So close, yet so far.
The Miami Heat, down Bam Adebayo and Caleb Martin, entered the fourth quarter down 97-73 without any consistent half-court offensive execution. With 10:18 left, that Bucks lead buoyed to 25 points. But a valiant Heat effort — a 26-7 run, to be precise — brought them to within six with less than two minutes remaining. The lead quickly jumped back to 11 before a pair of Tyler Herro free throws plus a Duncan Robinson fadeaway triple (over two people) cut it back to six with 28.1 seconds left, prompting a Bucks timeout.
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s five-second violation on the following ATO SLOB creaked the door a little more open for Miami. Though a Herro above-the-break triple on the ensuing possession rimmed off, preventing not just another Heat clutch game (defined as a score differential of five or fewer points with less than five minutes left), but another monstrous comeback against the Milwaukee Bucks in Fiserv Forum.
Miami’s comeback effort came from a combination of Herro, Robinson, Nikola Jovic, Orlando Robinson, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kyle Lowry and Josh Richardson, who played 23 minutes in his season debut Monday. It came against most of Milwaukee’s starters, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Brook Lopez.
Herro finished with a game-high 35 points and was Miami’s only real semblance of offense throughout most of the game, knocking down 12 of his 21 attempts and nine of his 10 attempts from the free-throw line. That came in addition to eight rebounds, three assists and one steal. Duncan Robinson had 15 points on 3-of-7 shooting from deep. Jimmy Butler had another uninspiring outing, tallying just 13 points, four rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes.
Orlando Robinson and Thomas Bryant combined for 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting; both were the primary assignments on Antetokounmpo, Monday … no, that’s not a typo. Damian Lillard tallied 255 points on 7-of-14 shooting for Milwaukee, while Antetokoumpo had 33 points on 12-of-21 shooting and 8-of-11 from the charity stripe.
Miami outscored Milwaukee 41-25 in the final period, its highest-scoring quarter of the season, after having not tallied 29 points in any of their first three quarters. It shot 47.7 percent from the floor and 38.2 percent from distance; conversely, the Bucks knocked down 50.6 percent of their attempts and 32.4 percent of their triples.
It was not an aesthetically pleasing watch, but there were some positive takeaways–such as the player- and ball-movement from the Heat’s second unit with their backs up against the wall.
The Heat return home Wednesday to take on the Brooklyn Nets at 7:30 p.m. EST on Bally’s Sports Sun.
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We lost again a big lead against the nets we are1-4
The Heat have a glaring problem at point guard, and they need to fix it.
“The Heat have a big problem at point guard, and they need to address it sooner rather than later. Either that or your playoff fairy tale will turn into a ping-pong ball watch party come May.”
https://allucanheat.com/2023/11/01/miami-heat-point-guard-problem-fix/?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email&sc=e0273490fd355e2c28bdb25751d41af65a4dd80936ff00a80be9866c97887955
Good news: Miami’s next 3 games are at home.
Bad news: After that, 9 of the next 10 games are on the road.
Pat must have really pissed off Adam Silver. Our schedule is brutal!!!
As far as Jimmy, Father Time is undefeated.
Some guys slowly lose their fastball.
Some guys have a precipitous drop off a cliff edge. Jimmy has gotten blocked so many times in the few games this year that he seems shell shocked. He looks old and slow with no lift.
I’m sure he’s also disappointed that the team got younger but not necessarily better.
Not saying but just saying.
The real concern is Herro’s headband look. We need to go back to Riley’s headband ban!
Its only the 5 th game but u go 1-4 u may never see 500 again.barely beating one of the worse teams is not a good sign.butler no butler heat might have to face the fact his body is giving out and might not be the same player anyway.i cant remember how the f caleb got hurt and when but he needs to lace it up along with hh asap.almost a must win tonight to get us going in the right direction.watching the other teams play there are no gimme ws.
So Butler is listed as questionable for the Nets game with knee tendinitis.
🤦😮💨
Oh well. Next man up
Since the team is experimenting…why not start younger guys? RJ, Herro, JJ, Jovic, Bam.
