MIAMI — The victories over the Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards were all well and good if you consider success being defeating teams that went a combined 50-196 last season at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

Validation requires more, with Monday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings offering such an opportunity for the Miami Heat.

So after lopsided losses to the Orlando Magic and New York Knicks, Erik Spoelstra’s team surged ahead early, endured its typical third-quarter swoon, battled back to the lead ... and came up short again against quality, this time falling, 111-110, at Kaseya Center.

This time the Heat were done in by a Domantas Sabonis put-back jumper with seven-tenths of a second remaining that closed out the scoring.

Statement win? That will have to wait, even with Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro each scoring 27 for the Heat, Bam Adebayo scoring 16 and rookie Pelle Larsson contributing 13.

The game was particularly significant for the Heat because of what follows next, a grueling six-game trip that includes games against the Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns, Minnesota Timberwolves and two against the Indiana Pacers.

There will be ample opportunity on that trip that make a statement, but this was the opportunity to make one at home that could resonate after those home losses to the Magic and Knicks.

Five Degrees of Heat from Monday night’s game against the Kings:

— 1. Closing time: The Heat led 25-22 after the first quarter and 61-48 at halftime, closing the second quarter on a 13-1 run.

A 9-0 run early in the third period drew the Kings within six early in the quarter, and then it all came apart during a 17-2 Sacramento surge later in the period, putting them up 85-78 heading into the fourth.

In addition to being outscored 37-17 in Monday’s third quarter, the Heat this season at home previously had been outscored in third quarter 39-18 by Orlando, 26-14 by Detroit and 35-22 by New York.

Ten Butler points helped the Heat regain the lead midway through the fourth quarter, with a 13-foot Butler jumper then putting the Heat ahead 101-99 with 3:11 to play.

From there, a Butler 3-pointer with 1:44 left gave the Heat a 105-101 lead.

And, still, it wasn’t over, with a DeMar DeRozan four-point play drawing the Kings within 108-107 with 1:11 to play.

But that’s when Herro came up with a defensive stop against DeRozan (26 points) and was fouled by DeRozan with 37.8 seconds to play, making both free throws for a 110-107 Heat lead.

A dunk by Sacramento’s Malik Monk made it 110-109 with 32.2 seconds left, with a missed Butler jumper giving the Kings possession down one with 9.1 seconds to play.

The Heat got a stop on a Fox jumper, only to see Sabonis convert a nine-foot put-back jumper with seven-tenths of a second to play for a 111-101 Sacramento lead.

Off a timeout, Heat guard Terry Rozier was off with a 30-foot heave to end it.

— 2. Herro early: Herro again set an offensive pace for the Heat, this time scoring the Heat’s first seven points, with 13 points in his opening 9:54 stint.

Herro opened 4 of 4 from the field, all 3-point attempts.

He was up to 16 points at halftime, at that stage with five of the Heat’s 11 3-pointers.

And he kept going from there, including his late defensive play against DeRozan.

— 3. Still evolving: The Heat’s rotation behind the now-defined starting lineup continues to evolve.

This time, with Jaime Jaquez Jr. out with a stomach ailment, Haywood Highsmith and Larsson were the first two off the bench, with Highsmith inserted to defend DeRozan.

Alec Burks then followed, as did Thomas Bryant and Josh Richardson before Duncan Robinson entered as 11th man.

The Heat then also went 11 deep in the second half.

— 4. Back at it: In the wake of Saturday’s 32-point performance against the Wizards, Adebayo again was an active factor in the Heat offense, although with nothing close to his 24 shots against the Wizards.

Still, Adebayo’s performance was his second-high point total of the season, although this time without the 3-point factor, after his 3-of-5 performance from beyond the arc against Washington.

— 5. Adebayo honored: The Heat at halftime honored Adebayo with a banner commemorating his gold medal with Team USA during the Paris Olympics.

“A couple of days ago, I was looking through some of the pictures from the trip,” said Spoelstra, an assistant coach on Team USA. “It was such an intense, gratifying core memory. And it was so much fun. I’m really happy for Bam.

“In a young career, he’s just stacking up a lot of winning stuff — two gold medals at his age, two trips to the (NBA) Finals. That just says a lot about him and how he can impact winning, how he can fit into a team that’s about winning. That’s his language. He was a really important player with that second unit. He was kind of glue with that unit.”

The Heat also honored Nikola Jovic for the bronze he won with Serbia in Paris.

“That was a special team,” Spoelstra said of the Serbian national team.

©2024 South Florida Sun Sentinel. Visit at sun-sentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.