A strong second half from LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers powered them past the Miami Heat 117-108 Wednesday evening inside Crypto.com Arena.
The Heat held a 14-point first-half lead and a 12-point advantage heading into the break. But a quick 16-5 Lakers spurt cut the deficit to one with over six minutes left in the third quarter. Duncan Robinson’s one-handed slam in semi-transition eventually widened it back to double digits with four minutes left, though Los Angeles ended the quarter on a 10-2 run to make it a one-possession game heading into the final quarter.
Former Heat guard Gabe Vincent gave the Lakers an 88-87 lead with 10:47 left. Alec Burks tied it at 92 moments later, but the Heat were unable to get back in front the remainder of the contest. Three straight baskets from James buoyed the advantage to nine points with less than two minutes left, which was practically all she wrote.
James, Hachimura and Vincent combined to score 25 points in the fourth quarter alone–two more than the Heat had in its entirety (23). Miami couldn’t generate enough offense outside of “Herro Ball” from Tyler Herro, who put together another spectacular 34-point performance on 12-of-18 shooting and 7-of-12 from 3-point range.
In total, the Los Angeles Lakers outscored the Miami Heat 63-42 in the second half. On the night as a whole, Miami coughed the rock up 13 more times while finishing with 24 fewer points in the paint.
On a more positive note, Miami did have a very encouraging performance from Kel’el Ware off the bench, tallying eight points and 11 rebounds. The 7-foot backup big made multiple heady plays while also blocking Anthony Davis (on his very first play) and breaking up multiple lobs defensively in his 18 minutes of action. Nikola Jovic finished with 12 points and eight assists while Haywood Highsmith had 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
Ultimately, it wasn’t enough to supplement Herro down the stretch.
Miami concludes the road-trip 3-3 and will return home for Friday’s contest against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. That won’t be what people want to see, however, as Jimmy Butler returns from his seven-game suspension.
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This will be an interesting night.
I wonder if Butler will show up.
Hey Pat…Just do it!
Heat gets: DeRozan, Vucevic and Huerter
Sacramento gets: Butler
Chicago gets: Robinson, Larsson and Sacramento’s 2027 first round pick
demar and vuc yeah right switch out dunc larsson for jjj or jovic
JJJ & Jovic are rotation players. Larsson isn’t. Expiring contract, pick and player on rookie contract should pacify Chicago.
ok makes sense.sounds great on paper.sac was better w/o demar
We expected Terry to be that microwave scorer, possibly helping Herro. Guy hasn’t even been a toaster. Don’t expect him to be moved. They will use his expring next year to match salaries with someone. Bet that.
microwave was vinny terry is a freezer
One heck of a 6th man for a couple years
Time to put him back as 6th man, and run herro as point, and dunc at sg.
burks better than dunc a bc of ty and dunc aint gonna work big.
Dunc in the starting lineup provides more spacing and more wide open shots for him. Also when dunc was starting it made us one of best offensive units in the league. Ik burks is better that’s why I want dunc to start cuz it’ll let get burks get more minutes. Dunc could start and play 15 mins.
look at 3pt %s and tell me who the better spacers are
best 6th man ever i got ginobli
Fought hard to stay awake to watch the game after dinner. Going into half time I was glad the Heat were leading, so I dozed off. 7 Hours later, I woke up confident that the Heat beat the Lakers as they had a good zone defense against the Lakers for the most part of the half, on offense Hero was doing his thing, Jovic, JJJ, Ware were very active in the first half. Only to look at the final game score and was shocked they lost the game. Got to watch the 2nd half to fully understand what happened.
shocked u must be from another planet.
U guessed right! Truly I was, remembering how the Heat handed the Lakers a loss in their earlier meeting and seeing how this was going for the Heat in the first half, I thought it was a done deal.
It was a done deal, before LBJ started going leclutch mode, also we had way too many turnovers, that helped lakers score off of our dumb mistakes. Lastly ad was cooking in the 2nd half, ware should of closed the game because he was that rim protection we needed. Spo gotta change the starting lineup.
