Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 136-111 blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs (54-18) on Monday night at Kaseya Center. The Heat (38-34) now heads back on the road to begin a three-game trip with back-to-back matchups against the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Wednesday and Friday:
The Heat lost its fifth straight game to match its longest skid of the season, as its struggles against quality teams continue.
The Spurs entered with the NBA’s second-best record and the Heat entered with the NBA’s 16th-best record, and Monday’s game confirmed the gap between the two teams.
The Heat, which is now 16-26 this season against teams that entered Monday with a winning record, trailed essentially from start to finish. Miami’s only lead of the night came 3-2 just 30 seconds into the game.
From there, the Spurs took over and never looked back.
San Antonio closed the first quarter with a 38-31 advantage before extending is lead up to 20 points in the second quarter and entering halftime with an 18-point lead.
The Spurs didn’t let up, extending its lead to 30 in the third quarter on the way to a 25-point win.
The Spurs dominated nearly every facet of the game, outscoring the Heat 60-40 in the paint, 25-19 at the foul line and 25-4 in second-chance points.
Spurs star center Victor Wembanyama controlled the game on both ends, finishing with 26 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and five blocks in 26 minutes.
Heat star center Bam Adebayo was limited to 18 points on inefficient 5-of-17 shooting from the field and 2-of-10 shooting on threes in 29 minutes.
Heat guard Tyler Herro added 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-6 shooting on threes, five rebounds and two assists in 26 minutes.
The Heat’s frustration boiled over a few times on Monday. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was called for his first technical foul of the season for arguing a non-call on a Norman Powell drive to the basket in the second quarter, and there was a quick exchange of heated words between Spoelstra and Heat center Bam Adebayo when Spoelstra subbed out Adebayo in the second quarter.
The only other time that the Heat dropped five straight games came in December. Miami has yet to lose six straight games this season.
Monday’s contest was one of the few games this season that the Heat has been fully healthy for.
In fact, Monday marked just the sixth game this season that the Heat’s entire standard roster has been available for (not including Terry Rozier, who has been away from the team since his arrest in October).
Heat guard Norman Powell returned to play Monday after missing one game because of a calf injury. Powell, who played off the bench for the third time in the last four games he has been available for, recorded a team-high 21 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the field and 4-of-11 shooting on threes in 30 minutes.
The Heat also got back Heat Jaime Jaquez Jr. (left hip tightness) and Andrew Wiggins (left big toe sesamoiditis) from injury on Monday. Jaquez missed the previous two games and Wiggins missed the previous eight games.
Jaquez totaled eight points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes, two rebounds and six assists in 19 minutes.
Wiggins contributed nine points, three rebounds, one assist, two steals and one block in 20 minutes.
The only Heat players out on Monday were the two-way contract trio of Vlad Goldin (G League), Trevor Keels (G League) and Jahmir Young (G League). Rozier also remained away from the team.
But the Heat fell to 3-3 in games it has been fully healthy for this season.
The Spurs were also fully healthy for Monday’s contest. San Antonio was only without its three two-way contract players against the Heat.
A fully healthy roster led to some challenging lineup and rotation decisions for Spoelstra.
Spoelstra ended up going with a starting unit of Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Pelle Larsson, Wiggins and Bam Adebayo. It marked the sixth game this season that the Heat has opened with this lineup.
In limited minutes, this lineup has been a positive this season. The Heat entered Monday ouscoring opponents by 9.4 points per 100 possessions in the 41 minutes this group played together this season.
But the Mitchell-Herro-Larsson-Wiggins-Adebayo combination was not good together on Monday. The Spurs outscored the Heat by 14 points in the 12 minutes this group played together.
The Heat then used a bench rotation of Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Norman Powell, Kasparas Jakucionis and Myron Gardner against the Spurs.
The four available players who were not in the Heat’s rotation on Monday were Dru Smith, Simone Fontecchio, Nikola Jovic and Keshad Johnson.
Two negative trends continued for the Heat.
With Herro and Powell again beginning the game in separate units, they did play some minutes together on Monday. But those minutes again weren’t positive.
Entering Monday, the Heat had been outscored by 3.1 points per 100 possessions in the 207 minutes that Herro and Powell played together this season.
But since the All-Star break, the results have been even worse. Entering Monday, Miami had been outscored by 16.1 points per 100 posessions in the 64 minutes that Herro and Powell played together since the All-Star break.
That trend continued on Monday, with the Spurs outscoring the Heat by four points in the 12 minutes that Herro and Powell played together.
Ware also continued to struggle to produce positive minutes, as the Heat entered Monday having been outscored by 1.1 points per 100 possessions with him on the court this season.
The Heat again lost those minutes on Monday. San Antonio outscored Miami by five points in the 10 minutes that Ware played through the first three quarters before garbage time began in the fourth quarter of the lopsided contest.
Ware finished the loss with with seven points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 shooting on threes, seven rebounds and two blocks in 22 minutes.
Instead of moving closer to avoiding the play-in tournament, the Heat is moving closer to the bottom of the play-in.
With just 10 regular-season games left to play, the Heat (38-34) remains in ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings. But Miami is now just one-half game ahead of the No. 10 Charlotte Hornets (37-34).
The NBA’s play-in tournament features the seventh-through-10th-place teams competing for the final two playoff seeds in each conference.
The Heat, which has needed to qualify for the playoffs through the NBA’s play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons, needs to finish among the East’s top six teams to clinch a playoff spot and avoid the play-in tournament.