Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers bested the Miami Heat, 130-120, Sunday evening inside Crypto.com Arena.
The Heat did not lead the entire evening, falling into an 18-point first half deficit that it could not climb out of despite cutting the Laker lead to two points with over 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Miami missed five of its six free-throw attempts and eight of its nine 3-point attempts over the final 12 minutes. The Lakers didn’t shoot much better, but they made timely plays over the final few minutes to put the game out of reach for the Heat, who drop to 4-3 on the season.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. continued his outstanding start to the season, scoring a game-high 31 points on 11-of-16 shooting with eight rebounds and four assists. He was the Heat’s best player, by far, in their 10-point loss. Bam Adebayo and Pelle Larsson finished with 17 points apiece while Andrew Wiggins had 15 points and a team-most nine rebounds.
Miami missed 11 free-throws and shot just 27.3 percent (9-33) from beyond the arc. The Lakers outscored the Heat by 18 points from distance, despite making six fewer free-throws and hauling down one fewer rebound. The Heat also got little contributions from Nikola Jovic and Kel’el Ware, who were expected to be integral pieces heading into the season.
Lakers superstar Luka Doncic notched his first triple-double of the season, finishing with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists on 9-of-22 shooting. Austin Reaves had 26 points and dished out 11 dimes, while Jake LaRavia posted 25 points and eight rebounds on just 13 shots in 35 minutes off the Lakers bench.
Heat will have to have a quick turnaround, playing the Clippers on the second night of a back-to-back Monday before traveling to Denver to close their four-game road-trip on Wednesday.
***
This is a developing news story. Stay tuned for updates!
To check out our other content, click here.
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Twitter/X here!
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Instagram here!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
- Heat escape with 136-131 win over Trail Blazers behind Nikola Jovic’s career night
- NBA GAMETHREAD: Portland Trail Blazers (5-3) @ Miami HEAT (5-4)
- Heat must weather storm in this area amid Bam Adebayo’s absence
- Heat officially announce return of ‘Vice Nights’ uniforms
- GAME PREVIEW: Heat host Blazers on the second night of back-to-back
- Heat earn the bounce back win at home, beat Hornets 126-108
- NBA CUP GAMETHREAD: Charlotte Hornets (3-5) @ Miami HEAT (4-4)
herro for ja do it maybe throw in dru
It’s 3-3 not 4-3. After highs on convincing Ws…experiencing lows now. Thankfully its just 6 games in. Goodbye 3-1 west trip. They might go (gulp) winless here. Btw Happy Birthday, coach Spo! You need to decide better on some lineups lol
The players who are not carrying their loads are Jovic and Ware. They both approach their jobs too casually. They play without mental and physical toughness. I understand they are both young. But its not an age thing. Its a personality thing; they don’t want it bad enough…yet.
If Spo can manage to get the team to mesh once it is at full strength, Miami can be formidable in the playoffs. If he can’t, he and Riley need to have a Plan B to quickly re-tool the team over next summer.
disagree jovic trying hard as he can not playing well really never has consistently since hes been here.ware just not given the pt to demonstrate much.hasnt been noticeably bad when out there but looks like he just doesnt want it enough and all out effort doesnt seem to be there
I’m one who always thought Nico’s potential was limited. And I have tried to stay patient, but it’s been three years now. The improvement promised has not been enough. He got his contract so we have to live with it but it’s getting harder to maintain optimism.
I understand and I have had my doubts as well. I attributed it to youth and immaturity. After his improved performance for Serbia in Europe this past summer I thought (and apparently so did Heat management) that he was ready to make the next jump. However, he has failed to do so. Sometimes I get the impression he is just going through the motions.
I haven’t given up on him yet, but I do expect him to improve his stats in all categories (sooner than later) if he wants to get more playing time. If he doesn’t improve by the trade deadline (or the playoffs at the latest), I can see him on the chopping block, possibly along with Herro and Ware.
Neither is focused 100%. Both need to have a fire lit under their @$$! The Heat cannot be competitive if they are not performing up to snuff. Spo rewards efforts and results. Right now, neither is doing enough to be rewarded with more playing time. Maybe that will change when Powell and Herro are eventually healthy.
nicos effort level is fine hes just not that good as of 3 plus years of watching him .wares effort level not what it should be,but i want that guy in 30 plus minutes reguardless.hes 7ft with skills let him play30 games 30 minutes see what hes got.
Hard to stay in the game when a scrub like Jaxson Hayes is kicking his butt. Jus saying. Hope Zubac doesn’t kill him.
ware didnt start the game when jaxsonhayes was killing us just saying
So he made Bam look bad?
