Five takeaways from the Miami Heat\u2019s 135-122 loss to the Denver Nuggets (6-3) on
\nFriday night at Ball Arena to fall to 0-2 on its six-game trip. The Heat continues
\nthe trip on Sunday against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center:
\nThe Heat\u2019s shaky start to the season continued with a rough night in Denver.
\nThe night began with Heat star Jimmy Butler exiting the game midway through
\nthe first quarter after spraining his right ankle.
\nThe night ended with the Heat\u2019s third straight loss, falling to 3-5 this season.
\nThe Heat never led on Friday, falling behind by as many as 26 points.
\n\u201cWe have to be a lot better,\u201d Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following the loss.<\/p>\n
The Nuggets, even without starting forward Aaron Gordon, dominated the Heat\u2019s
\ndefense. Denver totaled 135 points on 61.7 percent shooting from the field and 18-
\nof-35 (51.4 percent) shooting from three-point range.
\nAs usual, the Nuggets\u2019 excellent offensive display was led by three-time NBA MVP
\nNikola Jokic, who recorded his fifth triple-double of the season. Jokic finished
\nFriday\u2019s win over the Heat with 30 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the field, 11
\nrebounds, 14 assists and two steals.
\nJamal Murray contributed 28 points, four rebounds and six assists for the
\nNuggets.
\nBut despite trailing by double digits for most of the night, the Heat kept fighting
\nand made a late run with its own hot shooting.
\nThe Heat, which shot a scorching 20 of 43 (46.5 percent) from three-point range in
\nthe loss, made a late push after falling behind by 19 points with 7:45 left in the
\nfourth quarter.
\nMiami used an 18-6 spurt to cut the deficit to just seven points with 3:18 to play.
\nThat\u2019s the closest the Heat would get, as the Nuggets closed the door on the Heat
\nby responding with six unanswered points to extend their lead back up to 13 with
\n1:56 on the clock.
\nThe Heat\u2019s 20 made threes led to its best single-game offensive rating of the young
\nseason on Friday. The problem is the Heat also posted its worst single-game
\ndefensive rating of the season.
\nWith Butler sidelined for most of the game, guard Tyler Herro again carried the
\nHeat\u2019s offense with 24 points on 10-of-21 shooting from the field and 4-of-10
\nshooting on threes, seven rebounds and 11 assists to just one turnover. The 11
\nassists tied Herro\u2019s regular-season career-high.
\n\u201cI just, honestly, want to win at this point,\u201d Herro said when told he matched his
\nregular-season career-high in assists. \u201cI just want to win. I want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heat center Bam Adebayo added 20 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the field, 1-of5 shooting on threes and 5-of-6 shooting from the foul line, nine rebounds, four
\nassists and two steals. He\u2019s shooting just 39.7 percent from the field this season
\nafter shooting better than 50 percent from the field in each of his first seven NBA
\nseasons.
\nThe Heat has now started the season with an 0-4 record against teams that made
\nthe playoffs last season. The Heat\u2019s only wins so far this season have all come
\nagainst teams that didn\u2019t quality for the playoffs last season \u2014 the Charlotte
\nHornets, Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards.
\nIf an early-season three-game losing skid wasn\u2019t bad enough, the Heat now
\nfaces the possibility having to play without Butler.
\nButler turned his right ankle early in the game while trying to dribble into the
\npaint and then coming to an abrupt stop near the foul line. He immediately fell to
\nthe court and winced in pain.
\nButler remained in the game for a few possessions, albeit limping around, before
\nbeing subbed out with 5:16 left in the first quarter. He walked straight to the
\nlocker room and missed the rest of the game because of his sprained right ankle.
\nButler recorded two points, one rebound and two assists in seven minutes before
\nleaving Friday\u2019s game.
\nWhether Butler will be forced to miss more time because of his ankle injury
\nremains to be seen, with the Heat\u2019s next game coming Sunday against the
\nTimberwolves. He missed two games last season because of a sprained right
\nankle.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t know at this point,\u201d Spoelstra said when asked about Butler\u2019s status
\nfollowing Friday\u2019s loss. \u201cIt\u2019s always you never know until you get to the next day.
\nFly, get to Minnesota, and we\u2019ll probably have a better idea.\u201d
\nButler, 35, entered this season hoping to be available for more games after
\nmissing 20 or more regular-season games in three of the last four seasons. Heat<\/p>\n
president Pat Riley also challenged Butler this past offseason to be available for
\nmore games.
\nButler has played in each of the Heat\u2019s first eight games this regular season, but
\nhis status for Sunday\u2019s game against the Timberwolves and possibly beyond is
\nnow in doubt.
\nThe Heat did not make a change to its starting lineup, keeping forward
\nNikola Jovic in the starting group against the Nuggets. But Jovic again wasn\u2019t
\non the court to begin the second half.
\nThe Heat opened Friday\u2019s contest with a lineup of Terry Rozier, Herro, Butler,
\nJovic and Adebayo. The Heat has opened its first eight games of the season with
\nthis group.
\nBut there were some questions whether the Heat would make a change to its
\nstarting lineup for Friday\u2019s game after making a switch midway through
\nWednesday\u2019s loss to the Phoenix Suns. The Heat played forward Haywood
\nHighsmith in Jovic\u2019s spot to begin Wednesday\u2019s second half, and Jovic did not reenter that game after playing the first 5:16 of the opening period.
