In one of the more heartbreaking losses of the season, the Heat fell to the Kings 123-118 in double overtime on Monday night after holding a 17-point lead with eight minutes to go in the fourth and having opportunities to close out the game in the first overtime period.<\/p>\n
Going against the Kings, despite Sacramento not having their star point guard De\u2019Aaron Fox, a third straight loss for the Heat is a tough pill to swallow. With Jimmy Butler being suspended seven games and requesting a trade, the Heat knew they would be undermanned, and today\u2019s loss was a prime example of the importance of the \u201cnext man up\u201d mentality in the NBA. In the Heat\u2019s last three losses, other than Tyler Herro, who is playing at an all-star level for Miami, no one has stepped up to fill the shoes of Butler, despite doing it many times in the past, including a win last year at the Golden 1 Center.<\/p>\n
Bam Adebayo, the Heat\u2019s captain, emphasized that without Butler, \u201cthe rest of us got to figure out how to win games,\u201d but even Adabayo himself, after back-to-back all-star seasons, is drastically struggling on the court. In his last two games, Adebayo is a combined 24% from the field.<\/p>\n
In Adabayo\u2019s eighth year, he has struggled to put the ball in the basket, averaging his lowest point total since his third year in the league. In critical stretches tonight, missing a free throw or a gimmie 5-foot jumper, Adebayo had failed to perform when it mattered most.<\/p>\n
Jaime Jaquez Jr., despite playing one of his better games of the season, failed in the clutch. He also missed two critical free throws in overtime when it felt like Miami was going to escape Sacramento with a win. Those missed free throws gave the Kings one last chance to force double overtime, and Keon Ellis helped the Kings do just that, getting to the foul line and tying the game at 112.<\/p>\n
Another glaring and obvious issue was rebounding. The Heat gave up 18 offensive rebounds to the Kings, which allowed Sacramento to get second-chance points on crucial possessions at the end of regulation and overtime periods. This has been a problem for Miami in their current three-game skid, and you wonder if Spo will consider putting Bam and Kel\u2019el Ware together on the floor to increase physicality and secure more boards in critical moments.<\/p>\n
Whether it was cold shooting, not securing a defensive rebound to end a Kings\u2019 possession, or missing opportunities in the clutch, Miami had many opportunities to win a game that felt like they had to have it, and they failed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In one of the more heartbreaking losses of the season, the Heat fell to the Kings 123-118 in double overtime after holding a 17-point lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n