Heat battles Pelicans for hard-fought win
NEW ORLEANS
The Miami Heat’s first game in more than a week included a scuffle and ejections. But most importantly for the Heat, it included another win.
The Heat escaped what became a heated and intense game against the New Orleans Pelicans with a 106-95 victory on Friday night at Smoothie King Center to kick off the post-AllStar break schedule and a four-game trip.
It marked the Heat’s third straight win and seventh win in the past nine games.
The Heat needed to close out the win without star Jimmy Butler, who was one of four players ejected after a fourth-quarter scuffle between the two teams with 11:19 to play.
After the Pelicans took a two-point lead with 8:31 remaining and momentum on their side, the Heat responded by scoring 11 unanswered points to pull ahead by nine points with 2:40 to play on its way to the road victory. It’s a quality win, too, as it only marked the Pelicans’ second loss in the last 10 games.
While Butler was forced out of the game early, he did a lot for the Heat before his ejection.
Butler closed with 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, 1-of-1 shooting on threes and 8-of-12 shooting from the foul line, nine rebounds, six assists and three steals in 27 minutes before being tossed from the game.
Heat center Bam Adebayo scored a game-high 24 points, seven rebounds, one steal and three blocks.
Heat guard Tyler Herro scored 15 points for the Heat. But he slipped on the court late in the game and went down to the court grabbing his left knee before limping to the locker room with 1:40 left in the fourth quarter.
Zion Williamson led the Pelicans with 23 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
The Heat led by as many as 19 points in the first half behind a 9of-14 start from three-point range.
But the Pelicans closed the second quarter on a big 28-9 run to tie the score at 58 entering halftime. The Heat missed its final three threepoint shots of the first half.
The Heat responded by pushing its lead back up to 11 points midway through the third quarter.
The Pelicans then answered to cut the deficit to just four entering an eventful fourth quarter.
The Heat now enters a two-day break before continuing its trip on Monday against the Kings in Sacra
mento.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Pelicans on Friday:
The Heat needed to play most of the fourth quarter without Butler.
With Heat center Kevin Love committing a foul on Williamson with 11:19 to play, a shoving match ensued after Williamson crashed to the court.
The incident began when Naji Marshall and Butler got into it and escalated when Marshall put his hand on Butler’s neck. An angry Butler then charged toward Marshall, as players, coaches and staff members from both teams converged try to break it up.
After officials reviewed the tape, Butler and Thomas Bryant were ejected for the Heat, and Marshall and Jose Alvarado were ejected for the Pelicans. Love’s foul on Williamson was ruled a common foul.
With a few Heat players who weren’t in the game coming off the bench during the melee, suspensions could be coming. Such suspensions are usually automatic in the NBA.
With starting guard Terry Rozier still out, forward Nikola Jovic remained in the Heat’s starting lineup.
The Heat opened with a starting lineup of Tyler Herro, Caleb Martin, Jimmy Butler, Jovic and Adebayo.
It marked the third straight game that Rozier has missed with a sprained right knee and it marked Jovic’s third straight start after receiving seven DNPCDs (did not play, coach’s decision) in the previous 10 games.
Jovic closed Friday’s win with three points, three rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes.
The Heat has already used 29 different starting lineups this season, but Friday’s starting unit was one they had already used. The Heat improved to 1-2 this season when going with this starting lineup.
Newly acquired Delon Wright was not part of the rotation in his first game with the Heat.
The Heat went with a nine-man rotation on Friday that did not include Wright.
The Heat’s four-man bench rotation against the Pelicans included Love, Duncan Robinson, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Haywood Highsmith.
Wright, 31, signed with the Heat for the rest of the season during the All-Star break after agreeing to a buyout with the Washington Wizards.
Whether Friday’s DNPCD is a sign of things to come for Wright with the Heat or simply because he just joined the team days ago remains to be seen. The expectation is that Wright will get some opportunities to play off the bench, especially while Josh Richardson and/or Terry Rozier are out because of injury.
“He’s a guy that figures it out and we thought it would be a good fit for him and us, for the reasons of how he plays and how he competes and how he prioritizes defense and how disruptive he is on that side of the floor,”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Friday’s game when asked about Wright. “Then offensively, he’s always been a guy that just fits in, sets up a team. And those kinds of guys have a way of making it work quickly.”
Before being ejected, Butler continued his impressive streak from three-point range.
Butler’s three-point surge has been a seasonlong trend, as he has now made a three-pointer in 11 straight appearances for the longest streak of his NBA career.
For the season, Butler is shooting an ultra-efficient 38 of 85 (44.7 percent) from three-point range this season. Butler has never shot better than 40 percent from behind the arc in a season during his NBA career, with his previous career-best mark coming in his second NBA season when he made 38.1 percent of his threes in 2012-13.
Butler, who is in his fifth season with the Heat, shot just 26.6 percent on 1.9 three-point attempts per game in his first four regular seasons with the team.
More tough road games are ahead.
After playing in Sacramento, the Heat then closes the trip with matchups against the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday and Denver Nuggets on Thursday.
Starting with the Pelicans, three of the four games during the Heat’s trip come against teams with winning records. The Heat’s only game during this week-long stretch against an opponent with a losing record comes Tuesday against Portland.
This will test the Heat, which is 13-17 this season in games against teams that entered Sunday with a winning record.