The Miami Heat gave its fans another reason to feel infuriated with a despicable choke job at home against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night.
On the same evening when franchise legend Udonis Haslem watched his iconic #40 jersey lifted up to the rafters of the Heat’s home arena, Miami surrendered a 9-point third quarter lead and a 4-point edge with 35 seconds left.
A game-winning triple by Hawks guard Dejounte Murray with two seconds remaining on the game clock paved the way for Atlanta to win a third straight contest and snap Miami’s 22-game winning streak at home against Southeast Division adversaries. It was also the first loss handed to the Heat by a division opponent this season.
A 10-1 Heat run including 5 consecutive points by Jimmy Butler, a Bam Adebayo turnaround jumper, and a Tyler Herro 3-ball give Miami it’s cushion with a little over half a minute to play.
The downfall began when Josh Richardson fouled Bogdan Bogdanovic on a pass catch. With Miami in the bonus, the Serbian trooped to the foul link and made both charities. Then instead of having Butler make a play to seal the contest, the Heat went with a ridiculous Herro isolation, leading to a well-contested jumper from the baseline.
Atlanta coach Quinn Snyder didn’t call time-out, paving the way for Murray to pull up shortly after crossing halfcourt and providing Miami with a figurative slap on the face, which was warranted given the frequency of low-IQ basketball the Heat played with all evening long.
Miami had one more chance to win the contest but couldn’t even get a shot up as Caleb Martin dribbled the clock off after Butler was trapped in the corner on the catch. The Heat have now lost two straight games against below .500 clubs, preventing itself from moving up a tight Eastern Conference standings race.
Butler had 25 points and 6 dimes on 8-10 shooting. Adebayo had 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists. Herro finished with 25 points and 6 rebounds. Caleb Martin and Duncan Robinson combined for 24 markers.
The Heat made a change to their starting unit by inserting Martin and having Kyle Lowry come off the bench, but Atlanta still led after the first period by eight.
Miami shot 46% from the field but turned the ball over 16 times. The Hawks drilled 15 of their 35 attempts from deep and were paced by Murray’s 22 markers on as many shot attempts.
The Heat are back in action on the road on Sunday against Orlando, who like Atlanta entering Friday’s contest are 0-2 against Miami this season.
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P.S. The Hawks lost tonght to Cleveland by 21. Jus sayin.
Ya’ll wrong about Jovic.
In fact I think it is the opposite, Spo is not playing the kid enough.
Bam and Jovic have looked good together, they’re +5.6 in plus/minus for the season, the best on the team.
We’ve been playing like dog sht since Jimmy has been back but Jovic is still +9 in those 3 games.
The more I watch the kid play the more I come to believe that we struck gold with that pick.
We’re losing right now and everybody is looking for a scapegoat so they’re picking on the kid because he’s the easiest target.
But I completely disagree, in fact I think Spo is making a mistake not playing him more in 4th quarters next to Bam.
I’m dead serious when I say that I would trade anybody on this team before I trade Jovic with the exception of Jimmy, Bam and Jaquez.
And Herro.
He has a potential to be an all star.
Poor Heat team. Maybe they deserve all these bashing…it happens. Sucks to see it happened to UD’s night. One thing to do is recover and stack up wins. Get that #4-5 position and get to ecf again and maybe we can all leave this behind us.
GO RAVENS!!!
Spo needs to put Herro in his place.
He’s a 3rd option at best who thinks he’s a 1st.
You can’t have a player with a 55 TS% leading the team in shot attempts.
You’re not going to do a lot of winning.
And to make sh*t worst he’s also a traffic cone on defense.
Jimmy needs to take his open 3s, he absolutely cramps spacing when he’s on the floor.
Teams are not guarding him when he’s off the ball.
It’s bad enough having a C that cramps spacing but having two players on the floor at the same time who refuse to shoot threes in today’s nba is a death knell for any offense.
We all love JRich but him and Bam are one of the worst pairings on the team.
The team hemorrhage points when those 2 share the floor together.
And imo if you can’t share the floor with one of the team’s best players then you probably shouldn’t be on the team at all.
So to sum it all up the Heat look like crap because they’re being led by a 3rd option, their 2 best players can’t spread the floor, their best defenders don’t get any respect from 3, their best 3 point shooters are horrible defenders and Spo becomes the worst coach in the nba in clutch situations.
Its basically just give the ball to Jimmy and let him do what ever the hell he feels like at the moment.
I’m sticking up for Ty. One, he has as good a chance of hitting that shot as anyone. Bam never takes shots late and Jimmy misses them. Plus, that play broke down and Ty got left alone on that side with no options as no one else broke free. And I remind everyone, he made the three that gave us the 4 point lead. It’s fair that Ty gives up something on the d side, but on offense, he is a good option and has made some clutch shots over time.
