Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Looking to regain footing after being ‘punched in the mouth’
MIAMI — The Miami Heat got a taste of their own medicine on Thursday night. They found it highly unpalatable.
After stifling opponents with an aggressive, switching defense in moving to a league-best 6-1 record, the Heat were victimized by a similar approach from the Boston Celtics in falling 95-78 at FTX Arena.
“The league is constantly going to adjust,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s not like whatever we’re doing now, that this is just going to be it for the rest of the season. You have to continue to adjust and do things sharper, and do things with more purpose and more intention. “And we’ll learn from this and get better.”
The 78 points were the fewest by the Heat since Jan. 17, 2016, in a 99-74 loss at Oklahoma City and the fewest at home since an 89-78 loss on April 9, 2015 to the Chicago Bulls.
“That’s probably as poorly as we’ve played offensively all season, including preseason and training camp,” said Spoelstra, with the Heat turning their attention to Saturday’s visit by the league-best 7-1 Utah Jazz. “But those nights are going to happen. Sometimes it’s going to be ugly offensively. Sometimes teams are going to take you out of what you normally do.
“We’ve been in a great groove offensively, and we just didn’t play like we’ve been accustomed to play. The mistakes, the turnovers obviously were a factor and some missed shots at key times. And then they just took us out of some things and they jammed up some possession and we weren’t able to capitalize on what they were trying to do.”
The loss was defined by the Heat’s ninepoint second quarter, when they had 10 turnovers and no assists.
“I think their switching flattened us out,” Spoelstra acknowledged. “I think we held the ball a little bit on some possessions. And I think some of the turnovers were just very uncharacteristic — missed catches, miscues on passes where guys were open — so I think all of those things played a part.”
After two weeks of playing in transition and building lopsided leads, the Heat’s pitch aheads were stymied by a Celtics defense prepared for such moments. The Heat did not have a single fast-break basket and scored only five points in transition, all on free throws.
“I mean it’s one game. So let’s calm down. It’s one game,” center Bam Adebayo said. “But people as the season goes on are definitely going to start scouting our leak outs and telling their team to get back.”
With the Celtics establishing their defense, the Heat were left to try to beat them over the top. The result was seasonworst .346 shooting, including 9 of 41 on 3-pointers. Guard Duncan Robinson contributed significantly to those numbers, closing 5 of 17 from the field, with all of those attempts from beyond the arc. The 17 3-point attempts tied the Heat record set by Wayne Ellington in 2018.
“It was a combination of things,” Robinson said. “I don’t think it was one thing in particular. Definitely give them some credit. But, at the same time, I think we could have definitely been tighter with the ball and just executed better, spacing a little bit better. It’s a combination of things.”
After their only previous loss, an overtime defeat on Oct. 23 in Indiana, the Heat reeled off five consecutive wins, a streak that ended Thursday. Now it gets tougher, with Saturday’s game to be followed by a fivegame western swing that opens Monday in Denver.
“I think any time you get punched in the mouth like that, you’ve got to learn from that,” Robinson said. “Great teams obviously learn from their wins, as well. And I think we took a lot away from wins. But I think you’re going to be forced to learn a lot from losing, as well. So we’ll definitely take away a lot from this one.”