Five takeaways from the Heat’s 129-116 loss to the Celtics in Boston Friday night:
▪ Playing without three starters and seven players overall, the Heat (15-13) hung around for a while but could not overcome a Celtics three-point onslaught to start the fourth.
Ahead 92-89 after three, the Celtics hit six three-pointers in the first 3:20 of the fourth quarter to surge ahead 110-96. Miami never again drew within single digits, as Boston finished the night shooting 21 for 43 (49 percent) from beyond the arc and 54 percent overall from the field.
Sam Hauser hit three of those six daggers early in the fourth and Derrick White hit two. White tied his career high with nine three pointers (on 14 attempts), closing with 33 points. Hauser hit five threes on a 15-point night.
The Heat, conversely, shot just 39 percent (40 for 102) from the field, marking only the second time this season that Miami finished below 40 percent.
The Heat overcame its poor shooting for three quarters by crashing the offensive glass, playing strong defense (at least until the fourth) and hitting some timely threes. Miami took 20 more shots than Boston but made four less.
Miami’s offense bogged down in the fourth while the Celtics kept draining threes. Norman Powell, who has rescued the Heat multiple times this season, closed 1 for 11 on threes and 7 for 21 overall, closing with 18 points.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (14 points) shot 5 for 15 and 1 for 5 on threes while committing four turnovers.
Dru Smith (seven points) was 0 for 4 on threes and 2 for 10 overall.
Simone Fontecchio shot 4 for 13.
The Heat limited Boston All Star Jaylen Brown to six points in the first half, but he erupted for 15 in the third and finished with 30.
Heat center Kel’el Ware had another big night, closing with 24 points and 14 rebounds (including five offensive boards) in 28 minutes, while hitting 6 of 7 three-pointers.
Rookie point guard Kasparas Jakucionis, making his first start of the season, had 17 points and just one turnover in 35 minutes.
▪ Already missing four players, the Heat learned before the game that it also would be without Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell.
Mitchell was ruled out with an ankle injury, while Wiggins was unable to play through lower back pain.
Wiggins wasn’t sure how the injury happened: “Couldn’t tell you. Maybe it was when I fell late in the fourth.”
He tested the back an hour before tipoff. “I went out there to see what I can do; I don’t think I’m ready to go out there right now.”
The Heat already was without Tyler Herro (right big toe contusion), Nikola Jovic (right elbow contusion/laceration), Pelle Larsson (left ankle sprain), Terry Rozier (not with the team after his arrest on gambling) and two-way contract player Jahmir Young (G League).
Herro is traveling with the team on this three-game trip - which ends Sunday evening in New York against the Knicks - but Jovic and Larsson remain back in Miami.
Wiggins said it was “very disappointing” not to be able to play on a night with six teammates sidelined. “If I could [play], I definitely would. We’re a good team. This is the definition of Miami Heat basketball. Whoever you put out there, it’s going to be a game.”
With Wiggins, Herro and Mitchell out, Erik Spoelstra opened with a starting group of Bam Adebayo, Ware, Powell, Jaquez and Jakucionis.
The Heat had five players available on the bench, and Spoelstra used three of them while the game was competitive – Dru Smith, Fontecchio and Myron Gardner. Keshad Johnson and Vlad Goldin were available but did not play.
▪ Jakucionis was more than competent and not the least bit overmatched in his first NBA start.
The 20th overall pick played with great energy and effort and looked like a far better player than the one who struggled during much of summer league.
He hit three five pointers on a 17-point night, defended with verve, pushed pace, helped on the boards (five rebounds) and had four assists and just one turnover.
Defensively, his size (6-5) created issues at times for Celtics wing players. He finished 5 for 13 from the field but hit 5 of 8 three-pointers.
▪ While Adebayo remained in an offensive funk on this trip, Ware continues to blossom as a three-pointer shooter.
Ware drained six of his seven threes, putting him at 31 for 68 for the season. If he had enough threes to qualify, that would put Ware first in the league among centers in three-point percentage at 45.6, ahead of Wendell Carter Jr. (44.4) and Denver’s Nikola Jokic (42.6).
Ware also is second in the league in rebounds per 36 minutes at 15.3 (behind only Andre Drummond), 13th overall in rebounds per game (10.3) and second in blocks (1.4). On Friday, he had a block for an 11th consecutive game.
Adebayo, meanwhile, struggled from the field for a second consecutive game. A night after shooting 4 for 13 against Brooklyn, Adebayo opened 3 for 10 before finishing 6 for 13 on a 16-point, 10-rebound night.
After fouling out for the first time all season against the Nets, Adebayo had five more fouls. Before the first two games of this road trip, Adebayo hadn’t committed five fouls in a game for a full calendar year.
▪ The bizarre first-half shooting statistics required a double take.
Miami and Boston went to the break tied at 58, which was astounding considering the Heat shot just 20 for 60 from the field (33 percent), compared with 49 percent for the Celtics (21 for 43).
Also astounding: The Heat shot 10 for 25 on three pointers in the first half but just 10 for 35 on two-pointers, which is unusually bad.
But Miami, which opened the game shooting 3 for 17, took 17 more first-half shots than Boston in part due to 11 first half rebounds.
At one point, the Heat was shooting 8 for 25 – and somehow leading by three.
Miami’s shooting has fallen off during this seven-game stretch in which Miami has averaged 105.7, compared with 124.3 in its first 21 games.
The Heat was able to push the pace a bit more than it had in some recent games and the good work on the board was a big help.
Asked before the game whether NBA scouting has caught up to and neutralized the Heat’s fast-pace offense, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said: “That’s a good question…. Trends last a decent amount of time. But I think you’re always having to evolve, 10, 15, 20 games in small ways.
“I still think their offense is good, and they have the ability to play fast, they have the ability to spread you out, those driving gaps that they have. So sometimes, you may not see the result every game, but the process of how you play is still there. Their three-point percentage has gone down a little bit from where it was when they started out. But they’re generating good looks and now that have driving gaps for guys to be able to drive every time down the floor. So it still presents a lot of challenges.”