Lowry, JRich, Duncan, Love and Bryant off the bench. HH, Cain, ORob, Smith, Swider in reserve. Martin and Butler out.
we dont call him spobot for no reason,hampton is so intriguing lowry flat out suks
its questionable if he gives a sht
Apparently the start of this season has a lot of stars already in maintenance programs. I wanted to watch Wemby vs the Suns and Beal and Book were sitting and only Durant was playing of that big 3.
More money and more rest. Pretty sweet gig if you can get it.
That ain’t working. That’s the way you do it.
Get your money for nothing and your checks for free.
Anyway, I thought that the NBA put new rules in place to reduce these sit outs?
Played four games and have missed either Jimmy or Bam in half of them. Bucks played without Middleton and lost to the Hawks on Sunday. We need the guys making the most money to play and not start a maintenance program during the first week of the season. They need to get minutes on the floor together. Now go beat the Nets and get to 2-3 and it won’t look so bad.
The only positive is that they’ve been able to get a real look at the back end of the roster to see who looks like they can compete with the big boys. O Robinson, Smith, Jovic, Jaquez. I’ve been pleased with them. But, as you and SunMan point out, I’d like to see Hampton get minutes with at least the second unit.
these are the top .0001% players in the world they all have talent
Duh. What are you talking about? You do realize that some great college and high school players never adapt to the speed, strength, or stress of the NBA?? Milicic and Thabeet were also part of your .0001%.
I hope that the bugs have been worked out with this page after some maintenance?
I had trouble posting at the start of the season.
Happy New Heat Season Everyone.
Jovic and Jaquez show promise as productive rotation players. Herro and Bam look like they will have big years. Team could use defense and offense from Caleb, Highsmith and/or Cain. Duncan, Orob and Bryant showing promise. JRich is going to struggle to get playing time if he can’t score more. Butler looks like he is not himself. Must be hurt.
What the team really needs is a starting, two-way floor general. Lowry is OK off the bench, but he is no longer reliable as a starter. If a trade can’t be made soon, I would like to see RJ get a shot at starting. What does Miami have to lose?
Agree on RJ, especially since it seems we’re giving away games to experiment or get guys rest 4 games in. He’s not going to be a scoring threat but won’t hurt to see if he pops playing in a Heat jersey 😉
Great effort in 4th just covers some great problems. I saw enough of Jrich and Herro playing together as playmakers. Herro lost two balls in the roll!!!
All available playmakers, Lowry, Jrich, Herro (as playmaker), Butler were terrible tonight… and thats why we lost.
WE NEED A REAL STARTING LEVEL POINT GUARD!!!!!
Herro most of the time gets the ball lost when opponents are double teaming him and sometimes by doing extra dribbles.
I like what I saw from Orlando. Very versatile in offense and also great in finding open men. He just needs to improve his help defense,switch defense and on ball defense.
From what i saw from Herro, he was getting more comfortable in scoring but his defense suffers for it
I think this will be the best line up possible
Starting 5 is Bam,Jovic/Orlando,Butler,Herro and Lowry
Bench is Bryant,Love,HH/Caleb,JJJ, and Richardson
You like Jovic as a starter?
From what i am seeing so far in these early games and his run in the world tournament.Yes for me because he is at least equal or slightly less better than old man kevin love,the only difference is Jovic can still get better with more experience.
But like you and some of the others here had said, its still early to decide the final roster.
Exactly. We simply don’t have enough. We could be winless right now. Making it close doesn’t prove anything. But, OTOH, some of our secondary players show promise. Bryant is a big improvement over last year, and Jovic might have a chance at being useful. Duncan. Is a solid bench contributor. I think Caleb will help some, and HH maybe a little. But, guess what, Lowry still stinks, Love stinks even more. These are not NBA starters. And Jimmy is getting older fast..And you have to be very optimistic to think Richardson is going to give us much. This team is undermanned. Please Pat, stop resting on your laurels and get us something. Maybe trade JJ, as he is still a question mark but could bring something with a pick. If we got a decent point guard, we could still be competitive. Doing nothing will mean a wasted last effective Jimmy season..
