Heat close first leg of summer tour with win

Jones’ scoring helps team post 2-1 record after opening loss.

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — The Miami Heat apparently needed a warmup in the California Classic summer league before putting it all together.

The Heat concluded their three-game set Thursday with an 86-76 victory over the Sacramento Kings, their second consecutive impressive win.

Miami (2-1) outscored the Lakers and Kings by a combined 25 points in its final two games after a 79-68 loss to Golden State in the opener.

Derrick Jones Jr. led the Heat in scoring all three games, finishing with 19 points and seven rebounds against Sacramento.

“Everybody is just going out there with a selfless attitude,” Jones said. “I really don’t care about self-accolades in the summer league right now. I score, I score. If I don’t, I’m going to play defense regardless and make sure my teammates are in the right spot on defense, make sure they’re in the right spot on offense.”

The Kings (1-2) were playing with four players taken within the first 34 picks of the draft the past two years, including first-rounders Harry Giles (No. 20 in 2017), Justin Jackson (No. 15 in 2017) and Marvin Bagley (No. 2 in 2018). A fourth first-rounder, De’Aaron Fox, played in the Kings’ first game but sat out the next two.

Frank Mason (No. 34 in 2018) also was on the roster.

The Heat now move on to the summer league in Las Vegas, where they begin play Saturday against New Orleans.

Here are our three takeaways:

Defense the key: Heat coach Eric Glass was pleased with the defense, especially the last two games, holding the Lakers and Kings to a combined 150 points. The Lakers needed a 24-point fourth quarter — after Miami had opened a 31-point lead – to push their shooting percentage to 40.5 percent. The Heat forced the Kings into 21 turnovers.

“Anytime you can get stops and play off misses or play off turnovers – which they didn’t miss as much tonight, but we forced them into 21 turnovers – that always helps your offense,” Glass said. “You know us. We hang our hat on defense. We’re going to grind games out. It’s where we take our pride.”

M-V-P, M-V-P: Jones’ confidence is growing with every game. The newest member of the Heat’s 15-man roster ( Jones signed a two-year contract Saturday) averaged 21.3 points on 22-of-42 shooting in the three games. He also had 22 rebounds, six steals and four blocks. Jones’ athletic ability was a big hit with the enthusiastic crowds; several highlight-reel dunks brought the fans out of their seats.

“He’s playing off the charts right now,” second-year player Bam Adebayo said. “His head is high. We follow him. He’s in a zone.”

Bam on the boards: Adebayo, the Heat’s first-round pick in 2017, struggled again from the floor, but the Heat were pleased with his allaround game in Sacramento. Adebayo scored 14 points and had nine rebounds Thursday. He finished the three games with 37 points on 11-of-32 shooting (34.3 percent) and 34 rebounds.

Glass said Adebayo was upset when came out of the game with 30 seconds left “because he wants another rebound.”

“I like that,” Glass said. “He boxes out, rebounds in traffic, rebounds with two hands and he’s battling down there.

“He has some big guys who are playing against him every game and he’s taking ownership of that paint.”