For three of the four quarters of the Miami Heat’s contest against the Sacramento Kings on Monday, Miami played like the better team. The Heat outscored Sacramento by 19 points combined in the first, second and fourth frames.
But Miami still lost the game in question by one point thanks to the fact that it was outscored by 20 points in the third quarter alone. The Heat played poorly on both ends of the floor during that stretch, considering they allowed the Kings to score 37 points and mustered just 17 themselves in those 12 minutes of action.
However, Miami’s third-quarter performance against Sacramento wasn’t merely an outlier. So far this season, the Heat’s offensive rating in that quarter has been the worst of any team in the NBA at 91.6.
Heat big man Bam Adebayo implied after the loss to the Kings that the team has let go of the rope far too often in the third quarter since the start of the new campaign.
“It’s like we like to let our foot off the gas and let teams back into it to try to make it interesting,” Adebayo said. “We’ve got to figure out the third quarter. It’s been a deciding factor in a lot of our games.”
Additionally, Jimmy Butler hinted at the idea that Miami’s lack of offensive success in third quarters thus far has effected the team’s play on the other side of the ball.
“When we aren’t making shots, that’s normally when teams start to go on runs,” Butler said. “We don’t get back, we don’t defensive rebound. It’s a defensive thing, but for us, it’s more offense. When we don’t see that ball going through that basket, mentally we have to be tougher and stronger to still get stops. That’s the main problem; that’s what you’re seeing in the third quarter.”
Tyler Herro also acknowledged that it’s been a common occurrence for the Heat this season to start off the second half of games slowly.
“We need to come out of the half stronger,” Herro said. “Obviously, it’s been a trend. [We need to] just find a way to be motivated to come out in the second half. Every quarter we won [Monday] except the third.”
After falling to Sacramento, Miami owns a record of 3-3. The Heat are losers of two of their last three games, as they also picked up a loss to the New York Knicks on Oct. 30 behind a 44-point performance from Karl-Anthony Towns.
Plus, unfortunately for the Heat, the team has a difficult stretch of games coming up on the horizon. Miami will play its next three contests on the road against the Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves.
All of those teams have records above the .500 mark, and the Suns are in a tie with the Golden State Warriors for the second-best record of any team in the Western Conference at 6-1.
