Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 119-104 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers (36-30) on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center to drop to 0-4 on its five-game homestand. The Heat (29-36) closes the homestand on Friday against the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics:
The Heat continues to struggle and has now lost five straight games for the first time this season.
The Clippers were playing on the second night of a back-to-back after falling to the Pelicans in New Orleans on Tuesday. The Clippers were also without two of their top three scorers, as Normal Powell (right hamstring strain) and Kawhi Leonard (right knee injury management) missed the contest.
But the Clippers still had enough to beat a reeling Heat team.
After blowing a double-digit lead in each of its last two losses and also blowing a fourth-quarter lead in eight of its last nine losses, there was no lead for the Heat to blow this time.
The Clippers essentially led from start to finish, as the Heat’s only lead of the game came at 2-0.
The Clippers led by 10 points at the end of the first quarter before entering halftime with a five-point advantage. The Clippers then pushed their lead to eight at the end of the third quarter.
The Clippers then put the game away in the fourth quarter, opening the period on a 20-10 run to extend their lead to 18 with 5:34 to play.
The Clippers’ offense didn’t have much trouble against the Heat’s defense, totaling 119 points on 59.2 percent shooting from the field and 13-of-27 (48.1 percent) shooting on threes. It could have been worse, but the Clippers were sloppy with 18 turnovers.
The trio of Bogdan Bogdanovic, James Harden and Ivica Zubac combined for 80 points for the Clippers.
Bogdanovic scored 30 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting on threes.
Harden contributed 24 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists.
Zubac closed with 26 points on 12-of-16 shooting from the field and 14 rebounds.
Tyler Herro finished with a team-high 31 points on 13-of-23 shooting from the field and 2-of-7 shooting on threes to go with six rebounds, seven assists and two steals for the Heat.
Andrew Wiggins contributed 22 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field and 2-of-7 shooting on threes, three rebounds, five assists and three blocks for the Heat.
But it was a quiet scoring night for Heat center Bam Adebayo, who ended the loss with just six points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field, five rebounds, seven assists and five steals in 35 minutes. It marked the first time that Adebayo hasn’t scored double-digit points in a game since the Heat’s Jan. 19 win over the San Antonio Spurs.
Despite the Heat’s recent struggles, it opened Wednesday’s game with the same starting lineup. But the Heat made a change midway through the contest.
The Heat went with the starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Andrew Wigigns, Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware for the third straight game on Wednesday.
This has become the Heat’s preferred post-trade trade starting lineup, already using this group in eight games this season since acquiring Mitchell and Wiggins in the Jimmy Butler deal on Feb. 6. The only games the Heat didn’t use this starting unit in since last month’s trade was made came because at least one of the players in this lineup was unavailable due to injury or illness.
So far, the results have been mixed for the Heat’s new preferred starting group. Entering Wednesday, this Heat starting lineup had been outscored by 0.5 points per 100 possessions in 94 minutes together over its first seven starts together.
The Heat was outscored 18-9 over the first 5:39 of Wednesday’s game with its starters on the court before making its first substitution of the night.
The Heat made a change at halftime, though, beginning the second half with Haywood Highsmith in Ware’s place.
The Heat fell to 2-6 this season when using the starting lineup of Mitchell, Herro, Wiggins, Adebayo and Ware.
It has been a rough few games for Ware.
The Heat’s rookie center was benched to begin Wednesday’s third quarter after his shaky first half.
Ware totaled just two points on 1-of-3 shooting from the field and four rebounds while also making a few mistakes on the defensive end in the first half. The Heat was outscored by seven points in Ware’s 12 first-half minutes.
Ware re-entered the game off the bench for his first action of the second half with 5:57 left in the third quarter. But he only played six minutes in the second half.
This comes after Ware recorded just two points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field, five rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes in Monday’s loss to the Charlotte Hornets. The Heat was outscored by 12 points with Ware on the court in that defeat.
Ware has started in 21 straight appearances. Is Wednesday’s second-half benching a sign that Ware could return to a reserve role? That remains to be seen.
The Heat also stuck to the same bench rotation.
For the second straight game, the Heat went with a five-man bench rotation of Haywood Highsmith, Duncan Robinson, Terry Rozier, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Pelle Larsson.
Larsson provided a spark with his hustle and energy, finishing the loss with 10 points, one assist and three steals. He played the most minutes among the Heat’s reserves on Wednesday, logging 28 minutes.
Robinson added 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range off the Heat’s bench.
That left Kyle Anderson, Kevin Love, Keshad Johnson and Isaiah Stevens out of the Heat’s rotation on Wednesday despite all of them being available to play.
The only Heat players unavailable against the Clippers were Alec Burks (lower back pain), Josh Christopher (G League), Nikola Jovic (broken right hand) and Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery).
As the Heat desperately tries to snap its losing skid, the schedule doesn’t get any easier.
Wednesday’s loss to the Clippers marked the start of a six-game stretch against teams with a winning record.
The other five games during this span: vs. Celtics on Friday, at Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday, at New York Knicks on Monday, vs. Detroit Pistons on March 19 and vs. Houston Rockets on March 21.
After Wednesday’s defeat, the Heat holds an underwhelming 9-24 record this season in games against teams currently with a winning record.
Miami Herald
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.