NEW YORK
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 116-95 blowout loss to the New York Knicks (43-24) on Monday night at Kaseya Center to close its two-game trip at 0-2 and drop its eighth straight game. The Heat (29-39) now returns to Miami to begin a five-game homestand on Wednesday against the Detroit Pistons:
The Heat’s misery continues, blowing yet another double-digit lead. It’s a type of misery the Heat hasn’t felt in nearly two decades.
The Heat has now lost eight straight games for just the 13th time in the franchise’s 37 seasons. This eight-game skid is the Heat’s longest losing streak since dropping eight consecutive games in March 2008. The Heat had three losing streaks of at least eight games during its rough 15-win 2007-08 season.
With Erik Spoelstra taking over as the Heat’s head coach prior to the start of the 2008-09 season, this is also the first eight-game skid in Spoelstra’s 17 seasons at the helm. Spoelstra was third on the list of most NBA games coached without an eight-game losing skid behind only Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach.
The Heat actually started Monday’s contest strong, opening the game on a 12-0 run and pulled ahead by as many as 13 points early on.
But the Knicks, playing without injured All-Star guard Jalen Brunson, used a 15-0 run fueled by Karl-Anthony Towns to take their first lead of the night at 33-31 with 7:03 left in the first half.
The Heat eventually found its footing to regain a narrow 49-47 lead at halftime.
The Knicks took full control of the game from there, though, opening the third quarter on a 17-5 run to pull ahead by 10 points less than four minutes into the second half.
It turned out to be a disastrous third quarter for the Heat, which was dominated 41-15 in the period.
With that, the Knicks blew open the game to turn their two-point halftime deficit into a 24-point lead at the end of three quarters.
The Heat shot just 7 of 19 (36.8 percent) from the field and 1 of 7 (14.3 percent) on threes while committing seven turnovers during its nightmarish third quarter.
The Knicks’ lead grew to as large as 27 points in the fourth quarter on their way to the 21-point win.
A big reason for another Heat loss: New York outscored Miami 48-18 from three-point range.
The Heat shot just 6 of 23 (26.1 percent) from behind the arc on Monday. Duncan Robinson was the only Heat player who made a three-pointer in the game until Pelle Larsson hit a three with 3:22 left in the fourth quarter.
Robinson shot 5 of 9 from deep to score a team-high 22 points in the defeat, while the rest of the Heat’s roster combined to go 1 of 14 on threes.
The Heat’s leading duo of Bam Adebayo (12 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field, seven rebounds, four assists, one steal and two blocks) and Tyler Herro (20 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the field, three rebounds and one assist) combined to total 32 points.
The Brunson-less Knicks were led by Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, who teamed up to score 51 points. Bridges finished with 28 points and Towns scored 23 points.
After Monday’s defeat, the Heat has now blown a double-digit lead in 18 losses this season. That’s ties the Utah Jazz for the most such collapses in the NBA this season.
While still almost a near-lock to make the NBA’s play-in tournament, the Heat is in danger of falling to 10th place in the Eastern Conference. If the Chicago Bulls defeat the Utah Jazz on Monday night, the Heat will sink to 10th place in the East.
The Heat now stands 10 games below the .500 mark at 29-39 for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
Another thing that hasn’t happened in a while happened on Monday: The Knicks clinched a sweep of their regular-season series with the Heat.
The Knicks won all three of their matchups against the Heat this regular season, sweeping their regular-season series with the Heat for the first time since the 1992-93 season. That’s more than three decades ago.
Over this same span, the Heat has swept its regular-season series with the Knicks seven different times.
The Knicks defeated the Heat 116-107 in Miami on Oct. 30 and then earned a 116-112 overtime win over the Heat in Miami on March 2 before winning their third and final matchup of the season against the Heat on Monday.
This is also only the second time that the Knicks have ever swept their regular-season series with the Heat.
If the losing wasn’t bad enough, there’s a new Heat injury that kept a starter out against the Knicks.
After missing six of his first 17 games due to injury or illness since being traded to the Heat in early February, Heat starting forward Andrew Wiggins also missed Monday’s contest because of a left lower leg contusion. He didn’t take part in Monday’s morning shootaround either, only undergoing treatment during the session.
Wiggins, 30, has averaged 18.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists, one steal and one block per game while shooting 42.2 percent from the field and 30.9 percent on threes in 11 appearances since being moved to the Heat in the Jimmy Butler trade. But Wiggins has also now missed seven games because of injury or illness since joining the Heat.
After being dealt to the Heat, Wiggins has missed one game because of a stomach illness, five games with a sprained right ankle and now one game because of lower leg contusion.
The Heat also remained without Alec Burks (lower back strain), Josh Christopher (G League), Keshad Johnson (G League), Nikola Jovic (broken right hand), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) for Monday’s game in New York.
The Knicks were without Jalen Brunson (right ankle sprain), Ariel Hukporti (left knee meniscus surgery) and Kevin McCullar Jr. (G League) against the Heat.
Wiggins’ injury forced another change to the Heat’s starting lineup.
The Heat opened Monday’s game with a lineup of Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Haywood Highsmith and Bam Adebayo.
While it marked the fourth different starting lineup that the Heat has used in the last four games, this group has started games together before this season.
Monday was the fifth game that the Herro-Robinson-Jaquez-Highsmith-Adebayo lineup has started this season.
Highsmith, who received a DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) in Saturday’s blowout loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, recorded two points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field and 0-of-2 shooting on threes, two rebounds, two assists and two steals in 27 minutes in Monday’s loss in his 40th start of the season.
Heat guard Terry Rozier’s rough season continues.
Rozier, who turned 31 on Monday, went scoreless and missed all three of his shot attempts in his six minutes of playing time during the Heat’s lopsided loss to the Knicks.
Rozier entered the game for his first and only action of the night with the Heat ahead by 13 points and 40.6 seconds left in the first quarter. By the time Rozier was subbed out of the game, the Knicks were ahead by two points with 7:03 remaining in the second quarter.
Rozier never re-entered the game after that brutal stint.
Rozier closed with a plus/minus of minus 15.
This is just the continuation of one of the worst seasons of Rozier’s NBA career.
Rozier entered Monday averaging 11.4 points per game on 39.8 percent shooting from the field and 30.2 percent shooting from three-point range in 58 appearances this season. That would be the fewest points he has averaged and the worst field-goal percentage he has recorded in a season since his fourth NBA season in 2018-19, with Rozier’s three-point percentage currently his worst for a season since his rookie year in 2015-16.
Rozier is one of only four players in the NBA who entered Monday shooting worse than 40 percent from the field and worse 31 percent on threes while playing in at least 50 games this season. That list also includes Brooklyn Nets guard Keon Johnson, Philadelphia 76ers guard Ricky Council IV and Orlando Magic guard Jett Howard.
Along with Rozier, the Heat used Kel’el Ware, Davion Mitchell, Kyle Anderson and Pelle Larsson off the bench against the Knicks to complete its 10-man rotation.
That left Kevin Love as the only available Heat player who didn’t get into Monday’s game.