Heat fall 131-124 to Bucks in Butler absence, eliminated from NBA Tournament
MIAMI — Advancing in the NBA’s In-Season Tournament might have been fun, but with the Miami Heat now and forever insisting that the main thing be the main thing, fighting to the finish on Tuesday night against the rival Milwaukee Bucks provided ample motivation.
And so there were the Heat, eliminated from the Tournament by results around the league earlier in the night, going toe to toe with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard despite playing in the injury absences of Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Haywood Highsmith.
Down three starters, the Heat still had enough for that fight to the finish.
They just didn’t have enough at the finish, falling 131-124 to the Bucks at Kaseya Center for their third consecutive loss.
“It’s a shame,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, “because I thought we played a very good basketball game.
“I felt like we did enough to at least put ourselves in a better shot to win the game.”
Adebayo led the Heat with 31 points and 10 rebounds, with Kyle Lowry adding 21 points and Josh Richardson 20.
The Bucks got 33 points and 10 rebounds from Antetokounmpo and 32 points and nine assists from Lillard.
“You have two gladiators going at it,” Spoelstra said of the Adebayo-Antetokounmpo matchup.
The game opened a homestand for the Heat that continues with games against the Indiana Pacers on Thursday and Saturday nights.
“I think we’re very positive about where we are,” Lowry said. “I think we’re all positive and we know what we are and we know what we could possibly be.”
Five Degrees of Heat from Tuesday night’s game:
1. Closing time: The Heat opened 1 of 11 from the field and trailed 15-2 at the outset, before closing within 31-22 at the end of the first quarter. They then moved to a 62-59 halftime lead, following a 40-point second quarter.
From there, the Heat took a 97-93 lead into the fourth.
It was tight from there, with ties at 104, 106, 108, 110 and 112. A Lillard 3-pointer then put Milwaukee up 115-113, with the Heat then tying it at 115.
A Lowry 3-pointer followed with 3:24 left for a 118-115 Heat edge, only to have it matched by Lillard for a 118-118 tie.
From there, a pair of Khris Middleton jumpers put the Bucks up 122-118.
And then it got ugly for the Heat, with Riochardson called for a foul that Spoelstra thought should have been a travel. With a technical foul called on Spoelstra, Lillard made three free throws with 63 seconds left for a 127-122 Milwaukee lead.
Baskets each way left the Heat down 129-124 with 38.1 seconds to play, with an Antetokounmpo dunk closing out the scoring.
So a three-game losing streak, but not feeling at a total loss.
“We feel like we have a very good basketball team,” Spoelstra said, “We feel like we’re getting better. There’s just a sense in the locker room.
“The other reality is we are on a three-game losing streak.”
Which, Adebayo said, requires action.
“We can’t be in a hole too much longer,” Adebayo said.
2. On the outs: Spoelstra declined to offer an update regarding Herro’s Grade 3 ankle sprain, other than to say progress has been made, with Wednesday three weeks since Herro sustained his injury in the Nov. 8 road victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
With Highsmith, the back bruise is to the point that he was able to shoot pregame, but contact remains another story, after his hard fall in Saturday night’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets.
Butler missed his second consecutive game with a sprained right ankle, the fourth game he has missed this season. He previously missed one for rest and another for a personal reason.
Back was Duncan Robinson, who missed Saturday night’s loss in Brooklyn with a sprained right thumb.
It led to the Heat’s 12th lineup in their 18 games, with Spoelstra opening with Adebayo, Richardson, Lowry, Duncan Robinson and Kevin Love.
3. Bam back: After sitting two of the previous three games with a hip contusion, Adebayo was active and aggressive from the outset, while also taking the initial defensive assignment against Antetokounmpo.
Adebayo found most of his offense away from the rim, converting short jumpers off his spin moves, but still was up to 15 points by the intermission.
Even with Love starting, Spoelstra did not go with a backup center, instead staggering the minutes of Love and Adebayo in the middle, rather than play Thomas Bryant, Orlando Robinson or even Nikola Jovic.
Adebayo was up to 23 points, as he sat out the start of the fourth.
“He was just super assertive. That’s what we really need from Bam,” Spoelstra said. “Bam was relentless all game long, and that just shows his capacity to do it on both ends.”
Adebayo took a career-high 27 shots.
“I started out a little slow and got in a groove after that,” he said.
It was a bruising night for Adebayo.
“I’ll see how I feel in the morning,” he said. “We’ll go from there.”
4. Richardson’s roll: After scoring in double figures only three times in his first 10 appearances, Richardson has reached double digits in five in a row, surpassing his previous season high of 16 by the midpoint of the third period.
It also was the fourth time in five games Richardson converted multiple 3-pointers, tying his season high of three also by the midpoint of the third period.
“This has been happening for three weeks,” Spoelstra said. “It’s just been a matter of time. Each week he’s just been getting a lot more comfortable.
“He’s getting a lot more aggressive.”
Even while starting at shooting guard, Richardson opened defensively against Lillard and took turns at point guard when Lowry went out, with five assists in the third period.
Of the Lillard assignment, Richardson said, “I was trying to make him work for every bucket.”
5. Tournament time: Even before the game against the Bucks was over, the Heat effectively were eliminated from advancing in the In-Season Tournament by the New York Knicks’ 24-point win over the Charlotte Hornets.
The NBA next will add one home game and one road game to next week’s Heat schedule, with those games to be played next week on Wednesday and Friday nights.
Had the Heat advanced, each player would have been guaranteed of at least a $50,000 bonus, on a scale of up to $500,000 for winning the NBA Cup in Las Vegas. Instead, there is no additional bonus.
Lowry said the tournament has added spice to the season.
“Love it. I wish I still had an opportunity to play for going to Vegas,” he said. “It sucks. We wanted to play.
“We still have a marathon to run.”