Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 142-116 win over the Indiana Pacers (6-26) on Saturday night at Kaseya Center to complete the back-to-back set and begin a two-game homestand. The Heat (17-15) ends the homestand on Monday against the Denver Nuggets:
Even while missing two of its best players in Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro because of injuries, the Heat was supposed to beat the Pacers. The Heat took care of business behind a dominant second half.
The Pacers entered Saturday’s contest on a seven-game losing skid and with the NBA’s worst record at 6-25 this season.
Like the Heat, the Pacers also were playing on the second night of a back-to-back set after falling to the Boston Celtics in Indianapolis on Friday. The Heat defeated the Hawks in Atlanta on Friday.
But the Heat allowed the Pacers to hang around for most of the night.
The Pacers even led by one point at halftime behind a 24-point first half from Pascal Siakam and extended that lead to four points with 4:07 left in the third quarter.
But the Heat responded with a 16-8 run to close the third quarter that was fueled by sixth man Jaime Jaquez Jr. Over the final 2:34 of the period, Jaquez scored six points to help give the Heat enter the fourth quarter with a 98-94 advantage.
The Heat broke the game open from there, opening the fourth quarter on a 20-10 run to pull ahead by 14 points with 7:21 to play and finally take control.
The Heat led by as many as 26 points in the final minutes, outscoring the Pacers 83-56 in the second half for its highest-scoring second half of the season.
Jaquez was a force, totaling 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field, 1-of-1 shooting on threes and 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds and three assists.
Andrew Wiggins also was a catalyst behind the Heat’s win, finishing with 28 points on 12-of-16 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting on threes, six rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block.
Norman Powell added 23 points for the Heat.
The Heat took advantage of the Pacers’ sloppy play, scoring 38 points off 26 Pacers turnovers.
The Heat has now won two straight after dropping eight of its previous nine games
There’s still little clarity on a timeline for the returns of Adebayo and Herro.
Adebayo sat out his second straight game because of lower back soreness. on Saturday. It marks the eighth game that Adebayo has missed this season, as he also was unavailable for six straight games in November because of a left big toe sprain.
Herro missed his seventh straight game and his ninth game in the last 10 games with a right big toe contusion on Saturday. Herro has now missed 26 of the Heat’s first 32 games, as he also was sidelined for the first 17 games of the season because of offseason left ankle surgery.
The Heat has labeled both Adebayo and Herro as day-to-day, but have not provided any further details on a timetable for their returns.
When asked for an update on Herro prior to Saturday’s game, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said: “He’s definitely making progress. I don’t have a timeline for you, but I’m encouraged by what I’m seeing.”
As for Adebayo, Spoelstra said Saturday: “He really needed this time. He was dealing with some deals because of overcompensation. I think he’s feeling a lot better each day.”
Along with missing Adebayo and Herro, the Heat was also without Vlad Goldin (G League), Terry Rozier (not with team) and Jahmir Young (G League) against the Pacers.
The Pacers were without Tyrese Haliburton (torn right Achilles tendon), Isaiah Jackson (concussion), T.J. McConnell (right hamstring soreness), Ben Sheppard (left calf strain) and Obi Toppin (right foot stress fracture) against the Heat.
Without Adebayo, the Heat struggled to contain Pacers three-time All-Star forward Pascal Siakam in the first half. But the Heat found a way to slow Siakam in the second half.
As Adebayo watched Saturday’s game from the Heat’s bench in street clothes, Siakam torched the Heat’s defense in the first two quarters.
Regardless of who the Heat used to guard Siakam, he was able to get to his spots and hurt the Heat early on. Siakam put together a 24-point first half on 10-of-13 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range.
But Siakam scored just nine points in the second half, bringing more double teams to make his shots tough and get the ball out of his hands.
Siakam still finished with a game-high 33 points for the Pacers.
Siakam entered averaging 23.5 points per game this season. Saturday marked just the fifth time that Siakam has scored more than 30 points in a game this season.
The Heat’s injury issues led to more extended playing time for rookie guard Kasparas Jakucionis and fourth-year forward Nikola Jovic.
The Heat went with a starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, Pelle Larsson and Kel’el Ware on Saturday for the second straight game.
The Heat then went with a bench rotation of Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, Dru Smith and Nikola Jovic for the second straight game before emptying the bench late in the blowout win.
It marked the sixth straight game that Jakucionis has played in after logging only 53.7 seconds in the NBA through the Heat’s first 26 games of the season. The 19-year-old Jakucionis has played double-digit minutes in five of these six straight appearances.
Jakucionis finished with four points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field, three rebounds, two assists and three steals in 22 minutes.
For Jovic, Saturday marked his second game back after missing four straight games because of a right elbow contusion/laceration. It also marked just the fourth time that Jovic has logged double-digit minutes in the Heat’s last 18 games, as he fell out of the rotation prior to his elbow injury.
Jovic closed with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 shooting on threes, seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals in 25 minutes.
The Heat’s bench outscored the Pacers’ reserves 60-23.
It has been an efficient start to the season for Mitchell, but he has hit a bit of a shooting slump recently.
That shooting slump continued on Saturday, as Mitchell finished scoreless on 0-of-6 shooting from the field and 0-of-3 shooting on threes.
Mitchell has now shot just 4 of 20 (20 percent) from the field and 1 of 12 (8.3 percent) from three-point range over the last three games.
Before this three-game stretch, Mitchell was shooting 50.9 percent from the field and 39.7 percent on threes through this season.
Mitchell, who has owned one of the NBA’s best assist-to-turnover ratios for most of the season, did find other ways to make an impact on Saturday, though. He dished out five assists to one turnover and came away with two steals.