(Photo via Miami Heat/X)
The Miami Heat’s recent seven-game win streak looked like it could’ve been a turning point in the season. However, since then, they have now lost three games in a row— including their most recent 134-126 loss to the visiting Western Conference third seed LA Lakers.
Just a week ago, the Heat were as high as tied for the fifth seed. But after this discouraging stretch of games, they have fallen back down to eighth at a 38-32 record. They are still a half game out of sixth and two games back of fifth, but these last couple of weeks have shown Miami taking one step forward just to take two steps back. Every one of these losses matter right now, and the Heat are running out of time before having to accept their play-in fate for the fourth year in a row.
Thursday’s Lakers loss featured a nuclear offensive display from Luka Doncic. The superstar guard dropped a season-high 60 points masterpiece with 7 rebounds, 3 assists and five steals on 60% shooting.
Miami had no answers. There are very few stars in the league that can withstand the Heat’s switching coverages on defense, especially with Bam Adebayo on those switches— Doncic is one of those guys.
And it wasn’t a one man show for the Lakers either. 41-year-old LeBron James submitted a 19/15/10 triple-double. His still elite playmaking helped pull LA away as soon as the second half started. James remains as dynamic and skillful as he’s ever been, and his efforts helped supplement Doncic’s scoring to lead the way for them. Austin Reaves also added 18 points, as all three of the Lakers stars were listed as questionable going into the matchup before officially suiting up before tipoff.
For Miami, Adebayo had a team-high 28 points and 10 boards double-double. Both Tyler Herro and Norman Powell started getting it going too late after cold and inefficient starts— adding 21 and 20 points, respectively.
Coach Erik Spoelstra brought Powell off the bench again for the third straight game since returning from an extended absence due to a groin injury. The Heat have not won since Powell came back into the fold, only proving more as this season has gone on that this Herro-Powell duo has not worked as well as originally hoped.
The Heat also got strong minutes from guys like Kel’el Ware, Davion Mitchell and Pelle Larsson.
However, Doncic proved to be too much to handle in this one. Miami got outscored 75-61 in the second half, including a sluggish 23-point “turd quarter” following halftime— which was the period that LA really took this game over. Lakers shot 53% from the field overall and 44% from 3-point range to the Heat’s 51% and 32%. The disparity in the long range shooting is what separated the two teams in this matchup.
It won’t be getting easier for the Heat and their remaining schedule. They will hope to snap this skid in a rematch against Kevin Durant and the Rockets in Houston on Saturday.
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The Miami Heat‘s home crowd started chanting, “MVP! MVP!” for Doncic.are u sure theyre not getting luka confused with bam.if heat fans chanted mvp for luka thats fd up.could u imagine knicks fans shouting mvp for tatum brown bird mchale russell havlicek etc dont think so.shame on u so called u heat fans.
I was there, that wasn’t heat fans chanting that, it was Lakers fans, and there was a lot of Lakers fans in there.
It looks like you are going on games regularly.
Tell me something.
I had a plan to visit this game with one of my boys, but we decided not to because lack of time and because it was back to back and therefore a good chance Luka wouldn’t play.
But I checked ticket prices and oh my God, are Lakers games in Miami twice or three times more expensive then regular ones?
Tickets for what seats are the best to purchase, to be best possible, for, lets say, good place to be and not overpaying?
If I would cross an ocean to see a game I wouldn’t sit bellow the roof, but I wouldn’t also pay thousands for 2 hours game. Those prices are just ridiculous.
Yes sir, and I think the prices fluctuate game to game depending on who plays, so since lbj, and Luka was coming to town… the ticket prices would indeed skyrocket. There was a lot of Asians and Slovenians there too. But you should definitely try to get on the 100s level probably 15 or 20 rows back, or if you’re on 400s or 300s, you can come down to 100 level, check to see if anyone purchased that seat or not online and take that spot. I do security Roaming and home railings around 111-112 and sometimes 101-102, so you can come pre game and scout it out and potentially get autographs to cuz security doesn’t come until 6 minutes before end of half and Sametime in the 4th quarter. Also if you come and see me, I have long dreads, and my name andre, and I have tattoos on my right arm, and wear a yellow shirt for that security company. I’ll let u get closer to see the action, whether your on 400,300, suites, or 100s 💯 just tell me your vagibugi from hhh, and i let you come down to watch, but not on the floor, best I can do is 100s level.
Thank you Andre. Those are great informations. I will save this post, and definitely I will let you know, when I ll be in Miami. Not this season, maybe the next one, probably for lakers game. Have a good time watching games.
ok good to hear why the f would heat fans chant that.good to have an insider at hhh thanks big
Yes sir np, ngl a few heat fans was in awe of Luka 60, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a few chanted mvp, since a few heat fans been kobe fans, after watching bam drop 83.
Heat’s 2nd round pick from GSW is now at #41. Basically a late first in another draft if the talent evaluation in this draft is accurate.
GSW now 11th in lottery and the teams above them (LAC, CHA, PHI, POR) are all trying to win/owe picks to other teams. GSW is 8.5 games ahead of NOP for the 10th play in spot, so can continue to lose games to solidify #11 in lottery and a 9.4% chance at top 4 pick, and also remain in the play in
heat waiving terry finally gonna pick up another player who might that be ben simmons my pick
To get to the 46-36, we need to win at least one of next two. I m targeting the game against Houston, which is not good lately.
