Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Pain from the Spurs
Without Whiteside, Heat can’t rise to challenge
Miami Heat fall to San Antonio, 117-100.
MIAMI — This was the one when Hassan Whiteside was most conspicuous by his absence, and it had less to do with his red dinner jacket and red shoes than you might think.
After winning consecutive games in the absence of their sidelined big man, the Miami Heat got a lesson in just how much height and might still can matter in today’s NBA, shrunk down to size in a 117-100 loss Wednesday night to the San Antonio Spurs at American-Airlines Arena.
With LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol setting the tone in the post, not even an upsizing of the starting lineup could save the Heat.
With Heat coach Erik Spoelstra reaching for the rookie muscle of Bam Adebayo in place of Whiteside, who missed his third consecutive game with a bone bruise on his left knee, the Spurs nonetheless took it to the Heat.
Aldridge closed with 31 points, with Gasol adding 13 and nine rebounds. The Spurs’ starting front line wound up outscoring the Heat’s starting front line 56-31.
The Heat attempted to counter with their perimeter depth, but it wasn’t enough, even with Tyler Johnson scoring 23, Goran Dragic 20 and Dion Waiters 17. James Johnson added 21 points and nine rebounds for the Heat.
The Heat attempted to mount a late charge after going down 20, just as they did in their season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic, with a Dragic 3-pointer drawing them with 98-87 with 5:33 to play, but that’s
Heat attempted to counter with perimeter depth, but it wasn’t enough against an oversized front line.
when Aldridge stepped out to the perimeter to drain a jumper.
Rudy Gay helped put it away for the Spurs, closing with 22 points.
The Heat went with their third starting lineup, this time moving firstround pick Adebayo into the opening unit against the Spurs’ oversized front line.
That had Jordan Mickey back on the bench, after he had started the previous two games.
Adebayo had been held out of the previous two games by “coach’s decision,” just as Mickey had been held out of the opener for that reason before moving into the lineup in the second game.
The maneuvering has been necessary with Whiteside sidelined since the opener. Whiteside had opened the first game alongside Kelly Olynyk at power forward.
Olynyk remained as reserve Wednesday, with Spoelstra’s newest starting lineup rounded out by James Johnson at power forward, Josh Richardson at small forward, Dragic at point guard and Waiters at shooting guard. Waiters had missed Tuesday’s practice and the end of Monday’s victory over the visiting Atlanta Hawks due to an issue with his chronically troublesome left ankle.
The Spurs also entered shorthanded, with Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker yet to play this season due to injury.
Adebayo became the first Heat rookie to start within the first four games of the season since Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers opened the 2008-09 season as starters.
Adebayo lost his first NBA regular-season opening tip and then was called for his first foul 20 seconds into the game, forced to the bench with a second foul with 4:12 left in the first quarter. In between he scored his first NBA regular-season points on dunk off a Josh Richardson feed.
The Heat gave up a 30-point quarter for the third time in four games and the Spurs gave up their first 30-point quarter of the season as the teams went into the second period tied 30-30. Aldridge had 13 points for the Spurs over the opening 12 minutes.
The Spurs then moved to a 56-51 halftime lead, with Aldridge up to 19 points by that stage.
The most comfortable aspect for the Heat at the intermission was that Waiters not only was up to 16 points by then, but also showing no signs of the ongoing ankle issue.
Dragic said he appreciated what Waiters did to get himself ready.
“I’ve had a lot of ankle problems in the past,” Dragic said. “The only thing you can do, you can take care of yourself. You can be early and do treatments, a lot of treatments. Dion is doing that right now.”
But when Manu Ginobili hit a pair of 3-pointers late in the third period, it was the Spurs guard who proved to be the difference maker, pushing San Antonio to a 15-point lead, which they took into the fourth quarter at 88-73.
The focus going in, Spoelstra said, was, “our consistency defensively and really doing a better job over a 48-minute game, protecting the rim and the paint, protecting easy ones. We’ve given up quite a bit at the rim. Regardless of whether Hassan is in or out, that’s not our identity.”
That identity again was lacking.
Wednesday’s game was the third on a season-longest Heat six-game homestand, with the Boston Celtics up next on Saturday.
The Spurs entered having swept the two-game series each of the preview three seasons, on a sevengame winning streak against the Heat.