The Miami Heat went away from the identity that won them a game against the Indiana Pacers just a few nights ago. Their Sunday night rematch ended sour, dropping the game 119-110 in Indiana. Tyler Herro’s valiant fourth quarter heroics once again went to waste, as the Heat couldn’t get the stops needed down the stretch to steal the road win.
The six-game road trip concludes with a rough 2-4 record, and drop to 5-7 on the season. Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton handed Miami a pair of dagger triples late in the fourth, after Herro dropped 19 points during the period to keep his team in the game. He finished the night with 28/4/4 on 7/11 from 3-point range, and has averaged 5.3 3-point makes per game on 50% shooting beyond the arc on this trip.
Indiana killed the Heat inside the paint, with a 62-28 advantage led by Myles Turner’s 34 points. The Pacers frontcourt duo with Turner and Pascal Siakam had huge bounce back performances after struggling in the previous matchup. Siakam finished with 23 points on an efficient 9/11 shooting. Kel’el Ware received a DNP, coach’s decision, in an outing where interior size was needed.
Outside of Herro filling up the box score once again, Bam Adebayo continued his impressive stretch of games. The big man finished with 24 points and 8 rebounds on 9/18 shooting, including 2/4 from deep. Duncan Robinson’s 20 points on 60% shooting also provided a nice impact off the bench.
However, the rest of the Heat rotation struggled to provide any sort of spark. Terry Rozier is in the midst of arguably the worst stretch of his career, as he was inefficient in his 27 minutes once again. Perhaps a role change to sixth man off the bench could salvage Rozier’s season and provide some nice balance to Miami’s lineups, but something needs to be done with his poor production.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. also left the game in the second half due to an ankle sprain that featured him limp to the locker room. The expectation is that Jaquez will be missing some time, opening room for another rotation piece to step up and earn minutes.
Creating turnovers has been an asset to the team’s game that has led to wins this season, including Friday night against this same Pacers squad. But they made the necessary adjustments and had more control of the basketball, limiting themselves to just 10 turnovers compared to the 20 they committed the previous game. Indiana also had the shooting efficiency advantage as a team, going 52% from the field to Miami’s 40%.
Jimmy Butler’s return to the lineup seems imminent, and could come as soon as tomorrow in the second night of a back-to-back at home against the Philadelphia 76ers. It will be interesting to see if any rotation changes could take place to shake things up in what has been a disappointing start to the 2024-25 season.
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Rozier’s body language coming out of the scrimmage seems odd. I do not think he likes the play calls very much. I am really rooting for him to succeed. He has been a good and willing facilitator, but having the ball out of his hands, I think has affected his scoring efficiency. He has played well in other ways, like steals, rebounds etc.
Missed opportunity…
With game tied at 97-97 and 5:15 minutes left in the 4th qtr, I thought the Heat had a decent chance to w in. Siakam in foul trouble with 5 fouls and the Pacers in the penalty. Was hoping that the Heat will attack Siakam or get more into the paint to draw fouls. Stop the clock and hit free throws. This is where Butler excels, drawing fouls at critical times. It is called situational awareness.Rather, they played around the periphery looking for open 3 and milking away the clock. The momentum swung the other way. Pacers scored 2 quick 3 pts with Haliburton and then 2 free throws. It was not until the 2:37 mark did the Heat drive into the paint to get free throws of their own.
The positive part was for the spirited effort to even the score at 97-97 inspite of being down for the most part of the game. I wish it had ended differently.
Go Heat, Go!
On the plus side, we’re still ahead of the Bucks and the Sixers in the standings
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