Five takeaways from the Miami Heat\u2019s 108-89 loss to the Boston Celtics (17-4) on Monday night at TD Garden to close its winless two-game trip. The Heat (9-10) now returns to Miami to host the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday:<\/p>\n
With the Heat and Celtics playing on the second night of a back-to-back set and also battling injury issues, both teams were missing a chunk of their rotation. But the Celtics\u2019 high-volume three-point shooting was still the difference. The Heat played without Jimmy Butler (right knee soreness), Josh Christopher (G League), Nikola Jovic (left ankle sprain), Kevin Love (back spasms), Josh Richardson (illness) and Kel\u2019el Ware (right foot tendinitis).<\/p>\n
The Celtics were without Kristaps Porzingis (return from injury management), Jrue Holiday (left knee tendinopathy), Al Horford (left big toe sprain) and Sam Hauser (personal reasons). But those absences didn\u2019t deter the Celtics from continuing to lean on their high-volume three-point shooting attack to win the math equation and the game, as they dominated the Heat 57-24 from three-point range on their way to the 19-point win.<\/p>\n
The Celtics entered the contest averaging an NBA-high in threes made (19.1 per game) and threes attempted (50.7 per game). Boston shot 19 of 55 (34.5 percent) from behind the arc on Monday. Meanwhile, the the Heat had a rough shooting night, finishing just 8 of 35 (a season-worst 22.9 percent) from three-point range.<\/p>\n
Miami also shot a season-worst 35.6 percent from the field in the loss. \u201cI thought we had some great looks at the basket,\u201d Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. \u201cSometimes they just don\u2019t fall. They shoot a lot of threes and it\u2019s our job to try to contest and make it difficult for them. But it\u2019s difficult when you\u2019re not making shots on the other end.\u201d Along with the Heat\u2019s three-point shooting struggles on Monday, it also shot just 18 of 44 (40.9 percent) from inside the paint. That allowed the Celtics to also outscore the Heat 40-30 in paint points. \u201cYou hold them under 110, you feel like on the road that should be enough to make it a possession game going down the stretch,\u201d Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. \u201cBut that just wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n
We would have had to make a lot of those restricted area shots and some of those threes.\u201d The Heat only trailed by three at the end of the first quarter, but the Celtics shot 7 of 15 (46.7 percent) from three-point range in the second quarter to break the game open and enter halftime with a 15-point advantage. The Celtics\u2019 lead grew to as large as 27 points in the second half. Jaylen Brown totaled a game-high 29 points to go with seven rebounds and four assists for Boston.<\/p>\n
Jayson Tatum added 18 points, 11 rebounds and four assists for the Celtics. Payton Pritchard contributed 25 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals off the Celtics\u2019 bench. For the Heat, it was a rough shooting night for nearly every player on the roster. Heat guard Tyler Herro finished with 19 points, but shot just 6 of 19 from the field and 2 of 10 on threes. Jaquez recorded a season-high 19 points to go with 10 rebounds and three assists, but shot just 5 of 14 from the field. He scored most of his points at the free-throw line, shooting 9 of 12 at the charity stripe. \u201cWe missed a lot of shots we normally make and that\u2019s been the result a lot this season,\u201d Heat center Bam Adebayo said. Adebayo\u2019s season-long shooting slump continues.<\/p>\n
Through the first 18 games of his eighth NBA season, Adebayo entered Monday averaging 15.7 points per game on 42.6 percent shooting from the field after shooting better than 50 percent from the field in each of the first seven seasons of his NBA career. Adebayo\u2019s uncharacteristic shooting slump continued in Monday\u2019s loss, as he finished with 15 points on 6-of-18 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting on threes. After making his first shot of Monday\u2019s game \u2014 an 18-foot midrange jumper \u2014 to open the scoring, he missed his next eight field-goal attempts. He didn\u2019t make his second shot of the night until there was 1:49 left in the second quarter. But after scoring only four points on 2-of-12 shooting from the field through the first three quarters, Adebayo came alive to score 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 1-of-2 shooting on threes in the fourth quarter with the Celtics already in full control of the game.<\/p>\n
Adebayo, a three-time NBA All-Star, has scored more than 20 points in three of the Heat\u2019s first 19 games this season after doing so in 12 of the Heat\u2019s first 19 games last season. One of the weirdest aspects of Adebayo\u2019s cold stretch is the fact that he entered Monday shooting just 46.2 percent from inside the paint this season after shooting 57.3 percent from inside the paint last season. Adebayo shot just 4 of 11 (36.4 percent) from inside the paint on Monday, including 1 of 4 (25 percent) at the rim. \u201cHe\u2019s built a career being able to make those shots and make those look easy,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cIt\u2019s just one of those stretches that sometimes you can\u2019t explain.\u201d Adeayo continues to do other things well, though. He contributed eight rebounds, five assists and one steal in Monday\u2019s loss and has helped anchor the Heat\u2019s defense this season.<\/p>\n
