The Miami Heat lost their final game of a winless three-game trip 122-114 against the Milwaukee Bucks (2-1) on Monday night at Fiserv Forum. The Heat will now visit Miami to start a three-game home series against the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday:
For the second year in a row, the Heat are now 1-3.
Not surprisingly, Monday’s outcome was the Bucks’ greatest three-player lineup—Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and Khris Middleton—while the Heat was without one of their top players.
In the end, though, the Heat have struggled to start the season for the second year in a row and finished 0-3 on their opening road trip.
With 2:23 remaining in the first quarter, the Bucks took the lead and never looked back. The Heat was behind by 10 points at the half and as much as 25 points in the second half.
With 3:33 left in the fourth quarter, the Heat continued to press, mounting a late 27-10 run to cut the 25-point deficit to eight points. During the majority of that fourth-quarter surge, Miami’s starting lineup included Tyler Herro, Josh Richardson, Duncan Robinson, Nikola Jovic, and Orlando Robinson.
With 1:22 remaining, Duncan Robinson made a floater to reduce the Heat’s deficit to six points.
With 1:16 remaining, Antetokounmpo finished over Orlando Robinson for a and-one layup, seemingly sealing the deal for the Bucks against the Heat. The three-point play was completed by Antetokounmpo’s free throw, increasing Milwaukee’s advantage to nine points.
However, with 28.6 seconds remaining, a three-pointer by Duncan Robinson reduced the deficit to six once more. On the following possession, the Bucks committed a five-second penalty, which allowed the Heat to continue.
With 18.9 seconds remaining, Herro missed a three-point shot, and Antetokounmpo grabbed the defensive rebound to put an end to the Heat’s hopes of pulling off a comeback.
“We deserved that 25-point deficit, and then that young group came in and played some really good basketball, and I think Milwaukee was just trying to see how long they could play, and hopefully they would go away,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra stated. However, our players made some excellent moves outside. That is a promising portion.
The main narrative going into the game was Lillard facing the Heat for the first time since he had asked to be traded to Miami in the offseason.
Lillard ended with 25 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Last month, the Portland Trail Blazers dealt with the Bucks instead of Lillard.
Three Bucks players finished with double digit points, topped by Antetokounmpo’s 33. Lillard was one of them.
Before making their huge fourth-quarter comeback, the Heat struggled to produce effective offense while playing without starting center Bam Adebayo due to a hip injury.
The Heat had only made six of their twenty-three three-point attempts (26.1%) and seven of those from within the restricted area through the first three quarters.
In the fourth quarter, the Heat shot 15 of 23 (65.2%) from the field and 7 of 11 (63.6%) from three-point range, but they still finished with a dismal offensive rating on Monday (109.5 points scored per 100 possessions).
Herro led the Heat to a game-high 35 points at the end of the game, making an effective 12 of 21 field goals and 9 of 10 foul shots.
Tyler was excellent tonight, in Spoelstra’s opinion.
Beyond the defeat, Herro’s only significant blemish on his Monday stat line was the missed free shot that snapped his 48-game string of consecutive made free throws. He fell two short of breaking Glen Rice’s 1994 Heat record of 50 straight made free throws.
Herro declared, “I think this is the best I’ve felt all season,” after scoring 35 points. Simply slowing down mentally, finding my areas, and involving men. Even if we are only in our fourth or fifth game of the season, I plan to keep improving, being more patient, and becoming more at ease in my position. So I’m good. I’ll be alright.
Jimmy Butler finished Monday’s loss with 13 points on 4-of-11 shooting from the field, four rebounds, and four assists in 29 minutes, continuing his early-season shooting woes. Just 13 of 40 (32.5%) of his field goals have come from him in the Heat’s first four games.
Spoelstra continued to use the starting lineup that produced the late-game surge—Herro, Richardson, Jovic, Duncan Robinson, and Orlando Robinson—instead of bringing Butler into the game during the fourth quarter.
During the last 7:23 of the game, that group scored nine points more than the Bucks.
