MIAMI – If you didn’t know any better, you’d think the Miami Heat are determined to try to recreate last season’s playoff run that began in the play-in rounds.
Given the opportunity to begin moving out of the play-in bracket, where one or two losses can lead to elimination before the NBA playoffs begin, the Heat instead opened a critical four-game Friday night home games with a 111-88. loss at Kaseya Center against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Against an opponent playing on the second night of a back-to-back set, an opponent that got just four points from Zion Williamson, the Heat struggled to create any semblance of offense.
Part of that credit goes to a Pelicans defense determined to stifle the Heat, who entered having won the previous seven matchups.
And maybe part of that was because Heat forward Jimmy Butler promised another win in the immediate wake of the Heat’s brawl-marred victory a month ago in New Orleans.
On a night where the Heat closed 13 of 47 (.277) on 3-pointers, the Heat got 17 points from Butler and 12 points and 10 rebounds from center Bam Adebayo.
“They said certain things in the media. We heard it and we wanted to respond,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said, referring to Butler’s comment in February. “That’s what makes it fun.”
Even in defeat, Butler stood by his comment that the Heat were then and now better than the Pelicans.
“I hope this has added fuel to the fire. It’s great,” he said near his locker. “They had a great game plan, they made shots. They came out here and stole one. I’m going to stick with it. what I said. We’re still the better team. You can’t win them all. We should have won that one. We definitely should have done that. But we’ll be fine.
The Pelicans, who lost Thursday night in Orlando with the Heat idle and missing guard Brandon Ingram, got 30 points from CJ McCollum, who shot 6 of 12 from 3-point range, part of the team’s 18 of 36 Pelicans beyond. the bow.
“Our aggression, our body movements, our player movements, those were not examples of our best work,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And they made us pay the price for that. »
It was the first win in Miami since 2017 for the Pelicans, who topped the Heat 56-34.
The Heat played again with the injury absences of Duncan Robinson, Tyler Herro, Kevin Love and Josh Richardson, those absences being indicative of the loss that dropped the Heat to 17-16 at home, with the Cleveland Cavaliers next in head on Sunday.
“If we play with the right energy,” Adebayo said, “it doesn’t matter who’s in or out.”
Five degrees of heat during Friday night’s game:
1. Closing time: The Heat trailed 21-20 at the end of the first half, 46-42 at halftime and 76-66 at the start of the fourth quarter.
The Heat then opened the fourth quarter with a lineup consisting of Thomas Bryant, Caleb Martin, Cole Swider, Delon Wright and Jaime Jaquez Jr.
“I thought we would be able to keep him close enough to take a chance,” Spoelstra said.
Adebayo then came back, Spoelstra had to stop with 10:34 left and his team down 16, reinserting Butler.
It didn’t matter as the Pelicans went up 20 with 7:35 to play.
“As we continued, our defensive resolve started to wane,” Spoelstra said.
2. Full-time concentration: The Pelicans played Butler so hard that his first official field goal attempt didn’t come until 7:41 left in the second period, when he went for a desperate 3 points to beat the shot clock (he got at the line earlier following a missed attempt in the first quarter).
Butler’s first basket didn’t come until he converted a layup with 5:14 left in the second quarter.
Before Butler’s first shot, Patty Mills and Martin each made seven attempts from the field, making a combined 2-of-14.
Herb Jones’ defense against Butler was relentless throughout, forcing Butler back to the perimeter even though the Heat lacked shooting.
Butler closed 5 of 12 from the field.
“We’ve been stagnant,” Butler said. “I’ll say that.”
3. The three things: With Robinson missing his second straight game with a back issue, the Heat got off to a 2-of-19 start on 3-pointers, with those conversions coming on an early pair of open corner attempts from Nikola Jovic.
That’s when with 8:04 left in the second period, Spoelstra inserted Cole Swider. The two-way forward, who hadn’t played since the Feb. 26 win over the Sacramento Kings, was not in the mix in the 12 games leading up to Friday.
Swider quickly converted a pair of 3-pointers.
Swider closed with 14 points, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range.
“It’s not an easy role to go in there and see, ‘All right, there were a bunch of missed shots, I need to go in there and clean it up,’” Spoelstra said. “He deserved those opportunities, maybe even more as the season went on.”
The Heat were 5 of 26 on 3-pointers at halftime and 9 of 37 (.243) heading into the fourth.
“At one point, they doubled, tripled, quadrupled the paint protection, just daring us to shoot,” Spoelstra said. “At the same time, there were opportunities where we could have moved our bodies more.”
4. Disarm Adebayo: The last time he played, Adebayo didn’t attempt a shot in the fourth quarter in Monday night’s 98-91 loss at Philadelphia, then missed Wednesday night’s win at Cleveland with a bruised neck. back. This time he only had five attempts early in the fourth quarter, closing 5 of 7.
“I feel like we just came out of a flow,” Adebayo said of the Pelicans’ zone impact.
The lack of attempts came even as the Pelicans played small, opening the second half with Larry Nance Jr. at center in place of starter Jonas Valanciunas.
“I feel like for us we just have to do the little things, the details on screens, get guys open,” Adebayo said of being able to get shooting totals against teams that were racing the painting. “Also, we need to share the ball and find ways to get open shots.”
Adebayo nevertheless extended his streak of games with at least one three-pointer to five, with a conversion in the fourth quarter. Additionally, Bryant, his replacement, converted a pair of 3-pointers in the third period.
5. Zion’s point of view: The Heat’s first-half woes came even though the Pelicans’ Williamson was held scoreless in the first half for the first time in his career.
Williamson missed all four of his shots in the first two periods, only scoring after converting a dunk 37 seconds into the second half.
Although the Pelicans pushed their lead to 14 in the third period, Williamson had just four points in the first three quarters, with no need to come back in the fourth.