As for the Heat\u2019s injuries, Spoelstra described Butler as \u201cday to day\u201d and said Love \u201ctweaked\u201d his lingering back issue. Butler, 35, missed Monday\u2019s game with right knee soreness after tweaking his knee late in Sunday\u2019s loss to the Raptors in Toronto. With Butler missing four games earlier this season because of a sprained right ankle, he has now been unavailable for five of the Heat\u2019s first 19 games. The good news is that those around Butler are cautiously optimistic that the injury is not a serious one that will keep him out for an extended period. There\u2019s currently no plan for Butler to undergo an MRI or X-ray on the knee. \u201cThere\u2019s no change,\u201d Spoelstra said when asked about Butler\u2019s status prior to Monday\u2019s game in Boston. \u201cHe\u2019s not playing tonight. We\u2019ll just treat him day to day. He\u2019s still sore. But we\u2019ll see what happens when we get back to Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Love, Monday marked the second game that he has missed in the last four games with back spasms. Love, the Heat\u2019s backup center, has now been unavailable for 10 of the Heat\u2019s first 19 games after missing time because of personal reasons earlier this season. \u201cThis is the same back deal,\u201d Spoelstra said of Love before Monday\u2019s contest. \u201cHe just tweaked it a little bit. It\u2019s not as painful as the initial time. But enough so that he wouldn\u2019t be able to go tonight.\u201d The Heat\u2019s other injured players were Jovic, Richardson and Ware, as they each missed their second straight game with their ailments. Jovic and Richardson did not travel with the team for the two-game trip and remained in Miami, but Ware was with the Heat in Toronto and Boston. With Butler out, the Heat used its fourth different starting lineup of the season on Monday.<\/p>\n
But the Heat didn\u2019t stick with that starting group to begin the second half. Jaquez received his first start of the season, opening the contest in Butler\u2019s place. Jaquez began the game alongside the Heat\u2019s four other usual starters \u2014 Herro, Duncan Robinson, Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo. \u201cWhen guys go down, it\u2019s our job to step up and try to fill in those gaps,\u201d Jaquez said of filling in for Butler as part of the Heat\u2019s starting group. \u201cSo coming into this game, I knew I had to be aggressive. That was my mentality.\u201d This lineup played just four minutes together this season prior to starting Monday\u2019s game. Unfortunately for the Heat, this starting unit didn\u2019t produce positive results. The Herro-Robinson-Jaquez-Highsmith-Adebayo combination began Monday\u2019s game by being outscored 17-9 during the first 6:28 of the first quarter before the Heat made its first substitution of the night.<\/p>\n
The Heat didn\u2019t use that lineup again for the rest of the game. Instead, the Heat made an adjustment and started Dru Smith in Robinson\u2019s place to begin the second half. \u201cA lot of that was some of the defensive stuff that we saw in the first half and then Dru gave us that spark,\u201d Spoelstra said of the decision to start the second half with Smith over Robinson. \u201c\u2026 We were just trying to get some better matchups and see if we could shake free Tyler off the ball. That wasn\u2019t necessarily anything with Duncan.\u201d Robinson played off the bench in the second half, finishing Monday\u2019s loss with five points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and 0-of-6 shooting from three-point range.<\/p>\n
The Heat\u2019s injury issues also gave some seldom-used players an opportunity to play. The Heat used Thomas Bryant, Terry Rozier, Pelle Larsson, Alec Burks, Keshad Jonson and Smith off the bench on Monday to complete its 11-man rotation. While Rozier, Larsson and Burks are rotation regulars at this point, Bryant and Smith have fallen out of the Heat\u2019s rotation. And Johnson has spent most of the season in the G League as one of the Heat\u2019s two-way contract players.<\/p>\n
With Love and Ware out, Bryant played as the Heat\u2019s backup center after receiving 10 straight DNP-CDs (did not play, coach\u2019s decision). In Bryant\u2019s first game action since Nov. 8, he finished Monday\u2019s loss with two points and two rebounds in 10 minutes. Jaquez\u2019s promotion to the starting lineup created a slot in the bench rotation for Smith, who had played in just one of the previous 13 games. Smith closed Monday\u2019s defeat with eight points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals in 21 minutes in just his sixth appearance of the season.<\/p>\n
Johnson, an undrafted rookie, entered for the first regular-season minutes of his NBA career with 4:19 left in Monday\u2019s third quarter. He scored the first points of his NBA career on a dunk, finishing the loss with two points on 1-of-2 shooting from the field in seven minutes. Each of the 11 Heat players who were available played on Monday. The Celtics\u2019 bench outscored the Heat\u2019s reserves 36-21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat\u2019s 108-89 loss to the Boston Celtics (17-4) on Monday night at TD Garden to close its winless two-game trip. The Heat… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n