Heat fall into first losing streak
NEW YORK — Until Sunday at Madison Square Garden, defeat was a singular sensation for the Miami Heat, yet to lose consecutive games in their first 38 of the season.
Now there is a losing streak, with a 14-point lead blown in what turned into a 124-121 loss to the New York Knicks on the heels of Friday night’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets.
Having gone the deepest into any of their 32 seasons without a losing streak, the Heat have now lost three of their last five.
“We do not need to panic,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, after again lamenting his team’s defensive woes. “We do no need to reinvent the wheel.
“This season has become real for us.”
The loss came despite 25 points, 10 rebounds and six assists from Jimmy Butler, as well as 20 points from Kendrick Nunn, 19 from James Johnson and 15 apiece from Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro.
But this wasn’t about scoring, or, more to the point, Heat scoring.
It was about a defense that was exposed with Friday’s game on the line in Brooklyn and again Sunday.
“I would say we’ve had a good defensive game maybe twice to
three maybe four times for the year, like really, really good defensively,” Butler said. “Every other time we just outscore opponents. We weren’t able to do that tonight. That’s what’s been happening.”
Up 31-27 at the end of the opening period and 60-55 at halftime, the Heat pushed to a 14-point lead in the third period, before going into the fourth ahead 94-84.
It ultimately came down to Butler at the line for three free throws with 21 seconds to play and the Heat down 122-119. He made the first. And the second. But the third was off, in a game he closed 9 of 11 from the line.
There later was one final chance, off an inbounds play with a half-second remaining and the Heat down by the final score, but a 3-pointer by Adebayo came after the buzzer, confirmed by replay.
“This is a team,” Adebayo said, “that can bounce back and figure that out.”
Five degrees of Heat from Sunday’s game:
1. No defense: The Knicks, like the Nets a game earlier, feasted at the rim, this time to the extreme degree of 72 of their points coming in the paint.
“We just weren’t able to protect the rim,” Spoelstra said. “And they were very persistent with it, and that’s something that obviously has been troubling us of late. Our offense hasn’t been there in the fourth quarter to bail us out.
“These are some minor trends that have been building up the last two or three weeks. And I would say in the last two games, they’ve caught up to us.”
Even when the Heat went to a zone, the Knicks drove or passed their way to rim attempts.
2. Uneven ending: It was another get-everyone-involved-first start for Butler, whose first official attempt (a successful driving layup) did not come until 5:17 remained in the opening period, the 11th Heat shot of the game.
But then came the closing struggles, which included coming up short on a jumper with the Heat down 123-121 with 12.7 seconds left and then committing a turnover on a pass to Adebayo with 2.7 seconds left and the Heat down two.
“We’ve been able to bail ourselves out with some of those plays down the stretch,” Spoelstra said of previous games. “These last two nights, we were able to.”
3. Johnson steps up: Johnson again was given a shot with Justise Winslow sidelined, with 10 points and three rebounds in nine firsthalf minutes, including a dynamic alley-oop finish off a Goran Dragic pass.
“I wish it could have come in a win,” he said.
He closed 6 of 7 from the field, with four rebounds, before fouling out after 20:35 of action.
“He stayed ready and he’s been giving us good minutes,” Spoelstra said.
Johnson said he is beginning to again find comfort with the second unit.
“Once we get a feel, I feel that unit is going to blossom,” he said.
4. Winslow stands down: Spoelstra offered only a brief response to a question about Winslow leaving the team Saturday to return to South Florida to see a back specialist.
“We just wanted to get him back and have him visit our medical staff and we’ll have more information when I get back to Miami,” he said. “That’s really all I have for you now.”
Derrick Jones Jr. again played as the Heat’s first reserve, but clearly was outmatched in the minutes the Heat attempted to play him in the power rotation, closing with three points and two rebounds in 18:42.
5. Nunn sense: The Heat are a better team when Nunn is scoring, and a better team when Nunn is scoring in variety of ways.
This time, Nunn was up to 17 points less than eight minutes into the third period, at a stage when he was only 1 of 5 on 3-pointers.
Nunn was particularly effective in transition in the second half, when the Heat moved to the game’s first double-digit lead, but he got only one shot in the fourth quarter, a 3-point conversion.