Despite over two dozen lead changes and entering the final quarter knotted at 88, the Miami Heat were unable to close the door on the Utah Jazz Saturday, losing 117-109 inside Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
It was a dismal shooting performance for both teams, though two late 3-pointers from Keyonte George and Lauri Markkanen with less than three minutes left all but sealed the Heat’s fate. Miami shot 43.6 percent from the floor, but converted on just nine of their 31 3-point attempts. Conversely, the Jazz shot 46.2 percent, but finished 11-of-41 (26.9 percent) from deep after beginning 4-of-28.
Bam Adebayo led all scorers with 28 points, hauling in 16 rebounds with three assists, three steals and three blocks. He shot 7-of-13 from the floor and took half (20) of the Heat’s 40 free throws, converting on 14 of them. Tyler Herro finished with 25 points on 9-of-22 from the floor. Jimmy Butler only played 23 minutes before exiting with a foot injury and Haywood Highsmith played 26 minutes before exiting with an injury late in the final period.
Kevin Love and Duncan Robinson were the Heat’s only two double figures corers, tallying 12 and 11 points, respectively. Collin Sexton led Utah with 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting, though George–who nailed five of Utah’s 11 3s–finished with 21 points in 27 minutes off the bench, in addition to six rebounds and a pair of assists.
Lauri Markkanen battled foul trouble, finishing with 12 points in 26 minutes; Simone Fontecchio had 12 points with seven boards in 31 minutes; former Heat forward Kelly Olynyk dazzled with 19 points, six rebounds and 10 assists; Walker Kessler and John Collins finished with 10 points apiece.
As a result of Saturday’s loss, the Heat, who were the first team to 10 road wins this season, drop to 19-13 this season while Utah–coming off a long road trip–improves to 14-19. Miami will continue this five-game road trip Monday against the Los Angeles Clippers.
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Spo made a mistake starting Hampton imo.
Should’ve started Highsmith in his place.
RJ isn’t ready for prime time yet, needs more seasoning.
He couldn’t slow down Sexton and he couldn’t make the Magic pay for ignoring him on the other end either.
I have no problem with him coming off the bench but if you’re going to be in the starting lineup you have to be able to guard or at least make defenses pay for ignoring you.
RJ could do neither.
On the other hand I like Jovic as a starter next to Bam, especially when he gets to handle the ball.
He has a high bbiq and is already one of the team’s best passers.
Dude hasn’t played much but he has already flashed signs of being a high level player.
He’s only played in a few games so far, but he’s managed to be 1st on the team in TS%, 3rd in FT rate, 2nd in reb%, 1st in AST%, 3rd in WS/48 and 3rd in BPM.
He’s also 1st on the team in plus/minus per 100 poss.
Dude’s going to make mistakes because of his age and lack of nba experience but he’s going to learn fast because young players with high bbiqs usually do.
All he needs is playing time.
Bam was the sht in that game, he was constantly making fools out of Utah players by getting them to bite on his pump fakes but he still needs to control those boneheaded turnovers he seems to get every game and he needs to regain his earlier season focus at the ft line.
Herro can flat out put the ball in the basket but he needs to get to the line more.
Dude needs to work on his ability to draw and sell contact so that he doesn’t just become another volume scorer.
We can’t seem to get a run of good health at all.
Just when it seems we might finally be getting healthy a player gets hurt.
And when that player comes back another MF gets hurt.
It’s as though all Miami Heat rivals along with Adam Silver got together and conjured up an evil injury demon and then unleashed it on the Heat locker room.
Maybe the Heat should start hiring priests instead of doctors.
Good thing we’re a deep team but we’re still going to need all our best players healthy at some point before the trade deadline to really gauge where we’re at.
like jovic alot also thought his defense was ok.looked like he drew 2 charges but didnt get the calls.his tool box is loaded play him
Agree with almost everything you said but Cain should of got the Start because he sticks pg’s better then hh.
KO just killed us.
CHF must run winner circles up there in Canada.
Separate note, how is everyone feeling about the Knicks/Raptors trade?
Seems like the Raptors are finally hitting the reset button, they’re probably out of the playoff race at this point.
The Knicks getting Precious worries me. If it was just OG, I would say it makes the Knicks defense better but their offense worse. With Precious in the mix, they now have four good bigs (Mitchell, Randle, OG, and Precious), plus Brunson who is an aboslute baller, plus all the Villanova guys. I’m officially more worried about the Knicks than I am about the Sixers
Interesting trade.
Raptors had to do something. They changed the coach, gave it some time and they still underperformed. So, from their point of view it is logical. More trades might follow.
The Knicks will be a very tough defensive team nobody will want to face in the playoffs.
