Despite one of Tyler Herro’s best performances of the season, the Miami Heat blew another fourth-quarter lead Sunday evening to the Milwaukee Bucks, losing 120-113.
The Heat opened the fourth quarter up 93-85, though a 15-2 spurt over the first three minutes gave Milwaukee the five-point lead, their biggest up to that point.
Miami tied it on four different occasions throughout the quarter, but couldn’t capture the lead back. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s driving layup over Kel’el Ware followed by Brook Lopez’s dunk gave the Bucks a 116-109 lead 2:03 left, essentially putting the game out of reach.
Herro was spectacular the entire night and the primary reason the Heat were able to keep it tight late. The first-time All-Star tied a season-high in scoring with 40 points–his third 40-point game this season–on 12-of-27 shooting and 13-of-14 from the free-throw line. He eclipsed his previous season-high in free-throw attempts (12) and makes (10) set on Jan. 13 against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Herro also registered a game-high 11 assists and seven rebounds across 40 minutes, but it ultimately wasn’t enough.
Bam Adebayo finished with 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting with seven rebounds while Andrew Wiggins scored 20 points on 7-of-20 shooting with six rebounds and four assists. Adebayo became the franchise’s second-leading rebounder, passing Alonzo Mourning.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard tallied 23 and 28 points, respectively. Lillard’s was a team-high, while Antetokounmpo hauled down a team-most 16 rebounds with seven assists, one block and one steal.
Gary Trent Jr. had 16 points on 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range; Kyle Kuzma had 16 points while Brook Lopez recorded 17 points–both appearing in 34 minutes apiece.
Miami’s fourth-quarter woes are a culmination of the team’s recent struggles to begin the quarter. They build a lead before it crumbles at the start of the period, where it’s unable to swing the momentum pendulum back in its favor regardless of what the deficit is.
Sunday’s loss drops the Heat back to 26-29 and four games behind the Detroit Pistons, who own the No. 6 seed in the East. They are also 8-20 against teams with a winning record, tied with the Orlando Magic for the fourth-worst in the Eastern Conference.
Miami looks to close the road trip on the right note Monday against the Atlanta Hawks, the first of two against them this week.
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That was a good test to see, where we are. Heat are a solid team, which fits right in the middle of the pack.
Worse then 6 teams in the east and at least 10 in the west.
Tonight the bench had 12 points, 10 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals, 0 blocks in 55 minutes. Why was Burks sitting on the bench when Robinson and Rozier could muster only 5 points between them in 31 minutes? Is Jaquez in the dog house? Is Spo losing/has he lost his touch?
“They are who we thought they were.”
~ Dennis Green 2006 ~
Miami doesn’t have a consistent closer. Miami doesn’t have an “A-/B+” two-way point guard to direct and control the offense and consistently score 15 points+ a night (e.g., Dejounte Murray, Fred VanVleet, Coby White, TJ McConnell, Dyson Daniels). Miami doesn’t have a good B+/B two-way PF/C to rotate with Bam and Ware (e.g., Bobby Portis, John Collins, Santi Aldama, Naz Reid, Clint Capela, Steve Adams).
Let’s face it, Miami is going to be fighting with Orlando and Atlanta for the 7th and 8th spots. The loser of the three gets 9th place. Chicago, Brooklyn and Philadelphia will be fighting for 10th place (the final play-in spot). The two losers get lottery picks.
Despite all the injuries in 2023–2024, that team’s record after 54 games was 30-25. The current team’s record is 26-29. Based on overall performance up to this point, the team looks like it will qualify for the play-in round and may or may not advance to the playoffs. If the team does make it to the playoffs, it will face either Cleveland or Boston in the first round. They will likely proceed to lose the series in 4 or 5 games and will also lose their pick in this year’s draft to OKC in the process. If the team makes the play-in round but fails to advance to the playoffs, it will be able to keep it’s own 2025 lottery (#11-14) pick. That is in addition to Golden State’s 2025 1st round pick (which will probably be in the #15-#20 range).
I know what I would like to see happen. Play the young guys (Larsson, Stevens, Johnson and Christopher) whenever possible the rest of the season to see what they have to offer. Expand the rotation during the play-in round in order to give everyone a chance to gain experience.
P.S. Jovic has a fractured second metacarpal in his right hand and will probably be out at least a month or longer while the bone heals. If he requires surgery, he could be out at least six weeks or longer.
Good news!
For once, the Heat never looked undersized to the Bucks.
Maybe Heat really secretly tanking? Play their game for 3 quarters then let it go in fourth 🤔🙄
You can be good enough to beat Toronto in OT, but not good enough to hold a fourth quarter lead against the Bucks. These outcomes are likely, almost predictable. We still have some team building to do.