave, Beal made one of two free throws for a 101-98 Washington lead.

Adebayo followed with a short jumper to get the Heat within 101-100.

Missed shots by the Heat’s Goran Dragic and Butler followed.

Ultimately, Beal got to the line with 5.8 seconds left and converted both free throws for a 103-100 Wizards lead.

Then came Herro’s miss. “We got what we wanted,” Spoelstra said of his team’s late offense, not specifically Herro’s shot, “and we just weren’t able to capitalize.”

2. Risky proposition: Spoelstra tried to buy time with neither Butler nor Adebayo on the court late in the third quarter and paid a price.

With Adebayo already out, Butler was removed with 3:30 left in the third, after the Heat had built a 13-point lead.

The Wizards then moved to a 77-76 lead as Butler and Adebayo watched from the bench, and as Beal played on.

The third quarter ended with the Heat up 82-77, with Butler returning at the start of the fourth.

“I think we still had an opportunity to make some plays,” Spoelstra said. “There’s some points of the game that you can’t even explain.” Adebayo agreed.

“All of us don’t want this season to be like this,” he said.

3. The Beal factor: Beal entered leading the NBA at 35 points per game, well ahead of second-place Kevin Durant (30.8), with 12 30-point games this season.

With his 15th point Wednesday night, the former University of Florida guard joined Elvin Hayes as the only Washington players to score at least 12,000 points (Hayes scored 15,551).

Beal has now scored 25 or more in 17 consecutive games to open the season, the longest streak to begin a season since the NBA/ABA merger. He breaks the previous record of 16, which was held by Michael Jordan.

“Great players in this league continue to reinvent themselves and find different ways to attack all the great coverages that they’ve earned,” said Spoelstra, who loaded up with traps Wednesday, with Beal shooting 11 of 23. “And Bradley Beal’s earned the opponents’ staff and teams to game plan and throw everything and the kitchen sink at him, to try to slow him down. I don’t think anybody has really figured that out this year.”

4. Never easy: The last time the teams met, the Wizards were without Beal due to contact tracing, without Westbrook due to a bruised quadriceps and then lost starting center Thomas Bryant 1:53 into the game with a season-ending knee injury.

The Heat nonetheless had to struggle to a 128-124 victory on Jan. 9 at Capital One Arena, giving up 71 first-half points.

The lesson from that game, as well as this one, is nothing has been easy this season.

“You just have to continue to forge ahead,” Spoelstra said. “Some of us have had experience being able to turn seasons around.”

5. The day after: The Heat confirmed pregame that Meyers Leonard’s shoulder surgery on Monday in Los Angeles was season-ending.

Spoelstra opened a window into Leonard’s positive outlook.

“Even as he was coming out of surgery yesterday, he’s texting me,” Spoelstra said. “I was sending him some things, but he’s already reaching out and asking how the film session and team meeting and practice went. He’s awesome. I love him. I love the guy. I feel for him. It is a bummer. But he’s going to work his ass off. And when the timing is right, he’ll be back better than ever.”