Mitchell is OFS, so they needed a center. One more reason to go for this trade.
Precious on the knicks doesn’t scare me. He still only 6’8, and bam would eat him in the post. The knicks probably got a lil better defensively, but there bench got worst. Now Brunson, and other starters will have to play more minutes, and thibs will wear them out by the end of the season. Plus now they only got 2 players that can create there own shot,so it will be easier to defend them .
Goran retiring…sad he could’ve won a ring with us. Lets give him a 10day contract then win it all 😁
Thanks to the Dragon for all those years he carried the Heat.
I honestly think he would have helped now, especially when Lowry doesn’t play.
Listened on Heat radio, as my area had League blackout. What surprised me though was how I kept hearing Olynyk touching the Heat. Thought the Heat coaches know him (being a former Heat bench player) too well to allow him do much damage to the Heat from the bench.
At one point KellyO faked a handoff and drove for a layup. On the TV Broadcast, Eric Reid couldn’t resist calling it a “Kelly Keeper”.
Also shoutout to Canadian Heat Fan.
But Danny Ainge still sucks
tough game, literally and metaphorically. Dudes were getting knocked around out there.
In the big picture, this game doesn’t really matter. Heat are a top-6 seed, they’re on a road trip, just crushed the Warriors, and lost a game at altitude while dealing with a bunch of injuries. It’s a long season, games like this happen. Also, I’m used to watching the Heat take big leads and blow them. It was fun to watch a game that was close from start to finish.
My one complaint was that I was really hoping Tyler was going to step up in the 4th quarter. Win or lose, I have been saying that the next step for Tyler is to be the guy that steps up when the Heat need a bucket, or be the guy who gets the ball in close games.
Otherwise, no big deal. Fun game, too many injuries, on to the next one.
Agree on the Ty comments.,That is the last step, but maybe the hardest step, in development, to be a go to guy in crunch time.
Jazz first win vs above .500 team in 10+ games. Sucks it had to be us but I guess this is better than Raps breaking Pistons losing streak. Also in other games…Haliburton with 23 assts to beat NY 😲🤯
Congrats to the Pistons!
We just cannot get or stay healthy. It’s getting ridiculous.
Yeah…just when I thought we get to test our healthy or almost healthy lineup in these west road games 😳
Reason, why staying healthy is the most important X- FACTOR in this game
Gonna be three more rough games coming up. Heat will be lucky to wind up 2-1 and 3-2 on this road trip. Looks like Butler and Highsmith might be out a few. Jovic and Hampton aren’t ready. Gonna need more Orob, Bryant and Cain next few games. Pat should be looking at possible trades before deadline.
GO HEAT!!!
rj cant play jovic can.made some silly fouls but has lots tools in toolbox.thought his d was good.looked like he took a charge but got screwed on call .made both of his 3s.can rebound ,dribbles very well and good passer.just needs pt
If Lowry, Richardson and Martin hadn’t been out and Butler had been 75%, the Heat would have won easily.
Hampton and Jovic both have a lot of potential but are still very raw. The team can’t afford their lack of focus and unforced errors. Spo and the veterans don’t have the patience to go through their growth period while they are going through their trial and error stages. They started off playing sloppy and it became contagious. You’re right, both players need pt. They would benefit greatly from a couple of months in G League. Let them screw up there while they are gaining experience and developing skills. That’s what G League is for. On the other hand, I think Cain is more prepared to stay in the rotation. He’s a better offensive player than Highsmith and a good defender.
Jimmy hasn’t looked right for a while. He needs to stay home and rahabilitate whatever is ailing him. He’s no good to the team hobbling around giving less than optimal effort. Maybe his age is beginning to catch up to him. Everybody can’t be LeBron.
Next up Clippers. They are ballin lately (8-2 in last 10). It won’t be easy to win, especially if rotation players are still out. If Jaquez starts again and does well, I can see the departure of Jimmy happening sooner than later. Jimmy’s contract is secure this season and next ($93.9M) and he has a player option for $52.4M in 2025-26. Jaquez is guaranteed $7.2M over the next two seasons and has a team option totalling $8.8M for the following two (2025-26 and 2026-27). That is a total of $16M over four seasons. I can’t see the Heat giving Jimmy a max extension beyond 25-26 playing the way he is lately. That means he may be on the trading block this offseason or before the trade deadline next season. If Miami is going to trade him, they need to do it while his market value is still high. I’m sure there are playoff caliber teams out there who have young assets and picks they are willing to trade.
Oh well. It is what it is. Onward and upward. Next stop L.A.
GO HEAT!!!
Any Jimmy trade is gonna get ugly like the Lillard trade did.
His stats belie his worth to us, he’s on a massive contract, and his leadership for the young guys is unquantifiable.