Chuck Norris died.
Oh well. I m not sure, how the Americans think about him , but around here he was a target of many jokes.
People had fun with him here too. And he was okay with that.
Well, he is in heaven now.
I m expecting a lot of angels with the karate knowledge solving things around here in the future. Its about time.
Luka Doncic vs Heat defender matchups
Larsson guarded Luka the most, 5 minutes total, or 36% of Luka’s minutes on offense. Gave up only 6 points in those minutes
Davion and Bam guarded Luka the 2nd and 3rd most, 2 minutes each total. Luka scored 14 vs Davion and 22 vs Bam.
Those are the 3 best defenders on the Heat with Wiggins out, nothing you can do when an MVP has it rolling and decides to drop 60
https://www.nba.com/game/lal-vs-mia-0022501010/box-score?type=matchups
Interesting stat. Speaks a lot about how much Pelle has improved defensively. It wasn’t so long ago, when he was basically unplayable and would regularly get into foul trouble after a few minutes. Kasparas seems to be making a nice progress, too. I hope he will get more opportunities next season.
pelle was the main guy on him
Among all the teams Luka have to score 60 on Miami.
I will find him this summer and ask him not to in the future.
And break his leg to be sure.
Anyway, that’s was a perfect game to see, where the team belongs.
Effort is there. Quality is not there.
A lot of work to be done this year to replace what we have ( a lot of good players) to what we need (an excellent player or two).
Exactly, effort is fine. And strategy is pretty good too. Maybe we could use Johnson and Gardner a little more but I’m not sure that would move the needle much. And maybe injuries to Jaime and Andrew hurt us a little too, but the issue is mostly quality. The other good teams have one or two more very good players than we do.
not playing the athletic freak kj.try him on big luke.have the gardner dig into him little bit.heat are to soft and non athletic.theres 2 on the bench that never play that fit the bill
not having jjj andrew hurt alot .i would not play herro at all from here on out i dont like his game at all.give wiggy jjj bam ware 35 a night divy up next for pelle norm dav dru or kas..herros a heat killer
Powell-Herro is -1.5 in 158 minutes but that is a very small amount of minutes/not enough to draw a conclusion from. The only 2 man lineups in the negative with substantial minutes (>500) are
Ware-Powell -3.8 in 739 min
Ware-Larsson -4.3 in 652 min
Ware-Wiggins -4.5 in 632 min
https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MIA/2026/lineups/
Best 2 man lineups this season
Bam-Jaquez +10.1
Bam-Larsson +8.4
Larsson-Mitchell +7.4
Bam-Mitchell +7
Bam-Powell +6
No surprise Bam who is having just below MVP level impact is in 4 of the 5 best two man lineups this year. Pelle being in 2 of 5 is still an underrated storyline, media hasn’t caught up to how good he is, having a breakout season in year two
What about Ware-Bam?
Ware-Bam is +9.2 in 381 min (Basketball reference has only 2 man lineups >500 min)
https://databallr.com/wowy/MIA/2026/2026/regular/high/2man/1642276
But Heat are
+7.8 in Bam’s 1741 min
-1.1 in Ware’s 1269 min
It’s a remarkable stat. As are the stats on Pelle guarding Luka. And it is remarkable how tough Pelle is to be able to defend on that level, and what a low-key excellent athlete he really is.
he was shooting over pelle all night
Luka vs Pelle – 2-6 FG, 0-2 3FG in 5:21 minutes
Luka vs Davion – 6-8 FG, 2-3 3FG in 2:18
Luka vs Bam – 7-9 FG, 6-7 3FG in 2:04
Those 3 only gave up 4 FTA, he drew most of his 19 FTA against Powell (6) and Dru Smith (4)
He had a 39 point second half that started like this in the 3Q:
Doncic 25′ 3PT Step Back Jump Shot
Doncic 25′ 3PT Step Back Jump Shot
Doncic 27′ 3PT Pullup Jump Shot
The Heat were switching those plays with Pelle and Bam because both guard 1-5, so Bam was guarding Doncic on those 3’s. No defense is going to stop that but he did seem to get into a rythym expecting the switch onto Bam. He only had 3 assists, Miami made him beat them singlehandedly and he did. He’s leading the NBA in 3PM (4 per game) and attempts (10.8), shooting 37% on the year and 42.6% post All-Star break
That would be an interesting line-up. Bam, Jaquez, Larsson, Powell and Mitchell with Ware, Wiggins, Fontecchio, Herro and Smith coming in off the bench. Hmm?
Looks like a winning lineup but maybe light on shooting?
I like Wiggins as starter wnen healthy. Spo said Bam is the team’s best wing defender. Wiggins has to be #2 with Larsson as a close 3rd. Jaquez’ defense has been really impressive this year and that has to be one reason he is closing games.
Last night’s minutes were like a playoff game for both sides
LAL – Reaves 39, Luka 37, Lebron 37
MIA – Bam 37, Larsson 33, Mitchell Herro and Powell 32
I think when Wiggins and Jaquez are back you add them to the above 5 and that is a very solid 7 man rotation taking up most of the minutes. Jakucionas is who I would have at 8th man. And I think the Heat continue to go small in late game/playoffs (much to the ire of some fans) because the best defenders give you the best chance to win
bam-rc?
-100
jovic rc?