We sometimes see things differently, but not on this issue. Herro could be more efficient, but he is a volume shooter who might go 0-5 and then 7-8. He was definitely not the problem yesterday. He was over 50% in both shooting categories.
And I’m not against Butler shooting 3s occasionally, but never when we’re down 1 or 2 points. This is one of Butler’s best 3p% in his career. He is a career 32.4%. It’s not who he has been in his career.
Fire Spo! Trade Tyler! Pat needs to retire! This is a losing franchise! Im gonna change teams…go Sonics! Are they still in the league?
Trailblazers? 😆
This may have been the worst loss in Heat history. Did it affect playoff position? Not really. Were they embarrassed in a key playoff game? No. But I don’t think there was any game in the 35 years I’ve been watching that had this ensemble of Heat royalty in attendance. For one of 3 players who have played for the same team 20 seasons. Made me feel sick.
I’m a Spo supporter and admirer, but this loss was entirely his fault. Some things he did or didn’t do:
*The biggest problem by far was playing Lowry for 9 1/2 minutes in the 4th quarter. Inexplicable and inexcusable.
*Starting Jovic again. Yes, some things are intriguing there, but he’s not ready for prime time yet.
*Could have called a time out before the Herro miss when we were up 2 points. If Herro makes that shot, we’re up by 4 with 9.8 seconds left. He didn’t.
*Now maybe some would consider it unsportsmanlike, but I’m a believer that up by 2 with the Hawks having the ball, I’d intentionally foul a player and put him on the line. If he misses one, you win. If he makes both, you’d have about 8 seconds to win on the last shot. Miss and you go into overtime. Don’t forget, there was a time when hack-a-Shaq would’ve been considered unsportsmanlike. Now, all teams do it.
Of course, Martin not shooting the ball was really really dumb, but I blame that on Spo too. Coach has to be clear during a time out that you only have 2 seconds to get a shot off. If he was clear and Martin dribbles as time runs out, shame on both.
martin was like the last option didnt know wtf to do .what was the play drawn up.thats where a super star is needed we dont have one.not fouling murray im ok with that his 3pt% less than 40%..lets get jjj back hes our third best player and then make some evaluations
Spo drawing up a last second play that has Butler positioned for a corner 3 is wrong at every possible level – he’s not a 3 point shooter, and you only need 2 points to win.
I know you let things play out and challenge your defense to get a stop, but regardless of what the 3 point % is of the opposing player, I still would have taken a chance with that unorthodox move of fouling. My point is, is that with 2 free throws, we couldn’t have lost the game at that point.
maybe have hh out there instead of caleb caleb is athletic but not the defender hh is,y not dunc out there last play hes our best offensive player in the 4th
That was sort of like Mashburn to Weatherspoon.
This loss felt like when the dolphins lost to the titans.
Disgusting!!!
If you take Jaquez away…this is a very mediocre team. The last two losses came against teams with a combined 34-49 record. What will happen when the Heat face Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia at full strength? S-Q-U-A-S-H!!!
Lowry is worthless. Even a retired Dragic could do better. Trade him.
As I’ve said before, Jovic has potential but he isn’t ready yet. He still needs considerable experience, maturity and seasoning. Trade him or send him to G League.
Did I mention that Caleb has a low BBIQ? He’ll opt out this offseason. Trade him.
Thomas Bryant isn’t helping the team. Trade him.
Jimmy seems to think he can coast when he wants and turn it on when he wants. We got a glimse of what he can do if he chooses (playoff Jimmy) late in the game. Unfortunately, it was too little…too late. 10 shots a game isn’t going to cut it. Sorry Jimmy, it doesn’t work that way. I don’t see a max extension in your future. Hopefully, if there is a trade to be made…it will happen sooner than later while you still have trade value.
Time to go with your best players Spo. Leave the liabilities on the bench, trade them or send them to G League.
Time to make some trades Pat. This team will not make it out of the first round.
Have a nice day and…GO HEAT!
Really bad game, and certainly the worst loss of the season, on the night UD jersey retirement, against bellow average team, without their star.
Its obvious, that Heat have a lot of problems, but most notable is bad shooting.
Where this comes from, whether is a coincidence, that all main scorers are out of the shape at the moment, or this is a sign of deeper problems, should be a object of deeper analysis, but its probably both.
It seems that Heat cannot get enough clean looks, and when they does, then cant hit.
Nobody of main scorers Bam, Herro, Butler, Dunc isnt playing well at the moment. The others are more and less average too.
Moving Lowry to the bench is a clear move to get more scoring. But that’s also means less playmaking.
We desperately need a new point guard, who can score.