\nOn Friday against the Nuggets, Jovic was again in the Heat\u2019s starting lineup \u2014 the
\nsame starting unit that was outscored by 16.6 points per 100 possessions in 85
\nminutes together through the first seven games of the season. Among the 23
\nlineups around the NBA that entered Friday with at least 50 or minutes played
\ntogether, the Heat\u2019s starting unit had the second-worst net rating.
\nThose numbers continued to trend in the wrong direction on Friday, as the
\nNuggets opened the game on a 24-14 run against the Heat\u2019s starters before Miami
\nmade its first substitution of the night with 5:16 left in the first quarter.
\nThat was the Heat starting group\u2019s only stint of the game before Butler exited the
\ncontest midway through the first quarter.
\nJovic then began the second half on the bench Friday for the second straight
\ngame.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows the deal,\u201d Spoelstra said when asked about again sitting Jovic to begin
\nthe second half. \u201cLook, I\u2019m not going to change the standards. He knows what the
\ndeal is. It has to be a level of energy and effort, make an impact. It\u2019s not just him.
\nThat\u2019s an easy target. Look the game gets in a double-digit game, you\u2019re grasping
\nfor whatever. And at that point, I have to make decisions. If something is not
\nworking, I\u2019m paid to make decisions and go to something else.\u201d
\nThe Heat opened the third quarter in Denver with a lineup of Rozier, Herro, Pelle
\nLarsson, Highsmith and Adebayo. Highsmith began the second half on the court
\nin place of Jovic for the second consecutive game and Larsson started the second
\nhalf in place of the injured Butler.
\nJovic finished Friday\u2019s loss with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 1-
\nof-2 shooting on threes, four rebounds, two assists and three steals in 20 minutes.
\nMost of that production came in the second half, considering Jovic played the first
\n6:44 of the game and spent the rest of the first half on the bench.
\n\u201cWe were playing catch up basically the entire time, so I\u2019m trying to figure out
\nanything, combination wise, scheme wise, anything to try to change the tide of
\nthe game,\u201d Spoelstra said after tweaking the rotation for the second straight
\ngame. \u201cAnd for the most part, we were able to get things back, we got it back to
\nsix a couple of times in the second quarter, but we were playing uphill the
\nmajority of the game.\u201d
\nThe Heat\u2019s two picks from the 2024 draft again played.
\nCenter Kel\u2019el Ware, who the Heat selected with the 15th overall pick in the first
\nround of this year\u2019s draft, played as the first big man off the bench Friday for the
\nsecond straight game. Prior to this two-game stretch, Ware\u2019s only two
\nappearances during the Heat\u2019s first six games of the season came late in lopsided
\nresults.
\nBut after Ware picked up two quick fouls while struggling to defend Jokic, he was
\nlimited to just two first-half minutes on Friday. Ware never re-entered the game.<\/p>\n
Veteran center Thomas Bryant played as the Heat\u2019s backup center the rest of the
\nnight.
\nLarsson, who the Heat took with the 44th overall pick in the second round of this
\nyear\u2019s draft, logged double-digit minutes off the bench Friday for the fourth
\nstraight game. He played just six minutes thrugh the Heat\u2019s first four games this
\nseason prior to this four-game span of extended playing time.
\nLarsson recorded five points, two rebounds and two assists in 14 minutes against
\nthe Nuggets.
\nThe Heat\u2019s bench rotation on Friday included Ware, Larsson, Bryant, Highsmith,
\nDuncan Robinson and Josh Richardson.
\nRobinson was a bright spot for the Heat in the loss, scoring 20 points on 6-of-10
\nshooting from three-point range.
\nRichardson was another bright spot, closing the loss with 10 points on 4-of-8
\nshooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes, two rebounds and three
\nassists in 21 minutes in his third appearance of the season since returning from
\ninjury. During Richardson\u2019s first two games of the season, he went scoreless and
\nshot 0 of 8 from the field.
\nThe only available Heat players who did not enter the game were Dru Smith and
\nAlec Burks. Smith was inactive for the contest.
\nAlong with losing Butler early in the contest, the Heat entered Friday\u2019s game
\nwithout Jaime Jaquez Jr. (return to competition reconditioning), Kevin Love
\n(return to competition reconditioning), Josh Christopher (G League) and Keshad
\nJohnson (G League).
\nThe Heat continues to struggle in Denver. How bad is it? The Heat\u2019s last
\nregular-season win in Denver was eight years ago.
\nThe Heat has now dropped eight straight regular-season games to the Nuggets in
\nDenver. The last regular-season game that the Heat won in Denver came on Nov<\/p>\n
30, 2016, when Hassan Whiteside totaled 25 points and 16 rebounds to lead the
\nHeat to a 106-98 victory over the Nuggets.
\nBut the Heat\u2019s issues against the Nuggets extend beyond games in Denver. The
\nHeat has now lost nine straight matchups against the Nuggets, regardless of
\nwhether they\u2019ve been played in Miami or Denver.
\nWhen including the teams\u2019 2023 NBA Finals series that the Nuggets won 4-1,
\nDenver has won 13 of its last 14 games against Miami.
\nNext up for the Heat is a trip to another city that it has struggled in \u2014
\nMinneapolis. The Heat enters Sunday\u2019s matchup against the Timberwolves at
\nTarget Center with six straight losses in Minneapolis. The last time that the Heat
\ndefeated the Timberwolves at Target Center came on Nov. 24, 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat\u2019s 135-122 loss to the Denver Nuggets (6-3) on Friday night at Ball Arena to fall to 0-2 on its six-game trip…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n