Heading into Monday night’s matchup against the LA Clippers, the Miami Heat were riding their second three-game win streak of the season. They have yet to string together four in a row on the year, and that feat was put to a halt once again as the Clippers took them down 109-98.
It was a tough task for the undermanned Heat to get the job done without each of their top two-way guys in Jimmy Butler (suspension) and Bam Adebayo. He sat this one out following a hard fall on his back during the win against the Portland Trail Blazers over the weekend. Kevin Love, over Kel’el Ware, got the spot start in Adebayo’s absence, and put together a 9-point outing.
Love set the tone to start the game, as the veteran big man splashed down his first three 3-point attempts. Miami had a 35-28 lead at the end of the first period, until the “turd quarter” arose once again.
The Clippers started to gain all the momentum right after halftime, and they finished with a 36-20 third quarter advantage that created some separation for them. Led by the offense of Tyler Herro and Ware off the bench, the Heat stayed close but couldn’t overcome the 25+ point efforts from the Clippers’ duo of James Harden and Norman Powell.
Ivica Zubac took full advantage of Adebayo sitting this one out, as the LA big man dominated the game with a 21 and 20 double-double.
The silver lining of this loss had to be the encouraging efforts of Ware, who saw 33 minutes of increased run. Although he didn’t receive the start in favor of Love, he saw plenty of usage and manned the middle for the Heat all night. The big man went a perfect 3 of 3 from deep— continuing to showcase his versatility and an ability to spread the floor.
Overall, the efficient shooting from LA is what led them to the win. The Clippers shot 48% from the field and 38% from 3-point range compared to Miami’s 39% and 33% splits, respectively. The Heat committed a few more turnovers and lost the assist edge 28-22, as it seemed like LA had more of an offensive flow.
Miami now drops to 20-18 on the season and slipped back to the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed, going just 5-5 over their last 10 matchups. They will have a chance to bounce back and hopefully get Adebayo back in the fold on Wednesday against LeBron James and the LA Lakers to conclude their West Coast trip.
***
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!
If Bam and Ware are going to start together,we need to shop for a 4 and 5 backup bigs to hold the fort while they rest. We cant rely much on Love anymore on defense and Jovic is still not bulky enough to bang in the paint.
Exactly. Perhaps only one other big will suffice, maybe a scorer like Kuzma. And then a buyout type, past their prime, but still effective type like Drummond.
Brady Hawk tweeted that Ware is 9-15 from 3 this year. Super small sample size, but I do like the trend. We missed Bam, but I’m ready for those two to share the floor, if even a few minutes per game. On to L.A. again lol
Well, that one is on Spo.
Hot shooting in first makes players believe, that can finished off Clippers by shooting threes.
Wrong.
They should play inside game as soon it was clear, that threes doesn’t fall. The game could be decided till halftime.
Its coach job to tell players what to do.