What are your thoughts on Russell Westbrook? With the Harden trade he could become the odd man out. There is only one ball to pass around. He has been a class act since joining the Clippers. Athletic PG (still), attacks the rim, facilitates, rebounds, pushes pace, and has the no quit engine the Heat love. 3pt shot, not so much, although its gotten better over time. Just a thought.
Riley passed on him once. He’ll pass again.
He passed on him at $40 million. At $4 million, it might be different.
Worth considering, especially if we could send out more money than we bring in. He’s on a very reasonable 2 year $7.8 million contract. Can’t be traded until December 15, but if we could somehow swap him for Lowry, it’d be good.
Just in…Harden to Clips. With Tucker and others. Going to the 6ers Morris, RoCo, Batum…and more…
https://www.espn.ph/nba/story/_/id/38784569/philadelphia-76ers-agree-trade-james-harden-la-clippers
Sixers lose PJ Tucker, who is probably the second best player in this trade. Unless there is a second trade coming with those Clippers picks, this seems like a massive white flag from the Sixers
White flag surrendering to hard-headed Harden. NBA should penalize those have asked for a trade multiple times. Ban them for two seasons.
they gave up nothing for an aging disgruntled ex superstar player
Did not watch the games but looking at the box score and the players the Heat fielded, this is very positive and Spo should be excited with their come back performance. Great opportunities for the 2nd bench unit to feel what the competition is like,very early in the season. Go Heat, Go!
Holy crap. I watched this game on league pass and turned it off because they were getting trounced by twenty in the third quarter. I chalked this up to a scheduling loss and moved on with my life. Now I need to go back and watch the 4th quarter
Heat games at times are not for the faint of heart 😂😆
okay, after going back and watching the end, i don’t feel so bad. The Heat were down 20 with eight minutes left and Eric Reid was wondering why Giannis was still in the game.
Tyler looks like he found his rhythm. That guy played really well tonight. If Bam had played or Jimmy had played well, the Heat could have won this game.
How long until Hi-May is starting? It’s only been four games, but he’s clearly the 4th best player on this team. Jovic is also looking like a rotation piece after one week of the season.
Lowry looked terrible (again). J-Rich looked even worse. Am I crazy to think Dru Smith has played better than both of them so far?
Other than that, not much to say. Spo has definitely been treating this first week of the season like the preseason. I respect it, and I wouldn’t mind seeing this team win a few games. I guess it was a tough 3-game road trip to start the season, and Spo has this team in 2nd gear. I’m not worried, but I also don’t want to go into Thanksgiving as a 12th place team
I hope Heat carry that 4th quarter momentum to the next game. Though we still lost this one, still very promising what we saw but how many games with “promising looks” do we need before we get Ws? Good thing its very early in the season I’d be glad to be at .500 after 10 games.
Yes, early in the season. Rome was not built in a day.
Herro, in this game, was better than Lillard.
It was great to see O Robinson get some playing time, with an impressive stat line of 11/7/7/1.
Duncan has his confidence and his touch back.
Jaquez has got game and is fearless. His chase down block was vicious.
Jovic has been productive every time he gets the chance.
Love has said he doesn’t mind if he starts or comes off the bench. I think it’d be better if he came off the bench. While I think Jovic is the pf of the future, I think he still will have to get in line to get minutes, particularly when Martin and Highsmith are healthy.
I have admired Butler since he got here because I felt he goes all out whenever he’s on the floor. Sadly, I haven’t seen that so far in this new season. He seems to be enjoying his celebrity more than the games. The team played considerably better and more aggressively tonight when the backups were on the floor (except for Herro).
Jimbo is trying to peak in the late rounds of the playoffs.
It’ll be a frustrating dynamic during the regular season, and I’m sure he’ll “turn it on” for onky a dozen or so games throughout the season while trying to play his usual brand of mistakes free ball.
If that’s the effort he provides the other 66 games (82-4-12), making the playoffs will be a stretch.
We know what he can do. It’s all about seeing whether Herro and the J’s can hold up their end of the bargain
I know what he’s done in the past. I’m hoping you’re right, but skipping the entire preseason and not looking like himself early has me concerned. This isn’t the big 3 where you can relax during the regular season and still win 52+ games. This regular season is, imo, more important this year than in the past.