Regarding his choice to start Butler late in the game rather than switching to the closing lineup, Spoelstra remarked, “Those guys earned that.” “I am aware that there is always some sort of discussion about that. Do you reintroduce your guys? It was still a lead of double digits. Everyone had probably psychologically checked out of the game by that point and had cooled off a lot, so those guys were shifting the momentum.
The Heat’s early-season injury problems are still present.
Based on Spotrac’s injury tracker, the Heat concluded the previous regular season with the second-highest number of games missed (289) due to injuries; unfortunately, that terrible pattern has persisted thus far this season.
In each of the first four regular season games, the Heat have been missing several rotation players.
Adebayo (left hip contusion) and Caleb Martin (left knee tendinitis), two players who are anticipated to be important members of the bench rotation, were both out for the Heat on Monday.
After suffering a hip injury during a “hard spill” during Saturday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Adebayo missed his first game of the season.
Prior to Monday’s game, Spoelstra said of Adebayo, “It was pretty sore when we got into town yesterday and it didn’t get much better today.”
Due to persistent knee pain from offseason exercises, Martin missed his third consecutive game on Monday. Meanwhile, Highsmith has not played this season after spraining his knee during the preseason.
The Heat have started three different starting lineups in their first four games of the season due to injury concerns.
Adebayo was replaced on the starting lineup by the Heat’s four other regular starters, Kyle Lowry, Kevin Love, Herro, and center Thomas Bryant.
Positive news, though, was that Richardson made his season debut after recovering from an injury.
Richardson returned to the Heat in Milwaukee and faced the Bucks after missing the first three games of the season due to a foot injury and spending the first two games of the trip in Miami.
With 6:02 remaining in the first quarter, Richardson came off the bench for his first action of the season on Monday. With 10:05 left in the second quarter, he made his first basket of the year, a 14-foot jumper.
In 23 minutes off the bench, Richardson completed the game with six points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field, three rebounds, and two assists. He played a part in the Heat’s unsuccessful late-game comeback.
About his comeback, Richardson remarked, “It was good.” It’s been a minute since I wanted to play. I can’t wait to play. It was nice to be able to go outside with the boys. However, I wish we could have won. However, I believe we made progress, so we’ll continue.
Following their one-game absences, Love (shoulder) and Butler (rest) both made a comeback on Monday. Butler and Love were not present for the Minneapolis setback on Saturday.
The Heat were once again forced to alter their bench rotation due to injuries.
The Heat changed their bench lineup on Monday after Adebayo missed his first game of the season and Richardson returned. Orlando Robinson, Duncan Robinson, Jaime Jaquez Jr., and Richardson made up the Heat’s four-man bench rotation.
Orlando Robinson and Richardson were the newest members of the bench unit. Richardson is anticipated to be a consistent contributor off the bench, but Orlando Robinson only served as Bryant’s backup center before he was substituted into the starting lineup in place of the injured Adebayo.
Orlando Robinson, who hasn’t been in the Heat’s starting lineup this season, had 11 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists in his final 26 minutes of play on Monday.
Jovic also joined the game with the Bucks leading by 17 points with 7:23 remaining in the fourth quarter. Jovic played the last 7:23 of the game and finished with five points and four rebounds, showing effectiveness in his short playing time.
RJ Hampton, Dru Smith, and Jamal Cain were among the eligible Heat players who were active but did not play on Friday.
Considering that Smith started all three of the season’s games and played ten or more minutes in each of the two games prior, it is noteworthy that he was left out of Monday’s rotation. However, Richardson’s comeback forced Smith out of the starting lineup.
The Heat have a homestand coming up, but they also have another lengthy road trip coming up.
This tour of three games, which concluded with Monday’s defeat, signaled the beginning of a 16-game span that will include 12 away games. Additionally, the Heat are 0-3 during this difficult 16-game stretch of the schedule, so things aren’t going well.
Now, the Heat will play a three-game homestand in Miami.
However, the Heat will travel once more in a week for a four-game trip, beginning on November 8 with a game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Heat have played the most away games of any NBA club this season with 12 away games in their first 17 games.
Therefore, to overcome this early-season slump, the Heat will have a difficult schedule over the following four weeks.
Richardsons remarked, “We’re not starting out like we want to.” “So, we need to react and get started right away.”