IMO, this is not simply about missing Powell or Herro. It’s about some players not carrying their weight and others not getting enough minutes. Ware has his goofball moments, but he played well in the 4th quarter and shouldn’t have been taken out so quickly. Dru deserved equal minutes to Davion. Simone had a really bad game. Jovic had such a bad first half, he should not have played in the second half.
Bam had a fair game. Wiggins, despite 4 turnovers, had a solid game at 15/9. Pelle is looking like a great pickup and closed 17/5/6. Jaquez was, and has been, spectacular, even though he also had 4 turnovers. 31/8/4!
When Powell returns, the Heat will be better (duh!).
If Jovic doesn’t improve his play soon, he should be relegated to playing garbage time minutes only.
I still see positives on this team, but they need more consistency and more defense.
That’s because Jaquez is aggressive/fearless. Jovic is passive/afraid to mix it up. At his size, he should be a rebounder/inside presence like Jaquez or a perimeter 3 point specialist/playmaking point forward. Right now he is neither. Like Ware, he sometimes seems to zone out and disengage the brain.
Both Ware and Jovic doesn’t get enough opportunities to score. Jovic then force things, and the result is bad efficiently. But at least he tried. Ware took three shots all night (one of them was assisted dunk).
As I said it before, they are both overwhelmed from production of others. Pelle and Simone, both suppose to be the end of the bench players, are both taking more shots then those two.
I m not worried about their offensive game. It will come around sooner or later. I m worried about their defensive game. Jovic was average at the best, but Ware made Hayes looks like an all star. That was also the reason, that he didnt start the second half.
It looks like combining Ware and Bam is not a good thing any more. I have a feeling, that Ware play better with Jovic or as the lone frontcourt player in the small lineup.
jovic played way to many minutes.ware played way to little minutes.u switch their minutes i say we win.on a night when your best player is out mr ademaxo gotta hoist up more than 11 shots.wiggins taking 16 and ademaxo taking 11 not recipe for winning.i commend wiggy for his effort he was giving 100% all night which is all u can ask for a player.i just dont see that in bam all the time.jovic is always giving all out effort unlike ware.please dav give us few more pts son.pelles def a rotation guy just needs to cut those fouls out.with powell back we are a better team .with ty back not sure?
Hayes scored 15 points on him. No wonder that he didnt play much. Jovic didnt reserved minutes either, you are right.
You see things closest to how I do, always have.
Without Norm, Bam and Wiggy suffer from not having other options and thus having to force some shots. Davion and Dru are good point guards and are playing their roles well, but neither are going to be big scorers. If Ty adds to the options, which he will, then when Norm comes back there will be enough options and the shooting by Bam and Wiggins will improve. I believe Ware will start doing better too as the roles become more defined.
I agree on the other things you mentioned also as Pelle seems to be a keeper, and Jovic is a down the rotation guy. I am also unsure that Ty will help as much as some hope because the defense will become an issue. Part of our early success, was not just the run and gun, but solid defense, especially from the starters when we had Norm in there.
I am very appreciative of your point of view. Even though we sometimes jump to conclusions, it’s maybe because we see things and assess them pretty quickly. No one is always right, but we are right far more often than not.
I’m not saying it’s *only* about missing Powell or Herro, but with either (or both) of them in the lineup, then we’re not relying so much on guys who certainly *can* be good, but also have their down games. Clearly, the guys who laid eggs in these last two games are capable of playing better. But it’s not clear that they’re capable of playing the way they did against the Hornets and Grizzlies with a reliable amount of consistency.
As for Ware, Spo is clearly trying to teach him some greater lesson. I do not claim to know what that lesson is or whether it’s a worthwhile one to be teaching. Hopefully a few sacrificed games early on will pay off with a solid end of the season. But who knows, this might be the start of a rift between Spo and Ware that leads to him getting shipped away, which would really suck.
Having Powell and Herro taking up more minutes means that these streaky, inconsistent players are going to have more of a buffer to hide their bad games. And hopefully Spo’s “lesson” to Ware will get him more consistent, too. Because at the end of the day, I 100% agree with your last sentence: there are positives, but we need consistency and defense.
I agree with you and SM. I don’t enjoy losses, but I am enjoying watching the team.
Without Powell, Heat as a team are sliding back to last year habits, like playing Wiggins as the go to guy. He is just not that. Powell is essential to this team, especially when Simone has off night and others are not shooting well.
spot on