Herro, Adebayo not enough as Heat fall to Hawks, 120-110, amid ongoing Butler absence

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Dec 28, 2024

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ATLANTA — The cycle of mediocrity had a chance to add something of meaning Saturday at State Farm Arena.

Instead, no three-game winning streak for the Miami Heat, just a 120-110 loss to the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena and a 15-14 record going into Sunday night’s game against the Houston Rockets to conclude this three-game trip.

After victories over the Brooklyn Nets and Orlando Magic earlier in the week, the Heat could not continue the success in the enduring absence of Jimmy Butler, even with the Hawks even more shorthanded.

Unlike Thursday in Orlando, when the Heat overcame trailing almost the entire way, this time there was no breakthrough, even with guard Tyler Herro going for 28 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds and center Bam Adebayo with a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double.

The Hawks got 28 points from forward Jalen Johnson, 26 from forward De’Andre Hunter and 15 assists from guard Trae Young.

Five Degrees of Heat from Saturday’s game:

— 1. Closing time: The Hawks led 35-28 at the end of the first period, 61-58 at halftime and 93-84 going into the fourth quarter.

From there, a 29-foot 3-pointer by Herro pulled the Heat within 106-105 with 4:07 to play. It again was a one-point game with 3:28 to play after an Adebayo jumper.

After two potential Heat go-ahead shots were off, the Hawks moved to a 110-107 lead with 2:39 to play on a pair of Hunter free throws.

From there, the Heat misses continued, with Hawks running clock and moving to a 117-107 lead with 68 seconds left, effectively ending it.

— 2. Waiting game: With Butler reportedly ramping up his workouts back in Miami, the Heat opened for the third consecutive game with Jaime Jaquez Jr. in his place.

It was the fourth consecutive absence for Butler and his ninth of the season, with the Heat entering 4-4 in his absence.

Butler already has been ruled out for Sunday night’s game against the Houston Rockets that closes out this three-game trip. The reasoning for Butler’s absence on the NBA’s injury report again on Saturday was, “return to competition reconditioning.”

The expectation, amid a fluid situation that has included ample trade speculation, is that Butler will rejoin the Heat for the team’s next practice, which is scheduled for Tuesday at Kaseya Center, ahead of back-to-back home games the following two nights against the New Orleans Pelicans and Indiana Pacers.

Asked pregame of perhaps growing accustomed to playing in Butler’s absence, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, “Either way, we’ve proven that we can win regardless. It doesn’t matter.”

— 3. More breaks: Even in Butler’s absence, the Heat again found themselves against an opponent at an even greater personnel deficit.

Following up on the Heat’s two games in Orlando, when the Magic were without Paolo Banchero and Frank Wagner, among others, the Heat this time got the Hawks in Atlanta’s absences of Dyson Daniels, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Onyeka Okongwu.

Three Heat players whose status was unsure going into the day all were available: Terry Rozier (knee), Nikola Jovic (ankle) and Pelle Larsson (ankle).

That left Butler, Josh Richardson (heel) and Dru Smith (Friday’s season-ending Achilles surgery) as the only players not available to Spoelstra.

— 4. All-Star competition?: Among those who figure to vie for one of the final Eastern Conference All-Star berths are Herro and Johnson.

Johnson continually took it to the Heat in the paint, while Herro again made statements with the long ball.

Johnson entered as one of just four players averaging at least 19 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists, along with Nikola Jokic, Domantas Sabonis and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

For his part, Herro extended his career best streak of games with at least one 3-pointer to 63, six games off Duncan Robinson’s franchise record. Herro has now converted a 3-pointer in the season’s first 29 games, on Saturday breaking the longest such Heat 3-pointer streak to open a season, set in 1998-99 by Tim Hardaway.

— 5. Going big: With first-round pick Kel’el Ware now seemingly entrenched in the Heat rotation, Spoelstra went big with the Heat’s first substitution, with Ware and Jovic entering together at that point.

Another element of a revised rotation continued, with Alec Burks also among the Heat’s early substitutions.

With Rozier and Larsson also part of the mix, it had Spoelstra going 10 deep by the early stages of the second period, perhaps in light of another game to follow Sunday in Houston.

Ware again was largely nondescript in his 10 minutes, closing with four points and one rebound.