Yet to watch the replay. Thanks for filling me up on the miscues that occurred in the 2nd half. I do hope that Spo will start using Ware more for ring protection when it is needed instead of someone else other than Bam. Spo has used Highsmith, JJJ, Love and Jovic when Ware has proved that he is more than capable to protect the ring and block shots. Perhaps, Spo prefers the versatility of others over Ware because they have more lateral mobility in the wings and can also protect the perimeter when needed, since Spo likes a fluid defense instead of a static defense which a traditional big offers.
Yes, you’re right spo likes a fluid defense, but sometimes you just gotta adjust. When you watch the game you’ll see what I’m talking about. Ware was special in that 2 quarter, especially with jovic passing the ball like jokic feeding the big. Ware was looking almost unstoppable. Soon as Ware got in he blocked AD shot. He also made rui and Reaves scared to attack the paint .
In addition to Butler ($48.8M), Riley needs to trade Rozier ($24.9M) and Robinson ($19.4M).
That’s $93M+ in salaries this year and $99M+ next year. What a waste. Start by trading Butler for at least one quality player, then trade the other two for another one.
What is going on with Bam? 10 points and 4 rebounds? WTF? 16.0 ppg, 9.6 rpg season averages and subpar defense? Maybe he’s also upset that Riley hasn’t brought in more top level talent? Maybe he’s just overworked and overwhelmed trying to hold down the fort by himself. Spo needs to start Ware and Bam at power forward. Riley needs to trade for another center to rotate in the post with Ware. Bam cannot compete with the taller NBA centers. However, he would demolish most NBA power forwards.
The Heat need to replace Butler, Rozier and Robinson with another quality starter (or two). DeRozan, Vucevic, Ingram, Porter, Collins, Kuzma, Williamson, somebody.
With today’s loss, the Heat dropped to 9th place at 20-19. The good news is that they are only 2 games behind 22-17 4th place Milwaukee.
No rest for the weary. Denver at home on Friday.
i thought blockinson was 15 sun when did block get a raise 1million for every block?
all those contracts come off the books the year after next. Free agents that year include DeAron Fox and Luka
Who couldn’t envision Luka coming to Goran’s club? But no, let’s straddle ourselves with Beal’s contract instead.
yeah, whenever people say Riley is doing a bad job I want to scream. This team was in the NBA Finals 18 months ago, and they are 18 months away from having Bam, Tyler, JJJ, Jovic, Ware, and a hundred million dollars in cap space. There is no other team in the NBA with this combination of recent success, young talent, and future flexibility.
Testify!
Tyler Herro led all scorers with 34 points. The next 6 highest scorers all played for the Lakers.
Trade Jimmy, get Tyler some help
I just saw this. I would do it to end the drama.
Sacramento Kings get: Jimmy Butler, Alec Burks
Miami Heat get: DeMar DeRozan, Tim Hardaway Jr., 2028 first-round pick (top-four protected, via SAC)
Detroit Pistons get: Kevin Huerter, Trey Lyles, 2029 first-round pick swap option (via SAC)
I posted that earlier. I also suggested Miami follow it up with a second trade with Chicago.
TRADE #2:
Chicago receives: Duncan Robinson, Terry Rozier, *Sacto first round pick
Miami Heat receives: Lonzo Ball and Nikola Vucevic
Miami Line-up:
Vucevic, Bam, DeRozan, Herro, Jaquez
Ware, Jovic, Highsmith, Hardaway, Ball
Love, Larsson, Richardson, Johnson, Stevens
dunc n terry couldnt get u michael doleac .when jimmy goes face to face with one of the richest men in the world hopefully something sinks into his blue hair.the heat are prob stuck with the quitter for the remainder of the year.what gms gonna want him around his team sun.
your the capologist apronologist leave trades to sun.lol
help (warebam)hardly plays
As referenced above, the Heat had 19 turnovers to 6 for the Lakers. That hurt as much as anything LeBron did. Underachievement by Bam, Rozier, and Duncan didn’t help either.
I cant remember when Rosier had a good game last time. If Dru would be healthy, he would already sit at the end of the bench.
Ware was great.
last year before he blew out his knee or neck wtf it was.been a while vagi.rc holding out for that breakout game