MIAMI — At midseason … mediocrity personified.
So make it a 21-20 record for the Miami Heat at the midpoint of the schedule, this time blowing an early 19-point lead and then double-digit fourth-quarter advantage in falling 119-114 Thursday night to the Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center.
Playing in the injury absences of Davion Mitchell and Jaime Jaquez Jr., Erik Spoelstra’s team ultimately had no answer for Celtics sixth man Anfernee Simons, who led Boston with 39 points, supported by 27 from Jaylen Brown.
After torrid early 3-point shooting and offense sparked by Celtics turnovers, the Heat again stalled against quality competition.
“We are what our record is right now,” Spoelstra said. “That’s the bottom line. If you play games on paper, I think right now we’ve got a better record. But that’s, that’s not the case right now.”
While the Heat scoring leaders led, there simply wasn’t enough, with Norman Powell closing with 26 points, and Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo with 22 apiece.
“Honestly, it’s not like we have to re-invent the wheel,” Powell said of the Heat’s record and the need to do the little things that translate into success. “It’s right in the margins for us. Are we going to do it or not? We can go up and down, win two games, lose three, win a game, whatever. It’s on us to win the game within the margins.”
At the moments of truth, though, Simons and Brown were the difference makers.
Five Degrees of Heat from Thursday night’s game:
1. Game flow: The Heat went up 19 early before taking a 36-25 lead into the second period. The Heat’s lead then was cut to six in the second period, before they took a 64-54 advantage into the intermission.
After pushing their lead to 15 in the third period, the Heat went into the fourth up 93-83.
No matter, with the Celtics taking their first lead, at 101-100 midway through the fourth quarter.
The moment of truth then came when a basket interference call on the Celtics’ Sam Hauser was overruled upon replay with 1:38 to play, putting the Celtics up 113-107.
“Down the stretch,” Spoelstra said, “the last four minutes, I thought we had a bunch of open looks. We just happened to miss them. That happens.
“And then you’re in the moments of truth, and that’s where we pride ourselves, they they came up big.”
2. Revised rotation: As the Heat’s wheel of injuries continues to spin somewhat out of control, this time with Mitchell and Jaquez out, it led to a 13th starting lineup and more twists to the rotation.
Pelle Larsson started in place of Mitchell in a lineup that ostensibly had Herro cast as the starting point guard. The opening unit was rounded out by Adebayo, Powell and Andrew Wiggins.
That again had Kel’el Ware playing off the bench, and again only the minutes of rest for Adebayo, without any action in the second half, Ware’s night limited to 8:49 of first-half action.
“With Kel’el, I know that’s a lightning-rod topic,” Spoelstra said. “He needs to get back to where he was eight weeks ago, seven weeks ago, where I felt, and everybody in the building felt, he was stacking days, good days. He’s stacking days in the wrong direction.”
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3. Bam back (again): A game after breaking out of his months-long slump with 29 points in Tuesday night’s victory over the Suns, Adebayo this time had 10 early points, including a first-period 3-pointer.
Prior to Tuesday night, Adebayo had been limited to single-digit scoring in three of his previous eight games.
He was up to 17 points by the intermission, closing 8 of 19 from the field, including 3 of 7 on 3-pointers.
But it was about the loss to Adebayo, more than the numbers.
“Until all of us commit to doing role-player things, we’ll keep being in the middle of the pack, mediocre,” he said.
4. Herro happens: Herro continued to show his value as a reliable scorer, with his ninth 20-point game in his 11 appearances this season.
Herro’s first 15 points came in 13 minutes of action.
Spoelstra worked his rotations to often also get Herro on the floor with the second unit.
“I mean, we all know what we’re capable of,” Herro said of the midseason record. “We’ve got to, you know, collectively get these wins.
“We have to close games better, sustain leads better.”
5. Rookie orientation: With Jaquez out, rookie Kasparas Jakucionis played as sixth man, having started against the Celtics when Mitchell also was out of the teams’ previous meeting. He closed with 12 points, eight assists and five rebounds.
Jakucionis helped compensate with the absence of Mitchell’s team-leading 7.3 assists per game, playing as backup point guard ahead of Dru Smith.
“That was one of the bright spots for sure,” Spoelstra said of Jakucionis. “He’s been ready basically every time he’s been given an opportunity out there.”
Jakucionis’ previous high for assists was four. He had five in Thursday night’s third quarter, alone.
“Whenever I get the chance,” Jakucionis said. “I just try to embrace it.”
